Ben Wellings – författare

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.

This original book analyses the relationship between English nationalism and the disintegrative dynamics affecting British politics from 2016-24. By situating English nationalism in historical and comparative contexts and arguing that the form and content of English nationalism is generated by a defence of British sovereignty, it shows how English nationalism has been an integrative force in England's plurinational polities for most of its history. This changed notably during Brexit when English nationalism was mobilised by Brexiteers, leading to the disintegration of the European Union. But this same force also heightened disintegrative tendencies within the United Kingdom itself. Wellings charts the post-Brexit attempts to return a now politically salient Englishness to an integrative British mode, invoking its habitual British register. These historic shifts occurred during a particularly turbulent period of British politics as the UK withdrew from the EU, steered a path through the Covid-19 pandemic, shaped a new foreign policy with Anglosphere allies, transitioned from the reign of Elizabeth II to that of Charles III, and negotiated the cultural-political divides that Brexit starkly illuminated. By defining nationalism as the discursive legitimisation of sovereignty that can have integrative or disintegrative goals, this volume concludes that English nationalism shifted to an unusual disintegrative mode in the middle of the 2010s but returned uneasily to its more usual integrative mode by the 2020s. However, this was no simple return to the status quo ante: England's ambivalent hegemony within the United Kingdom meant that the future of the plurinational union-state remained in a state of uncertainty as ostensibly British parties sought to mobilise or contain England's discontent.

This is the first book to examine the relationship between English nationalism, Brexit and ‘the Anglosphere’ – a politically-contested term used to denote English-speaking countries sharing cultural and historical roots with the UK. In the aftermath of the UK’s EU referendum some pointed to a ‘revolt’ of those ‘left behind’ by globalisation. Ben Wellings argues instead that Brexit was and is an elite project, firmly situated within the tradition of an expansive English nationalism. Far from being parochial ‘Little Englanders’, elite Brexiteers sought to replace the European Union with trade and security alliances between ‘true friends’ and ‘traditional allies’ in the Anglosphere. Brexit was thus reassuringly presented as a giant leap into the known. As the UK’s future relationship with the rest of the world is negotiated, the need to understand this ‘English moment’ has never been more pressing.

This is the first book to examine the relationship between English nationalism, Brexit and ‘the Anglosphere’ – a politically-contested term used to denote English-speaking countries sharing cultural and historical roots with the UK. In the aftermath of the UK’s EU referendum some pointed to a ‘revolt’ of those ‘left behind’ by globalisation. Ben Wellings argues instead that Brexit was and is an elite project, firmly situated within the tradition of an expansive English nationalism. Far from being parochial ‘Little Englanders’, elite Brexiteers sought to replace the European Union with trade and security alliances between ‘true friends’ and ‘traditional allies’ in the Anglosphere. Brexit was thus reassuringly presented as a giant leap into the known. As the UK’s future relationship with the rest of the world is negotiated, the need to understand this ‘English moment’ has never been more pressing.

This book seeks out the origins of contemporary English nationalism. Whilst much academic and political attention has been given to England’s place within the United Kingdom since devolution, the author argues that recent English nationalism actually derives from Britain’s troubled relationship with European integration. Drawing on political evidence from the former Empire, the debates surrounding EEC accession and the United Kingdom’s ongoing membership in the European Union, the author identifies the foundations of contemporary English nationalism. In doing so, he adds an important corrective to the debate about nationalism in England, pulling our gaze out from the United Kingdom itself and onto a wider field. Far from being ‘absent’, English nationalism as we know it today has been driven by resistance to European integration since the end of Empire in the 1960s.

The Great War continues to play a prominent role in contemporary consciousness. With commemorative activities involving seventy-two countries, its centenary is a titanic undertaking: not only ‘the centenary to end all centenaries’ but the first truly global period of remembrance. In this innovative volume, the authors examine First World War commemoration in an international, multidisciplinary and comparative context. The contributions draw on history, politics, geography, cultural studies and sociology to interrogate the continuities and tensions that have shaped national commemoration and the social and political forces that condition this unique international event. New studies of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific address the relationship between increasingly fractured grand narratives of history and the renewed role of the state in mediating between individual and collective memories. Released to coincide with the beginning of the 2014–2018 centenary period, this collection illuminates the fluid and often contested relationships amongst nation, history and memory in Great War commemoration.

This book uses the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), as an analytical entry point to understand and illuminate post-War Europe and the drive to create an identity that can legitimise the European project in its broadest sense. The ESC presents an idealised vision of Europe, and this has long existed in a strained relationship with reality. While the trajectory of post-war European integration is a high-profile topic, we believe that the ESC offers a unique and innovative way to think about the role of culture in the history of post-War European integration and tensions between the ideal and reality of European unity. Through the series of case studies that make up the chapters in this book, analysis brings these interlinked tensions to light, exploring the roles of culture and identity, alongside and a productive conversation with the political and economic projects of post-war European integration.

This book uses the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), as an analytical entry point to understand and illuminate post-War Europe and the drive to create an identity that can legitimise the European project in its broadest sense. The ESC presents an idealised vision of Europe, and this has long existed in a strained relationship with reality. While the trajectory of post-war European integration is a high-profile topic, we believe that the ESC offers a unique and innovative way to think about the role of culture in the history of post-War European integration and tensions between the ideal and reality of European unity. Through the series of case studies that make up the chapters in this book, analysis brings these interlinked tensions to light, exploring the roles of culture and identity, alongside and a productive conversation with the political and economic projects of post-war European integration.