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Dazzling, cliche-nailing - The first serious study for more than a hundred years to take a coldly analytical look at this most emotion-charged part of our heritage, it reflects a growing sense of the peculiarity of it all. --Observer
A long and brilliant meditation on the nature of the British state, its identity and national culture... one of the most powerful and original pieces of writing I have ever read on the subject. --London Review of Books
A long and brilliant meditation on the nature of the British state, its identity and national culture... one of the most powerful and original pieces of writing I have ever read on the subject. --London Review of Books
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In this acclaimed meditation on the British state, its identity and culture, Tom Nairn sees the monarchy both as its apex and its essence, the symbol of a national backwardness. This powerful, analytical, and bitterly funny book lays bare Britain's peculiar, pseudo-modern, national identity, one that remains fixated on the Crown and its constitutional framework, the 'parliamentary sovereignty' of Westminster.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The role of the crown in the UK is the same as the role of a toothpick in a submarine sandwich - to stick disparate elements of a pre-modern polity into a single element. Nairn's extraordinary critique explains how it does this (the monarchy, not the toothpick) and what the costs are - and it's got nothing to do with the civil list. Rather it's about the petrification of class into caste, the unhelpful investment policies of the 'off-shore' economy and its mercantile/financial core (ie, the City of London), and the Queen's job in filling the gap taken up by honest, hardworking nationalism in any other nation state. It is, furthermore, witty, aphoristic, allusive and a bloody good read. I defy any serious reader to come away none the wiser from this little excursion. It may also prompt you to read Nigel Denis' wonderful Cards of Identity (re-issued this year.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I probably read this book too quickly; it's a journey best taken slowly. This is a witty, Scottish nationalist view of the kitsch English monarchy, and of the cosy little club of Westminster, that coterie of so-called journalists, the corporations and politicians they serve, all willfully blind to the needs and aspirations of folk north of the Wash. I enjoyed the ride, sometimes hilarious, sometimes bitter and at other times deeply vexing, though Nairn is sometimes obscure, strident and his reasoning a little hard to follow. But his clever intuitive leaps serve a vital purpose quite aside from venting the anger underlying his writing; he reveals the absurdity of the royals, the self-serving nature of the English political classes and the immense service the Tories have undertaken on behalf of the SNP. If anyone is responsible for the imminent breakup of the UK, it's Mr Cameron and his supporters.
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