A Summary and Analysis of Linda Colley's Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837

Summary

The book provides an account of how the British national identity was created in the period between the Act of Union in 1707 and the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The central argument of the book is the idea that the British have always defined themselves against an external 'other', which was, in the eighteenth century, Catholic France. Colley emphasised the important role which almost continual warfare with France played in the 'forging' a British national identity which united Scots, Welsh and English. She points out the central role that war, Francophobia, Protestantism and commercial prosperity played in the construction of British national identity in the eighteenth century.

Each of the book's nine chapters focuses on an individual theme. Chapters entitled 'Protestants', 'Profits', 'Peripheries' and 'Dominance' show how Protestantism and commercial successfully brought the inhabitants of the 'Celtic fringe' within a larger British state. Two chapters on 'Manpower' and 'Womanpower' point to the crucial roles which ordinary men and women played in the construction of this British national identity.

Analysis

The book is primarily interested in showing how the period between the Act of Union in 1707 and the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 saw the rise of a British national identity which bound together the three nations of England, Scotland and Wales (she has much less to say about Ireland, which was formally united with Britain in 1801). By explaining how British national identity was 'forged' in the period between 1707 and 1837, the book also provides an explanation for why Great Britain had begun to unravel in the late twentieth century.

Colley puts forth the idea that nations should be understood as intellectual and cultural inventions. As the majority of individuals who form a nation will never meet fact-to-face, nations, Colley suggests, must be regarded as 'imagined communities' which encompass a range of identities. In Colley’s...