Critical Monograph Precis History Book Report Essay

CRITICAL MONOGRAPH PRECIS
British social History
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Linda Colley's compelling book was first written back in the year 1992. The book contains British history in ancient times discussing its emergence and the identity between Scotland and England at the start of the Victorian era in 1837. In his writing, the author discusses British identity by describing it by the use of four features. The four features which united the British people include: Britain was a protestant state which was against catholic Europe, it is an island country with a more powerful navy than a massive army, British was a metropole and it was a direct rival of French country. Colley's writing aimed in analyzing the source of British country in the 19th and 20th centuries by the use of the four features. During this particular period, the British people had a diverse sense of “Britishness” which was based on their differences from other European countries like France. The main purpose of this book was to give an overview of the British countryside and how the British people considered themselves different from other countries in Europe in matters of their culture and even their religion. Professor Colley wrote the book as an experiment to test whether British country would survive to remain different from other European countries.
The methodology used by Colley concentrated more on the theme of culture and social history of Britain than on political phenomena. The author used these two main themes to be able to explain the societal norms and myths meant to the Britons and also the reason they considered to value their culture and no other European country's culture. To be able to succeed in his writing, Colley draws heavy visual sources which included the British paintings and any military uniforms which would have some information that explains British identity. The use of these sources was to gather historical information that can be stored in the form of painting and even the ancient political cartoons symbolizing how the previous political leaders looked like and how they dressed. Intending to discover the Britons identity the author had to dig deep in the previous historical work from the Britons society to be able to reconstruct the whole formation of the Britons and how they will be able to survive in the European Empire in days to come.[Linda, Colley. Britons: forging the nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 2005, 29]
Over the years, Colley's writing has been praised for its argument and also for the style used in writing. According to the reader's reaction, the book is being described as “dashingly written and firmly unsentimental”. There have been reactions to questions that have been raised concerning the comprehensiveness of the Britons specifically on the neglecting of Ireland. Recent researches today concerning British history criticizes Colley's work where the studies approach describes his work as insensitive to the reason why many groups in Britain adopted “Britishness” and what this meant to them as Britons society. For instance, in his writing, Colley argues that the issue of Protestantism was a fact divisive problem to both the British people and the Scottish nationality and that the British countryside was adopted primarily as a plan to be able to adopt the British English liberties. English liberties were part of the very first historical customs which are even today used to describe the British nationality. According to Gerald Newman's critical review concerning Colley's work, he pointed out several Colley citations which he claimed they were misleading concerning British history and identity where he was not able to give any clear evidence to prove that.[Colley, 22]
In his argument, Colley recounts how the modern British was invented or was constructed during the wake of the union between England and Scotland. The writer skillfully intertwines the military-political and social history of the British country by enlivens her purpose in the writing with a colorful vignette of the heroes and the politicians, the artists who prepared the historical paintings and the ordinary men and women who helped in forging British and national identity. Colley's writing symbolizes a major contribution to the reader's understanding of Britain's past and the contemporary debate discussions about the shape and the identity of the British Empire in the days to come. In other words professor, Colley's work highlights a great contribution whereby British history as a thin disguise of British growth which has challenged the perception of the Britons.[Colley, 18]
In her writing, the author intertwines three main themes which include politics, economics, and culture. She uses the three themes to recount how England wales and Scotland come together to form a new British nation. Beginning with the theme British culture, Colley describes how the succession of main wars with catholic France where she strongly culminates in the conflict with Napoleon. In the book, this war served as both threats since they forced diverse people from protestant culture to closer union thus reminding the theme of what they have in common. In the book, the author visualizes critically how the British people fought the catholic religion since they claimed it would interfere with their culture. Cultural wars on the religion between the French people who wanted to introduce the Catholic religion were strongly rejected since the protestant in the British wanted to remain entitled in the whole Britons empire. There was a big culture division as portrayed in the book since each group wanted to stand with their own culture with evidence and proves of making it look like the best to all groups in the European empire. The author also how the whole empire included both men and women in the society from a different ethnic group which made the empire as the main determinant of the empire identity in terms of social background status. By the use of this theme, the author not only she demonstrates how an overarching British identity is but also she can demonstrate how the Britons superimposed into much older regional and national identities. Colley advances the view of English aristocracy to incorporate his fellow protestant from wale, Scotland where in the end the message written brings the aftermath loss of American war. The readable history and British culture emphasis on how the different disparate group of people come together with different cultural beliefs and formed one nation. The cultural theme in this book is described as the main thing which joined all the ethnic groups into one thing which made the British nation today. The theme of politics in this book takes line after the British loose...