Storied Ground
Landscape and the Shaping of English National Identity

The relationship between landscape and identity is explored to reveal how Englishness encompasses the urban and rural, and the north and south.

Paul Readman (Author)

9781108424738, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 February 2018

348 pages, 40 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.71 kg

'… a pleasure to read … Given our post-Brexit national dissensus, Readman's study is timely in its insistence on a more nuanced view of English cultural nationalism.' Caroline Edwards, Times Higher Education

People have always attached meaning to the landscape that surrounds them. In Storied Ground Paul Readman uncovers why landscape matters so much to the English people, exploring its particular importance in shaping English national identity amid the transformations of modernity. The book takes us from the fells of the Lake District to the uplands of Northumberland; from the streetscapes of industrial Manchester to the heart of London. This panoramic journey reveals the significance, not only of the physical characteristics of landscapes, but also of the sense of the past, collective memories and cultural traditions that give these places their meaning. Between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, Englishness extended far beyond the pastoral idyll of chocolate-box thatched cottages, waving fields of corn and quaint country churches. It was found in diverse locations - urban as well as rural, north as well as south - and it took strikingly diverse forms.

Introduction
Part I. Borders: 1. The cliffs of Dover
2. The Northumbrian borderland
Part II. Preservation: 3. The Lake District
4. The New Forest
Part III. Beyond the South Country: 5. Manchester: shock landscape?
6. The Thames
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]