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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2023

Stuart Ward
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Summary

The introduction makes a case for addressing the ‘break-up of Britain’ as a problem of global history. For decades, historians of remarkably diverse leanings have thrown their intellectual weight behind a presumed connection between the historical burden of imperial decline and the slow depletion of shared British sentiment since the Second World War. Yet invariably, the end of empire tends to be framed as an abstract tipping point, with little sense of its real-life interactions or everyday consequences - as though its mere dissolution were causation itself. But if social identities are inherently relational, arising out of intricate patterns of material and cultural exchange connecting peoples across wide distances, then focusing solely on the ‘British of Britain’ can provide only a partial and incomplete perspective. By incorporating the fate of Britishness in the many corners of the world where it has long since ceased to command any popular allegiance, the diminishing strength of unitary sentiment in the contemporary United Kingdom emerges in a whole new light. The argument, structure and empirical range of Untied Kingdom all proceed from this fundamental premise.

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Chapter
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Untied Kingdom
A Global History of the End of Britain
, pp. 1 - 18
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Stuart Ward, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Untied Kingdom
  • Online publication: 16 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316536322.001
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  • Introduction
  • Stuart Ward, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Untied Kingdom
  • Online publication: 16 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316536322.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Stuart Ward, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Untied Kingdom
  • Online publication: 16 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316536322.001
Available formats
×