The Cultural Roots of British Devolution

This book presents a provocative argument that suggests that cultural devolution preceded and indeed forced political change. A 'post-British' form of culture-as found across literature, education and philosophy-has long been in the making, arising especially in local communities that no longer view themselves as British.

Gardiner places this change within the context of post-imperial Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. He explores various attempts to re-constitutionalize Britain and how underground cultures such as rave and reggae may have laid the foundations for a post-British culture. The book ends with two key questions: how has the progress of a post-British culture been viewed in Scotland, and how do we pull a post-British England out of a devolutionary process which is liable to outstrip all British control?

Key Features:

*The first serious account of the history of the growing cultural division within Britain in the second half of the 20th century

*Accentuates the cultural roots of devolution, pulling them out of a shadow of party-political explanations

*Looks at the effects of devolution upon both Scottish and English culture

Edinburgh University Press

This book presents a provocative argument that suggests that cultural devolution preceded and indeed forced political change.

Michael Gardiner is assistant professor in the faculty of letters, Chiba University.