Andrew Mycock - Böcker

The Anglosphere - a transnational imagined community consisting of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK - came to international prominence in the wake of Brexit. The Anglosphere's origins lie in the British Empire and the conflicts of the 20th century. It encompasses an extensive but ill-defined community bonded by language, culture, media, and 'civilisational' heritage founded on the shared beliefs and practices of free-market economics and liberal democracy. Supporters of the Anglosphere argue that it provides a better 'fit' for English-speaking countries at a time when global politics is in a state of flux and under strain from economic crises, conflict and terrorism, and humanitarian disasters.This edited volume provides the first detailed analyses of the Anglosphere, bringing together leading international academic experts to examine its historical origins and contemporary political, social, economic, military, and cultural manifestations. They reveal that the Anglosphere is underpinned by a range of continuities and discontinuities which are shaped by the location of its five core states. The volume reveals that although the Anglosphere is founded on a common view of the past and the present, it continually seeks to realise a shared future which is never fully attained. The volume thus makes an important contribution to debates about the future of the UK outside of the EU, and the potential for the English-speaking peoples to shape the 21st century.

"...an important, indeed significant, collection of essays that examine the historiography of presenting 'nationhood.' There is a shared point of view in the historiographical perspectives of the contributors that warrants the collection being considered as a 'transitional formulation' in Jaspers's sense of the term...[The volume] can thus be seen as a watershed book for our time, opening an avenue for a global historiography of 'in-common historiographical premises,' even as it insists on discerning the diverse and complex perspectives that constitute any particular study." * H-Net Habsburg "The bulk of the analytical essays are well-written, informative and acute in pursuing the theoretical ambitions of the volume...Narrating the Nationis highly interesting and has a lot to offer. It is, at the same time, a focused and many-facetted volume, which everyone can draw inspiration from, both theoretically and thematically. Against this background, the book can be warmly recommended."* H-Soz-u-Kult A sustained and systematic study of the construction, erosion and reconstruction of national histories across a wide variety of states is highly topical and extremely relevant in the context of the accelerating processes of Europeanization and globalization. However, as demonstrated in this volume, histories have not, of course, only been written by professional historians. Drawing on studies from a number of different European nation states, the contributors to this volume present a systematic exploration, of the representation of the national paradigm. In doing so, they contextualize the European experience in a more global framework by providing comparative perspectives on the national histories in the Far East and North America. As such, they expose the complex variables and diverse actors that lie behind the narration of a nation.

A sustained and systematic study of the construction, erosion and reconstruction of national histories across a wide variety of states is highly topical and extremely relevant in the context of the accelerating processes of Europeanization and globalization. However, as demonstrated in this volume, histories have not, of course, only been written by professional historians. Drawing on studies from a number of different European nation states, the contributors to this volume present a systematic exploration, of the representation of the national paradigm. In doing so, they contextualize the European experience in a more global framework by providing comparative perspectives on the national histories in the Far East and North America. As such, they expose the complex variables and diverse actors that lie behind the narration of a nation.

This volume is an exciting contribution to debates about identity and citizenship both in the UK and elsewhere. By examining the view from abroad, through popular cultural transmission, education, and travel and migration, the transnational nature of Britishness and the political and cultural dynamism of the concept and its contemporary relevance becomes apparent. The multi-layered relationships uncovered in this work have historically shaped both the transmission and reception of Britishness and continue to do so. The international group of contributors, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, synthesise contemporary and historical debates about Britishness to offer a vital breadth to a debate that is becoming increasingly narrow and introspective in the UK.

The heightened resonance of identity-driven politics in many states across twenty first century Europe emphasizes the critical role of history in shaping public contestation of the idea of the nation, and accordant manifestations of nationalism and national identity. How the past is interpreted or what and how is remembered has proven increasingly febrile, contentious, and divisive. Debates about history have gone beyond academia, and have permeated and polarised politics and society in many European countries. Intense debate and dispute about national history and culture has often focused on the history teaching in schools, colleges, and universities. According to the aforementioned, it is evident that the teaching of history in the classroom is a relevant topic within the educational system. For this reason, it is not surprising that many times the choice of what kind of history to teach becomes a controversial topic.The existence in a given society of different visions about the nation or the various responses proposed to face the social challenges existing in it (immigration, independence nationalisms...) can turn the teaching of history into a debated and controversial topic. Logically, depending on the specific political context of each country, this debate can acquire different developments and characteristics. The school is not an institution isolated from its socio-political context. In fact, both areas constantly interact. Therefore, this book proposes an approach to this topic that tries to connect the specific political context of different countries with the debates about education and history teaching from 1990 until the present. It deals with the extent to which the social and political context affects the history teaching practice developed in the classrooms through the decisions made on the official curricula and textbooks. Emphasizing this connection between both aspects is one of the strengths of this book. That is the reason why this book proposes an approach to that reality from diverse points of view and show the different materializations observed in this area in the studied cases. The chapters of this volume allow us to verify this heterogeneous reality and help enrich our knowledge on this broad and interesting topic.