British Identities before Nationalism
Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600–1800

A comprehensive coverage of ethnic and national identities in the British world between 1600 and 1790.

Colin Kidd (Author)

9780521024532, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 March 2006

312 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.376 kg

'British Identities before Nationalism is an excellent synthesis of existing secondary material on historiography, national myths and the whole debate over the beginnings of nationalism.' Eighteenth-Century Ireland

Inspired by debates among political scientists over the strength and depth of the pre-modern roots of nationalism, this study attempts to gauge the status of ethnic identities in an era whose dominant loyalties and modes of political argument were confessional, institutional and juridical. Colin Kidd's point of departure is the widely shared orthodox belief that the whole world had been peopled by the offspring of Noah. In addition, Kidd probes inconsistencies in national myths of origin and ancient constitutional claims, and considers points of contact which existed in the early modern era between ethnic identities which are now viewed as antithetical, including those of Celts and Saxons. He also argues that Gothicism qualified the notorious Francophobia of eighteenth-century Britons. A wide-ranging example of the new British history, this study draws upon evidence from England, Scotland, Ireland and America, while remaining alert to European comparisons and influences.

Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
Part I. Theological Contexts: 2. Prologue: the mosaic foundations of early modern British identity
3. Ethnic theology and British identities
Part II. The Three Kingdoms: 4. Whose ancient constitution? Ethnicity and the English past, 1600–c. 1790
5. Britons, Saxons and the Anglican quest for legitimacy
6. The Gaelic dilemma in early modern Scottish political culture
7. The weave of Irish identities, 1600–c. 1790
Part III. Points of Contact: 8. Constructing the pre-romantic Celt
9. Mapping a Gothic Europe
10. The varieties of Gothicism in the British Atlantic world, 1689–c. 1790
11. Conclusion
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]