English nationalism and British disintegration / Ben Wellings

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wellings, Ben, 1971- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European Union--Great Britain.

European Union.

Nationalism--England.

Nationalism.

Great Britain--Politics and government--2007-.

Great Britain.

Politics and government.

England.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

illustration

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

"This book analyses the relationship between English nationalism and the disintegrative dynamics affecting British politics from 2016 to 2024. By situating English nationalism in historical and comparative contexts and defining nationalism as the discursive legitimization of sovereignty that can have integrative or disintegrative goals, it shows how English nationalism has been an integrative force in England’s plurinational polities for most of its history. This changed notably when English nationalism was mobilized by Brexiteers, leading to the disintegration of the EU. But this same force also heightened disintegrative tendencies within the UK itself. The book also charts the post-Brexit attempts to return a now politically salient Englishness to an integrative mode. These historic shifts occurred during a particularly turbulent period of British politics and public life, as politicians negotiated the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, steered a path through the Covid-19 pandemic, shaped a new foreign policy with Anglosphere allies, transitioned from the reign of Elizabeth II to that of Charles III, and exploited the cultural–political divides that Brexit had starkly illuminated. By arguing that the form and content of English nationalism is generated by a defence of British sovereignty, this book concludes that English nationalism shifted to an unusual disintegrative mode in the middle of the 2010s but returned to its more usual integrative mode by the 2020s. However, this was no return to the status quo ante: England’s unusual and ambivalent hegemony within the UK means that the future of the plurinational union-state remains in a state of ongoing uncertainty"-- Oxford Academic

Contents:

Introduction : English nationalism, ‘a bit unBritish’

Nationalism : The discursive legitimization of sovereignty

Crises of the old order : Nationalism and European disintegrations

‘That thing continuing through history that still is’ : England and British disintegrations

England’s Brexit : English nationalism and European disintegration

Interdependence after Europe : Nationalisms and English unionism

Ghost in the machine : England’s global pandemic

A certain nostalgic logic : English nationalism and Global Britain

Queen of the world : Monarchy and the occlusion of English nationalism

Culture wars : England and the Anglosphere’s war on woke

Conclusion : English nationalism and British disintegration

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed September 17, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Wellings, Ben, 1971- English nationalism and British disintegration

ISBN:

9780191997624

0191997625

9780198894865

0198894864

OCLC:

1599575865

Publisher Number:

CIPO000424475

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license