Krishan Kumar is a distinguished author and Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia.

'[What] is it to be English? Krishan Kumar's careful and copious study of this conundrum is a timely one … Kumar naturally pays much attention to the uneasy equivocality of the word 'English' and its synecdochal use for 'British'. Much of his energy is devoted to rebutting those who have claimed to find versions of English nationalism at various epochs, from medieval times to the eighteenth century.' Financial Times

• Preface; 1. English or British? The question of English national identity; 2. Nations and nationalism: civic, ethnic and imperial nations; 3. When was England?; 4. The first English empire; 5. The English nation: parent or nationalism?; 6. The making of British identity; 7. The moment of Englishness; 8. The English and the British today.

Krishan Kumar is a distinguished author and Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia.

'[What] is it to be English? Krishan Kumar's careful and copious study of this conundrum is a timely one … Kumar naturally pays much attention to the uneasy equivocality of the word 'English' and its synecdochal use for 'British'. Much of his energy is devoted to rebutting those who have claimed to find versions of English nationalism at various epochs, from medieval times to the eighteenth century.' Financial Times

• Preface; 1. English or British? The question of English national identity; 2. Nations and nationalism: civic, ethnic and imperial nations; 3. When was England?; 4. The first English empire; 5. The English nation: parent or nationalism?; 6. The making of British identity; 7. The moment of Englishness; 8. The English and the British today.