Customer Reviews

Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Linda Colley demonstrates her abilities as a top-shelf social historian in "Britons." Her command of widely diverse source material is remarkable--her presentation of popular ballads, cartoons, and broadsheets is both delightful and interesting. However, in her rush to demonstrate the consensual nature of "Britishness," she glosses over some very difficult issues (like the deliberately omitted question of how the Irish never became "British") and assumes away some others (she exaggerates the importance of the Stuart threat after 1746, and attributes Catholic Emancipation too much to 'popular demand' and too little, as Wellington understood as Prime Minister, to the fact that the Irish would surely fight for it). Although this is an admirable piece of scholarship, it fails to recognize that the peoples of the 'Celtic fringe' were generally dragooned into being British; their early participation in empire-building was more a result of escaping the poverty of Ireland or Scotland than of some newly minted transcendent patriotism. Nevertheless, this book is well worth the read, albeit with a large grain of critical salt.

I say surprisingly good because I approached this book with some trepidation, there seem to have been an awful lot of books 'explaining' the Georgian Age and this period of history generally. Colley had also picked out a very broad and dynamic period to try to sum up in a relatively limited space. However, I was very pleasantly surprised with this book which I think provides an asset to anybody interested in this period. Colley shows herself to have a very good grasp of her material, but she also manages to bring in a broad range of information - from political movements to ballads, to satires to art - to make some thought-provoking conclusions.

As a social history it is well written but cannot hope to thoroughly cover every issue from the chosen era - a period defined from the Act of Union in 1707 until the start of the Victorian age in 1837. Of course this period of history includes some of the biggest changes in British culture and social structure - the rapid decline of disease, the huge jump in population, the industrial revolution with all its influences on roads, canals, post and so on. Colley instead has limited herself to some major issues and the changes - she divides these subjects up into 8 broad areas, Protestants, Profits, Peripheries, Dominance, Majesty, Womanpower, Manpower and Victories.

Having recently read the Amanda Foreman's biography of Georgiana, 5th Duchess of Devonshire - I was most interested in Colley's discussion under the section on Womanpower, on the role of women in society using the active role of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire and the role of the caricaturists and satirists of the day and I thought Colley managed to shed new light on the subject and women's role at this time.

However, there were some disappointments - no doubt due to the size of the book versus the topic covered - some things were treated with less thoroughness than they deserved. I felt for instance the problems of the Militia was dealt with in too short a manner. It really was predominantly the post-1803 problems of militia with some minor references to the Militia acts of the previous century. Why is this important? Well the militia did provide a vital role for law and order in a country without a police force, and that the British public were very reluctant to have an armed force at all - however given that a large proportion of the period of this book (1707-1837) was spent at War with France then I think that this subject deserved a bit more thorough treatment.

The book is illustrated in B/W pictures which intersperse the text occassionally. It is very well footnoted and all in all I think an excellent asset for anyone interested in this period.

The topic of "identity," especially national identity, isn't exactly the sexiest topic when it comes to writing History for non-Historians. That is why Linda Colley's "Britons" deserves so much praise; it takes a topic as seemingly mundane as 18th century British Identity and writes about it in such an engaging fashion that this book is hard to put down.

Colley skillfully weaves together the issue of constructing a "British" national identity (one that superimposes itself above English, Scottish, and Welsh identity)with the history of Great Britain in general from 1707-1837, so that one walks away from "Britons" with the feeling that the events of the 18th century were the critical in the idea of what it means to be "British."

I have to admit I wasn't the biggest fan of historical studies of the construction of national identity, but Linda Colley's "Britons" certainly demonstrated just how fascinating a topic it can be- when written properly.

This is a readable history of Britain. The emphasis is on how such a disparate group of peoples came together as one nation even though they didn't like each at all.

This is an excellent read, combining many aspects of 18th Century British society.
Colley advances the view that the English aristocracy incorporated fellow Protestant from Scotland, Wales and to some extent Ireland in the aftermath of the loss of the
American War. This re-invention, combined with the expansion of the mercantile class spurred the re-emergence of an renewed Empire. As the Century turned this Empire viewed itself as morally correct by abolishing slavery, reforming Parliamentary electoral politics and eventually re-incorporating Catholics into the political class.
Along the way she gives convincing descriptions of the waning of Protestantism as a political force, the emergence of the Hanoverian dynasty and its
(successful) efforts to achieve mass popularity in Britain, the status of women in society among other things. All this is achieved with an accessible style.
I think the books great strengths are its description of the aristocracy, and the

early Hanoverian kings (George I,II and III), it goes into great depth about Protestantism and the growth of trade. I believe the weaknesses of the book are in its dealings with the post 1800 years - the reign of George IV and William are glanced over, and sometimes contradictorily. The Regency period is described as a period in which public morality became a concern of the ascendancy classes, however, George IV's behaviour would seem to contradict this.

Overall an exceptional read, a tremendous summary of the times, very thought provoking and well worth the time spent.