Awards

• Winner of IAMHIST Prize for a Work in Media and History 2007.
• Winner of Winner of the International Association for Media and History Prize.

Overview

Did loss of imperial power and the end of empire have any significant impact on British culture and identity after 1945? Within a burgeoning literature on national identity and what it means to be British this is a question that has received surprisingly little attention. Englishness and Empire makes an important and original contribution to recent debates about the domestic consequences of the end of empire. Wendy Webster explores popular narratives of nation in the mainstream media archive - newspapers, newsreels, radio, film, and television. The contours of the study generally follow stories told through prolific filmic and television imagery: the Second World War, the Coronation and Everest, colonial wars of the 1950s, and Winston Churchill's funeral. The book analyses three main narratives that conflicted and collided in the period - a Commonwealth that promised to maintain Britishness as a global identity; siege narratives of colonial wars and immigration that showed a 'little England' threatened by empire and its legacies; and a story of national greatness, celebrating the martial masculinity of British officers and leaders, through which imperial identity leaked into narratives of the Second World War developed after 1945. The book also explores the significance of America to post-imperial Britain. Englishness and Empire considers how far, and in what contexts and unexpected places, imperial identity and loss of imperial power resonated in popular narratives of nataion. As the first monograph to investigate the significance of empire and its legacies in shaping national identity after 1945, this is an important study for all scholars interested in questions of national identity and their intersections with gender, race, empire, immigration, and decolonization.

Full Product Details

9780199226641

Table of Contents

Reviews

...an impressive book, valuable for its exhaustive and multifaceted use of sources and for the author's sophisticated perceptions of cultural change and its impact. William D. Rubinstein, The English Historical Review

...an impressive book, valuable for its exhaustive and multifaceted use of sources and for the author's sophisticated perceptions of cultural change and its impact. * William D. Rubinstein, The English Historical Review *

`Review from previous edition Englishness and Empire represents a thoroughly researched and thought-provoking monograph, which will prove invaluable to studetns and researchers across the humanities. ' Shompa Lahiri, Journal of British Studies `Thoroughly researched, cogently argued and lucidly written, Englishness and Empire is an important work which deserves to be accorded major currency in the historiography of national identity. ' James Chapman, History `'Wendy Webster's new book makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the effects of the loss of imperial power and the end of empire on British culture between 1939-65. ' Catherine Hall, Twentieth-Century British History `A highly readable study ... The novel focus makes this an important study for scholars of modern British history, empire and Commonwealth, decolonization, migration, gender, ethnicity and race. ' History Today

`Review from previous edition Englishness and Empire represents a thoroughly researched and thought-provoking monograph, which will prove invaluable to studetns and researchers across the humanities. ' Shompa Lahiri, Journal of British Studies `Thoroughly researched, cogently argued and lucidly written, Englishness and Empire is an important work which deserves to be accorded major currency in the historiography of national identity. ' James Chapman, History `'Wendy Webster's new book makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the effects of the loss of imperial power and the end of empire on British culture between 1939-65. ' Catherine Hall, Twentieth-Century British History `A highly readable study ... The novel focus makes this an important study for scholars of modern British history, empire and Commonwealth, decolonization, migration, gender, ethnicity and race. ' History Today

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