Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000

In this cultural, political and social history of British national identity – from the “finest hour” in the dark days of 1940 to the millennium celebrations of Blair’s Britain – Richard Weight examines how the country’s elite forged a popular modern Britishness in order to maintain morale during World War II and looks at what has happened to this curious construct in the years that followed. From 60s boom to 80s bust, from the belief in a truly united Britain to the apparent fragmentation of the country with the birth of a Scottish and a Welsh assembly, Weight looks at what it means to be British at a time when many commentators question whether such a thing as “British” actually exists.

Reviews of Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000

'Here are the themes of Orwell's The Lion and the Unicorn stretched over the subsequent sixty years and widened to embrace the whole United Kingdom. Brimming with zest and feel this is politico-cultural history at its best.' Peter Hennessy