The Cliffs are not Cliffs’

The Cliffs of D over and National Identities in B ritain, c .1750– c .1950

Bibliographic Data

ID9877229
AuthorsPaul Readman (0000-0003-4051-2134, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume99
Issue335
Pages241-269
Publication date2014-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2648 • E-ISSN: 1468-229X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-229x.12054
OpenAlexW1787044274
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited31

This article examines the relationship between landscape and B ritish national identities by means of a case study of the white cliffs of D over in K ent, E ngland. The cliffs were important symbols of island‐nationhood across the modern period, and demonstrate that even in the age of empire B ritish as well as E nglish national identities could be conceptualized in distinctly insular ways. In particular, the cliffs were seen to be associated with the national homeland, its heritage and historical continuity over hundreds of years, as well as with national defence and a defiant self‐asserted separateness from the rest of E urope. The article has implications for the (still relatively neglected) role played by specific landscapes in the construction of national identities, not just in B ritain but generally. In functioning as markers of national difference the physical distinctiveness of these landscapes was important, but their associational value mattered more

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Empire · Ethnology · Genealogy · Homeland · Identity (music · National Identities · National identity · Optimal distinctiveness theory · Period (music · Political science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · White (mutation · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Psychology · Scottish History and National Identity · Social Psychology

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