Reprint of the original, first published in 1872. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

Do different nationalities have different psychological characteristics? This question is often avoided as being too controversial, but it is squarely faced in this illuminating comparative study, first published in 1985. Dean Peabody focuses principally on six nations: Britain, Germany, France, Italy and the two world powers, Russia and America, where extensive empirical studies have been conducted to ascertain what ordinary people judge to be national characteristics (often dismissed as 'national stereotypes'). These results are compared and contrasted with those from social scientific accounts of 'national character', and there is a perhaps surprising level of agreement between the two. Moreover, as Professor Peabody's systematic cross-national survey demonstrates, the psychological characteristics of different nationalities do differ in fundamental ways.

Seen in modern perspective, the concept of national character poses fundamental problems for social science theory and research: To what extent do conditions of life in a particular society give rise to certain patterns in the personalities of its members? What are the consequences? Alex Inkeles surveys various definitions of national character, tracing developments through the twentieth century. His approach is to examine the regularity of specific personality patterns among individuals in a society. He argues that modal personality may be extremely important in determining which new cultural elements are accepted and which institutional forms persist in a society. Reviewing previous studies, Inkeles canvasses the attitudes and psychological states of different nations in an effort to discover a set of values in the United States. He concludes that, despite recent advances in the field, there is much to be done before we can have a clear picture of the degree of differentiation in the personality structure of modern nations. Until now, there were few formal definitions and discussions on national character and the limits of this field of study. This book will be of great interest to psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and political theorists.

De geschiedenis van opvattingen over het nationale karakter van de Engelsen in de afgelopen twee eeuwen.

First published in 1927, National Character is based upon a course of ten lectures on citizenship, delivered, under the terms of the Stevenson Foundation, in the University and the City of Glasgow during the latter part of 1925 and the beginning of 1926. The author argues that to see how nations have become what they are may be the best way of discovering how they can make themselves other than what they are. Divided into two parts-the material factors and the spiritual factors, the book discusses themes like race, territory and climate, population and occupation, growth of national spirit, law and government, influence of churches, role of literature and thought, and ideas and system of education to understand the factors behind the formation of national character. This is an important historical reference work for scholars and researchers of political studies and political philosophy.

Based on papers presented at a conference held at the London School of Economics, May 19-21, 1967. Includes bibliographical references.