Englishness Identified ' Manners and Character 1650-1850 '

ISBN-13: 9780199246403 / Angielski / Miękka / 2001 / 404 str.

Paul Langford

Opis

Between 1650 and 1850 perceptions of the English were transformed, as a nation of supposed barbarians, fanatics, and king-killers evolved into a world power of political maturity, imperial grandeur, and industrial might. Englishness Identified traces the evolution of the so-called English national character through the impressions and analyses of foreign observers, and relates it to English ambitions and anxieties during a period of rapid change.

Recenzje

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 have thought.