British Scholar: Colley

Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837
Linda Colley (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 429 pages

A common identity can sometimes transcend all other differences. Linda Colley argues effectively that the
British nation, an imagined community in the style of Benedict Anderson, appeared through the
combination of chance, war, and an unyielding propaganda machine. The cornerstone of British identity,
developed between the Act of Union with Scotland in 1707 and the ascendancy of Queen Victoria,
materialized out of the common Protestant heritage of England, Scotland and Wales. The conspicuous
nature of Ireland’s absence from Ms. Colley’s book must be noted. Additionally, the shared legacy of war
with France, a Catholic country, throughout this period, culminating in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815,
worked to unite the three distinct nations cohabiting on the islands of Greater Britain. Moreover, success
in war led to the accumulation of vast colonial possessions, which in turn helped propagate the myth of the
British as the chosen people.

The creation of a British identity by elites, as Colley so adroitly points out, proved necessary in overcoming
the pre-existing national identities of the population. Despite the emergence of significant growing pains,
as exemplified in her erudite treatment of the reappearance of English national identity in the 1760s under
John Wilkes, Britain and her creators would not be denied their aims. Elites framed the common
Protestant character and the foreign success of Britons as destined for greatness through artistic
expression and the printing press. Colley does a brilliant job of including fine examples of British
propaganda used to consolidate this fledgling identity throughout the book. In a sense, she never allows
the reader to forget the power of elite conduct. Moreover, Colley shows that this new Britishness
transcended class and gender as well as national identity. At the end of the book Colley transports the
reader to the present day in order to shed light on whether the British nation, so elegantly forged, will
survive in an inhospitable future defined by peace. The powerful way that Colley connects the distant past
with the unknown future serves to cement the legacy and salience of this book for generations to
come.