Winner: W. J. M. Mackenzie Book Prize
Introduction: England as an Imagined Community - Myths, Ideas and
Politics
1: Crisis over Nationhood - the 1990s Reconsidered
2: Interpreting Englishness - Views from Right, Left and the
British Centre
3: Englishness as a Mass Phenomenon -- Evidence and
Interpretation
4: The Cultural Politics of Englishness
5: Answering "the English Question " - Party Politics, Public
Policy and the Nationalist Fringe
6: Political Intimations of English Grievance - West Lothian and
the Barnett Formula
Conclusions: Reconfiguring the Politics of English Nationhood
Michael Kenny is the recipient of a Major Research Fellowship
awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, 2012-14. He has previously worked
as Lecturer in Politics at Queen's University, Belfast, and was
Professor, and Head of Department, in Politics at the University of
Sheffield, and is currently a Research Associate at the Institute
for Public Policy Research. He is a Professor of Politics at Queen
Mary, University of London. He has published widely in the fields
of modern
political thought, political ideologies, the role of ideas in
public policy, and is the author of The First New Left in Britain
(1995) and The Politics of Identity (2004), and the joint editor
of
Rethinking British Decline (2000), The Idea of Global Civil Society
(2004), The Oxford Handbook of British Politics (2009) and
Reassessing New Labour (2011).
`The Politics of English Nationhood is an important book in the
context of an uncertain English national future, and one that will
appeal both a specialist audience and undergraduates on a variety
of degree courses.
'
Samy Pryke, Nations/Nationalism
`Kenny succeeds in bringing clarity to a notoriously muddled and
woolly area . . . The book is not only fascinating for specialists
in the field, but can also be recommended to anyone who is new to
the debate, because it does not assume prior knowledge . . . This
is a wonderful book, containing much both to challenge and to
cheer. It is a calming, balanced approach to the current debate,
deflating the lazy false dichotomies that have been peddled by
the
broadsheets. It is, in fact, the book we have been missing, and it
dramatically realigns the parameters of a debate that has for too
long been governed by negative emotions, especially by
metropolitan
English self-dread.'
Isabel Taylor, Albion magazine Online
`A welcome and timely effort to think about what England after the
Union might end up looking like.'
Mark Perryman, Philosophy Football
`To what extent has there been a rise in English nationalism in
recent years? What is its character, and its possible causes?
Michael Kenny's subtle and suggestive study is unusual in stressing
the importance of political traditions and ideologies, to
complement the usual cultural analyses, in explaining recent
developments. He draws upon a mass of recent survey research and
combines this skilfully with historical and cultural accounts to
conduct a
thoughtful and illuminating inquiry that will be a major
contribution to current debates about the future of the United
Kingdom.'
Krishan Kumar, University of Virginia
`The English have often been confused about who they really are. In
this major new study Michael Kenny provides an eloquent and nuanced
account of the idea of Englishness, drawing on a wide range of
sources and perspectives. He gives a compelling and absorbing
analysis of the complex meanings of Englishness and how they relate
to politics.'
Andrew Gamble, University of Cambridge
`Michael Kenny's The Politics of English Nationhood is a deserving
winner of this year's WJM MacKenzie Book Prize. In a timely and
insightful account, this book addresses the many confusions that
exist concerning Englishness providing a nuanced and informative
examination of why a myriad of complex meanings have arisen and how
'the English question' should be understood. The book claims it
offers 'a powerful challenge' to prevailing orthodoxies - this
is
does, but it also reconstructs a more liberal and civic idea of
multicultural England drawing on its political dimensions. An
impressive piece of research with potentially far reaching impact
on how we
should think about a fundamental issue in contemporary
politics.'
Commendation from the jury for the WJM MacKenzie Prize for best
book of 2014 by the Political Studies Association
`Kenny recognizes the potential for right-wing populist English
nationalism but stresses also the progressive tradition and sees
Englishness as potentially positive, as long as it is not left to
the extremists. In this he echoes calls from the English left to
embrace Englishness while warning against efforts to force it. This
is a sophisticated and historically rich analysis and a welcome
counter-balance to some of the more simplistic writing about
the
English question.'
Michael Keating, University of Aberdeen
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