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).

• 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

The Politics of English Nationhood is a good example of political writing that is sufficiently flexible to allow for historical contingency. One of the strengths of The Politics of English Nationhood is its judicious weighing of the evidence. One senses that the heavily qualified case that Kenny makes, almost inclines him to proceed at a rarefied level of discussion. Nations and Nationalism A good example of political writing that is sufficiently flexible to allow for historical contingency ... 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. Sam Pryke, Source Unknown 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