Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

The acclaimed author of On Royalty explores the mysteries of English identity in this “witty, argumentative book bursting with good things” (The Daily Telegraph). A Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller Being English used to be easy. As the dominant culture in a country that dominated an empire that dominated the world, they had little need to examine themselves and ask who they were. But something has happened over the past century. A new self-confidence seems to have taken hold in Wales and Scotland, while others try to forge a new relationship with Europe. What exactly sets the English apart from their British compatriots? Is there such a thing as an English race? Renowned journalist and bestselling author Jeremy Paxman traces the invention of Englishness to its current crisis and concludes that, for all their characteristic gloom about themselves, the English may have developed a form of nationalism for the twenty-first century. “Paxman’s irrepressibly witty bit of Anglo scholarship offers stirring insights.” —Vanity Fair