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Uncovering the English National Character

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Uncovering the English National Character Peter Mandler. The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. x + 348 pp. $35.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-300-12052-3. Reviewed by Eric G. Zuelow Published on H-Albion (April, 2008) A "chicken or the egg" question hangs over (including supra-national ones) that bedevil na‐ the study of nations, nationalism, and national tional consciousness" (p. 4). Mandler takes an im‐ identity. Did nations come before nationalism or portant step in this direction by moving beyond the other way around? Once asked, this query im‐ national consciousness, a notoriously difficult mediately generates still more equally vexing thing to pin down, in an effort to explore the idea problems. How can one identify the presence of a of "national character," those characteristics nation? Is it enough to fnd national conscious‐ which are popularly believed to exemplify a peo‐ ness among social elites or is it critical to fnd ple. broad support among the masses? Is it necessary Mandler is certainly not the frst to mention for historical actors to use the term "nation" or English national character (which is often consid‐ are words such as "kingdom" acceptable substi‐ ered, at least by the English, to be coterminous tutes that ultimately meant the same thing?[1] with British national character), but he is the frst These are not merely historical questions and to systematically study its history--a task that of‐ quickly involve anthropological, sociological, ten appears every bit as complex as searching for philosophical, and linguistic concerns. With al‐ national consciousness or identity. It turns out most as many definitions of and ideas about na‐ that while national character is imagined to be tions as there are studies, most scholarly treat‐ timeless, it is an idea that is always in fux, which ments speak past one another, further confusing is constantly debated, and which is sometimes ab‐ issues that need no more obfuscation. sent altogether. Indeed, even after national char‐ According to Peter Mandler, the solution to acter was frmly established as a widespread pop‐ the problem of excessively "loose" terminology is ular discourse by the middle of the nineteenth to be found in a new and more complicated "lan‐ century, there were often competing ideas about guage--one that recognizes different forms of na‐ the nature and definition of that character. tional consciousness as well as other identities H-Net Reviews According to Mandler, national character is a cy of institutions and the characteristics of indi‐ modern idea, little more than 200 years old. Dur‐ viduals that made those institutions great. ing much of the Middle Ages, collective identities As time passed, the idea of England as a were based largely on the king: the king personi‐ "mongrel nation" that benefited from both Saxon fied the people. By the ffteenth century "English‐ and Celtic traits gradually eclipsed the civiliza‐ ness" was beginning to appear as a concept that tional model. Confidence in the union was at a was usually tied to admiration of English laws peak and the idea of the mongrel nation made it and institutions. Without the widespread use of possible to acknowledge English dominance in print language, however, there was little room for Britain while also recognizing the contributions of a vernacular of character. both the Scots and even the Irish. When com‐ By the seventeenth century new theories of bined, the strengths of each group helped explain historical origins provided the English with "more why Britain was the dominant world power. Both sharply national" qualities (p. 12), but intellectu‐ reason and emotion were joined, creating a gen‐ als did not outline a frm notion of English charac‐ uinely balanced people (pp. 66-67). ter, with the nation as a centerpiece of analysis, In contrast to the "mongrel nation idea," until the Enlightenment. In the mid-eighteenth based more on environment than race, racial ex‐ century thinkers such as Baron de Montesquieu planations of English character gained popularity posited the idea that geography and climate might during the 1850s and 1860s. If the English were define a people's characteristics. Soon intellectu‐ superior, as their burgeoning empire suggested to als such as Adam Smith, David Hume, and Ed‐ contemporaries, then it was necessary to fully ex‐ mund Burke started to apply similar ideas to the plain why. Further, the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and English. According to Mandler, Burke's contribu‐ the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 both "stirred up tion to this burgeoning dialogue was especially English anger against the 'ingratitude' of fractious important. The Dublin-born philosopher and colonial subjects and English doubts about their politician wrote about an English inheritance, ar‐ capacity for civilization" (p. 72). What made these guing that English history reflected a continuity of people behave so poorly while the English be‐ character across time--a character that helped ex‐ haved so well? For many, race seemed an obvious plain the powerful democratic institutions that answer, but this response took various forms. define political life in England. For Burke, institu‐ There were those such as J. C. Prichard who felt tions, English law and parliament in particular, that humanity formed a single species and that along with the governing classes, exemplified En‐ differences were superficial. Meanwhile, poly‐ glishness. England was the pinnacle of civiliza‐ genist thinkers held that each race represented a tion, its people the creators of something great distinct species. In contrast to both, Lamarckian who enjoyed an obligation to encourage others to thinkers argued that the races started out closely follow them. related and subsequently, due to environmental Once an initial conception of English national factors, diverged. character was introduced, it gradually emerged as Here again, the idea of English national char‐ a popular mode of analysis yet it was never fxed acter remained far from fxed. Even as racialist and there was seldom, if ever, consensus about its thought sought to produce a more scientific expla‐ parameters. At frst, the idea remained close to nation of difference, Charles Darwin's Origin of the civilizational model suggested by Burke and the Species (1859) problematized racial explana‐ the environmental explanation posited by Mon‐ tions by dramatically expanding the historical tesquieu. National character was about the prima‐ timeline that most racialists used. For Darwin, 2 H-Net Reviews species evolved over thousands of years, yet Eng‐ ics necessarily disliked the Little Man, but rather land was settled and had evolved quite recently. that this "quintessentially English" characteristic How could racial divergence explain changes that caused people to be absorbed in home life and must have occurred in hundreds rather than kept them "pottering in the garden" when they thousands of years? As a result, many became ob‐ should have been tuned into world events. As A. J. sessed with Teutonic explanations for English Cummings wrote of his countrymen: "they were character. Between the rise of Napoleon III and prepared to present half the world to Herr Hitler his defeat by the Germans in 1870, English hostili‐ on a silver salver if only he would leave them to ty toward France and affection for Germany their own agreeable and prosperous devices, to reached its peak. In the context of the time, it their motor cars, their cinemas, their bungalows, made sense to celebrate England's Anglo-Saxon their holidays at the seaside, their multiple shops, origins and to point toward popular ideas about to all the congenial paraphernalia of a thriving an ancient "Saxon constitution" which bordered and developing trade" (p. 185). Even during on proto-democracy (p. 87). Teutonic strength pro‐ Britain's darkest hour, however, not everybody duced England's great institutions and empire. could begrudge the English national character. Like its antecedents, Teutonism could not last. Yes, they were asleep at the wheel during the German unification and the subsequent develop‐ 1930s, but once the crisis was on, the English rose ment of German imperialism made it difficult to to the occasion. This ability to face adversity was celebrate Germanic roots. Likewise, the traumatic soon integrated into the national character. impact of the Boer War made celebrating imperi‐ After the war, the English celebrated their alist exploits equally troubling. By the early twen‐ character at the Festival of Britain and looked for‐ tieth century, the new view of England was a ward to a return to normalcy--but normalcy did "'Merrie England' of lords and peasants, cakes and not last. The splintering of popular culture during ale, folk song and pageantry" (p. 139). England the 1960s, the economic troubles of the 1970s, and was no longer a place of bluster, but a place of Margaret Thatcher's failure to reignite belief in peace. The English increasingly celebrated their the national character all served to undermine ability to "muddle through" crises (p. 138), while the idea. For many, England was best exemplified returning to their peaceful ways immediately af‐ by the past. Heritage centers and museums terward. By the end of the First World War, the sprung up everywhere, prompting some to won‐ old racialist conception of England was popular der whether England was about to become little only among a small minority, while the English more than a heritage museum. English national were increasingly seen in terms of a character character seemed quaint, hardly indicative of a type: the "Little Man"--complete with a bowler people who were more diverse than ever before. hat, bow tie, and tightly furled umbrella. The Lit‐ While too recent for inclusion in Mandler's tle Man was "small, kindly, bewildered, modest, book, Gordon Brown's effort to develop a "'state‐ obstinate and very lovable" (p.
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