An irreverent, incisive study of the English people explores their attitudes toward foreigners, food, language, history, and other important topics and discusses English stereotypes, the influence of modern history and culture on the English character, and what in means to be "English." Reprint.
In the wake of growing national pride in Wales and Scotland, defines Englishness through examination of the country's history, language, culture, religion, and literature.
Not so long ago, everybody knew who the English were. They were polite, unexcitable, reserved, and had hot-water bottles instead of a sex life. As the dominant culture in a country that dominated an empire that dominated the world, they had little need to examine themselves and ask who they were. But something has happened.
A new self-confidence seems to have taken hold in Wales and Scotland, while others try to forge a new relationship with Europe. The English are being forced to ask what it is that makes them who they are. Is there such a thing as an English race? Witty, surprising, affectionate, and incisive, Jeremy Paxman traces the invention of Englishness to its current crisis and concludes that, for all their characteristic gloom about themselves, the English may have developed a form of nationalism for the twenty-first century.
