English and French national identity

Comparisons and Contrasts

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6306751
AutoresKrishan Kumar (0000-0001-9429-3147, University of Virginia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen12
Número3
Páginas413-432
Fecha de publicación2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNations and Nationalism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1345-5078 • E-ISSN: 1469-8129
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1469-8129.2006.00247.x
OpenAlexW2111981370
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas49

The English and the French are both former imperial peoples, and to that extent they share certain features of national identity common to peoples who have had empires. That includes a ‘missionary’ sense of themselves, a feeling that they have, or have had, a purpose in the world wider than the concerns of non‐imperial nations. I argue that nevertheless the English and the French have diverged substantially in their self‐conceptions. This I put down to a differing experience of empire, the sense especially among the French that the British were more successful in their imperial ventures. I also argue that contrasting domestic histories – evolutionary in the English case, revolutionary in that of the French – have also significantly coloured national identities in the two countries. These factors taken together, I argue, have produced a more intense sense of nationhood and a stronger national consciousness among the French than among the English

Aesthetics · British Empire · Consciousness · Empire · Epistemology · Feeling · Identity (music · National consciousness · National identity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Political History Analysis · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Psychology · Scottish History and National Identity · Social Psychology