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Journal ArticleDOI

Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837.

01 Feb 1993-William and Mary Quarterly-Vol. 50, Iss: 1, pp 119
TL;DR: In this paper, Colley explains how a new British nation was invented in the wake of the 1707 Act of Union, and how this new national identity was nurtured through war, religion, trade and imperial expansion.
Abstract: How was Great Britain made? And what does it mean to be British? In this prize-winning book, Linda Colley explains how a new British nation was invented in the wake of the 1707 Act of Union, and how this new national identity was nurtured through war, religion, trade and imperial expansion. Here too are numerous individual Britons - heroes and politicians like Nelson and Pitt; bourgeois patriots like Thomas Coram and John Wilkes; artists, writers and musicians who helped to forge our image of Britishness; as well as many ordinary men and women whose stories have never previously been told. Powerful and timely, this lavishly illustrated book is a major contribution to our understanding of Britain's past and to the growing debate about the shape and survival of Britain and its institutions in the future. \"The most dazzling and comprehensive study of a national identity yet to appear in any language.\" Tom Nairn, Scotsman \"A very fine book ...challenging, fascinating, enormously well-informed.\" John Barrell, London Review of Books \"Wise and bracing history ...which provides an historical context for debate about British citizenship barely begun.\" Michael Ratcliffe, Observer \"Controversial, entertaining and alarmingly topical ...a delight to read.\"Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph \"Uniting sharp analysis, pungent prose and choice examples, Colley probes beneath the skin and lays bare the anatomy of nationhood.\" Roy Porter, New Statesman & Society
Citations
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MonographDOI
TL;DR: The argument of ethnic cleansing in former times is discussed in this article, where two versions of 'we, the people' are presented. But the argument is not applicable to the current world.
Abstract: 1. The argument 2. Ethnic cleansing in former times 3. Two versions of 'we, the people' 4. Genocidal democracies in the New World 5. Armenia, I: into the danger zone 6. Armenia, II: genocide 7. Nazis, I: radicalization 8. Nazis, II: fifteen hundred perpetrators 9. Nazis, III: genocidal careers 10. Germany's allies and auxiliaries 11. Communist cleansing: Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot 12. Yugoslavia, I: into the danger zone 13. Yugoslavia, II: murderous cleansing 14. Rwanda, I: into the danger zone 15. Rwanda, II: genocide 16. Counterfactual cases: India and Indonesia 17. Combating ethnic cleansing in the world today.

930 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Two very powerful stories structure the history of the changing roles of English women as mentioned in this paper : the tale of the nineteenth-century separation of the spheres of public power and private domesticity relates principally to the experience of middle-class women.
Abstract: Two very powerful stories structure the history of the changing roles of English women. The tale of the nineteenth-century separation of the spheres of public power and private domesticity relates principally to the experience of middle-class women. The other story, emerging from early modern scholarship, recounts the social and economic marginalization of propertied women and the degradation of working women as a consequence of capitalism. Both narratives echo each other in important ways, although strangely the capacity of women's history to repeat itself is rarely openly discussed. This paper critically reviews the two historiographies in order to open debate on the basic categories and chronologies we employ in discussing the experience, power and identity of women in past time.

709 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined how government policies affect ethnic relations by comparing outcomes across two nearby districts, one in Kenya and one in Tanzania, using colonial-era boundary placement as a "natural experiment".
Abstract: This article examines how government policies affect ethnic relations by comparing outcomes across two nearby districts, one in Kenya and one in Tanzania, using colonial-era boundary placement as a “natural experiment.” Despite similar geography and historical legacies, governments in Kenya and Tanzania have followed radically different language, education, and local institutional policies, with Tanzania consistently pursuing more serious nation building. The evidence suggests that nation building has allowed diverse communities in rural Tanzania to achieve considerably better local public goods outcomes than diverse communities in Kenya. To illustrate, while Kenyan communities at mean levels of diversity have 25 percent less local school funding than homogeneous communities on average, the comparable figure in the Tanzanian district is near zero. The Kenya-Tanzania comparison provides empirical evidence that serious reforms can ameliorate social divisions and suggests that nation-building should take a place on policy agendas, especially in Africa.

590 citations


Cites background from "Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-18..."

  • ...Victorious wars have long been credited with promoting national unity (for the British case, refer to Colley 1992)....

    [...]

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the impact of globalization on national spaces of competition in the West European political system and the political potentials of the political parties in a comparative perspective.
Abstract: Part I. Theory and Methods: 1. Globalization and its impact on national spaces of competition 2. Contexts of party mobilization 3. The design of the study: the distinguishing characteristics of our approach Part II. Country Studies: 4. France: the model case of party system transformation 5. Austria: transformation driven by an established party 6. Switzerland: another case of transformation driven by an established party 7. The Netherlands: a challenge that was slow in coming 8. The United Kingdom: moving parties in a stable configuration 9. Germany: the dog that didn't bark Part III. Comparative Analyses: 10. Demand side: dealignment and realignment of the structural political potentials 11. Supply side: the positioning of the political parties in a restructuring space 12. The electoral consequences of the integration-demarcation cleavage 13. Globalizing West European politics: the change of cleavage structures, parties and party systems in comparative perspective Appendix A. Technical appendix Appendix B. Detailed statistical results.

402 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A quick comparison of characteristic British struggles in 1758 and 1833 will show how greatly the predominant forms of popular collective action changed during the intervening 75 years as mentioned in this paper, and that change sets a research problem that has been pursued for many years: documenting, and trying to explain, changes in the ways that people act together in pursuit of shared interests.
Abstract: A quick comparison of characteristic British struggles in 1758 and 1833 will show how greatly the predominant forms of popular collective action changed during the intervening 75 years. That change sets a research problem that I have been pursuing for many years: documenting, and trying to explain, changes in the ways that people act together in pursuit of shared interests—changes in repertoires of collective action. This interim report has two complementary objectives: first, to situate the evolving concept of repertoire in my own work and in recent studies of collective action; second, to illustrate its applications to the experience of Great Britain from the 1750s to the 1830s. It will do no more than hint, however, at explanations of the changes it documents.

377 citations