The English: A Portrait of a People [Anglais] [Relié]

What is it about the English? Not the British overall, not the Scots, not the Irish or the Welsh, but the English. Why do they seem so unsure of who they are? As Jeremy Paxman remarks in his preface to The English, being English "used to be so easy". Now, with the Empire gone, with Wales and Scotland moving into more independent postures, with the troubling specter of a united Europe (and despite the raucous hype of "Cool Britannia"), the English seem to have entered a collective crisis of national identity.

Jeremy Paxman has set himself the task of finding just what exactly is going on. Why, he wonders, "do the English seem to enjoy feeling so persecuted? What is behind the English obsession with games? How did they acquire their odd attitudes to sex and food? Where did they get their extraordinary capacity for hypocrisy?" He ranges widely in pursuit of answers, sifting through literature, cinema, and history. It is an intriguing investigation, encompassing many aspects of national life and character (such as it is), including the obligatory visit to that baffling phenomenon, the funeral of Princess Diana. Yet Paxman finds something fresh and interesting to say about even that now rather threadbare topic. In the end, he seems to find further questions to ask instead of answers. But why not? To him it is a sign that the English are acquiring a new sense of self. And some indication of this might lie in the obvious response to his remark that the English, being top of the British Imperial tree, had nicknames for their fellow nationalities--Jock, Taffy, Paddy, and Mick--but there was no corresponding name for an Englishman. Of course, there is one now, and it comes from one of the bits of empire to which so many undesirables were exported: Whinging Pom. --Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk

As the last of the United Kingdom's protectoratesAScotland, Wales, IrelandAare wiggling free from their imperial mother, a question poses itself: What does it mean to be English these days? That's what journalist and TV quiz master Paxman (Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain?) wonders in this study of British identity. A humorous, ironic, nostalgic, skeptical, dilettantish, mildly eccentric, self-deprecating and proud account (like its subject), the book surveys the various aspects of stereotypical English identity one by oneAin realms ranging from sex to food. Although he occasionally gives too much credence to flimsy stereotypes and is unnecessarily harsh on the subject of the cult of the English countryside, on the whole, Paxman offers an intriguing investigation. His sociohistorical survey rambles through characteristic attitudes toward foreigners, the weather, religion, the home, sport, language and the countrysideAsometimes fondly, sometimes iconoclastically. He finds evidence of the English spirit (if not the English identity, which he considers to be historically underdeveloped) everywhere: in the National Trust's successful efforts at historic preservation, the classically British propensity toward certain S&M practices and the offices of the Oxford English Dictionary. Based on book research, personal observation and Paxman's interviews with Brits including John Cleese and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, this odd collection of theoretical musings, historical tidbits and quirky observations should serve as both a corrective and a comfort for AnglophilesAin Britain and elsewhere. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A deeply serious yet wonderfully lively, witty, and heartfelt study of the Mother Country.Who, really, are the English? At a time when Great Britain seems to be devolving into its constituent parts, it's not an idle question. Nor should it be for Americans--not only for those who trace their origins to the Mother Country (is that England or Britain?) but for all those who seek to understand the extraordinary worldwide influence of so relatively few people. Journalist and broadcaster Paxman believes that it is the English--not the Scots, the Welsh, or the Irish--who have lost their own sense of who they are and how they fit into the United Kingdom. They and their culture already possess, he argues, the least distinct identity of any of the ancient peoples of the British Isles. And as the nations of Europe grow into one large state, what's left of English culture risks disappearing completely into a larger whole. Opening the door to a large subject, Paxman searches for the essence of Englishness in history, religion, geography, behavior, speech, and--well, just about anything that throws light on his subject. He describes what he thinks good and bad, useful and dysfunctional, of what remains of Englishness. With gentle irony and understatement, he tweaks his own people for their hypocrisy, their baffling lack of sharp personality, their insularity. He also nudges them to step out of the shadows, even on their own island. In the end, while remaining somewhat perplexed by his own people--they're elusive to the last--Paxman finds reasons to be optimistic about their future. He believes that they've begun to emerge from their go-it-alone, who-cares mentality and started more healthily and effectively to embrace the changing world. To which many Americans will say, Right on. Immensely popular in Britain--and England, too!--Paxman's informative, fact-studded book will enlighten and entertain everyone who seeks to learn of yesterday's England and today's Cool Britannia. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In the tradition of Ian Buruma's Anglomania, a probing, irreverent, and immensely colorful look at the meaning of Englishness.

Not so long ago, everybody knew who the English were. They were "polite, unexcitable, reserved, and had hot-water bottles instead of a sex life." 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.

A new self-confidence seems to have taken hold in Wales and Scotland, while many try to forge a new relationship with Europe. The English are being forced to ask what it is that makes them who they are. Is there such a thing as an English race? What inviolable English traits remain to win the affection of Anglophiles, raise the ire of Anglo-critics, and pique the curiosity of Anglo-watchers here and abroad?

Witty, surprising, affectionate, and incisive, The English 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.

"It is hard to think of anyone better than Jeremy Paxman to shove the English in the right direction." --Carmen Callil, Daily Telegraph

"Stimulating, adventurous and witty." --The Times

"An intelligent, well-written, informative and funny book . . . covering history; attitudes to foreigners, sex, food and sport; English stereotypes, the condition of the language and so on . . . a book to chew on, dip into, quote from and exploit in arguments . . . the book brims with reference and subtle allusion." --Andrew Marr, Observer (London)

Jeremy Paxman grew up thinking of himself as "English," despite being one quarter Scottish. He is a journalist and broadcaster.