Englishness Identified : Manners And Character 1650-1850 Paperback

Paul Langford

In the seventeenth century the English were often depicted as a nation of barbarians, fanatics, and king-killers. Two hundred years later they were more likely to be seen as the triumphant possessors of a unique political stability, vigorous industrial revolution, and a world-wide empire. These may have been British achievements; but the virtues which brought about this transformation tended to be perceived as specifically English. Ideas of what constituted Englishness changed from a stock notion of waywardness and unpredictability to one of discipline and dedication. The evolution of the so-called national character - today once more the subject of scrutiny and debate - is traced through the impressions and analyses of foreign observers, and related to English ambitions and anxieties during a period of intense change

9780199246403

English

Oxford University Press, USA

01 Nov 2001

402

This wonderful book brings such detail and generalisation together by being organised not chronologivally but by 'six major supposed traits of Englishness': Energy, Candour, Decency, Taciturnity, Reserve, Eccentricity. Langford has read widely and unpredictably, especially in accounts that have never been translated into English. This has allowed him to produce a book that is, in one respect, brilliantly un-English: it is fascinated by what foreigners havethought. * The Guardian * Langford himself has a pleasantly dry wit. * David Bell, London Review of Books, 14/12/00. * Langford has found some real gems in his vast mine of material. * David Bell, London Review of Books, 14/12/00. * Langford sets out to prove his case in a robust, no-nonsense, thoroughly empirical manner. * David Bell, London Review of Books, 14/12/00. * Review from Hardback editionIn his exhaustively researched, elegantly written and immensely engaging study, Langford identifies the national characteristics as energy, candour, decency, taciturnity, reserve and eccentricity. * Cultural and Social History *