Product Description

How was Great Britain made? And what does it mean to be British? In this brilliant and wide-ranging 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. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #684238 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'The most dazzling and comprehensive study of a national identity yet to appear in any language.' Tom Naim '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

Hugo Young, Guardian
‘Brilliant…rich and stimulating’

John Barrell, London Review of Books
‘A very fine book…challenging, fascinating, enormously well-informed.’

Customer Reviews

Forging new ideas
Linda Colley in Britons offers a fresh and accessible approach to one of the key periods in British History: the eighteenth century. This oft overlooked period is excitedly examined, and the social and cultural history is fully explored. The high profile given by Colley to women in this book is important, as the Georgian era was a time of change for the position of women, which allowed the changes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to occur. Although the book is a little dated in places, because of the explosion of studies in this area which her book encouraged, it is still one of the most important text for those, academic and lay people, who wish to explore the history of the notion of Britian. A great read, and an excellent gift idea.

Brings alive a period often considered mightily dull
The biggest tribute one can pay to Linda Colley's book is that her enthusiasm for 18th-century Britain becomes genuinely infectious the more one reads. She was no doubt wise to draw heavily on Hogarth's work to illustrate her argument, because that makes the book more accessible. Her point about British identity being forged partly in opposition to French identity is surely absolutely spot on. A deservedly successful book.