Critical Monograph Precis History Book Report Essay

CRITICAL MONOGRAPH PRECIS
British social History
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Linda Colley's compelling book was first written back in the year 1992. The book contains British history in ancient times discussing its emergence and the identity between Scotland and England at the start of the Victorian era in 1837. In his writing, the author discusses British identity by describing it by the use of four features. The four features which united the British people include: Britain was a protestant state which was against catholic Europe, it is an island country with a more powerful navy than a massive army, British was a metropole and it was a direct rival of French country. Colley's writing aimed in analyzing the source of British country in the 19th and 20th centuries by the use of the four features. During this particular period, the British people had a diverse sense of “Britishness” which was based on their differences from other European countries like France. The main purpose of this book was to give an overview of the British countryside and how the British people considered themselves different from other countries in Europe in matters of their culture and even their religion. Professor Colley wrote the book as an experiment to test whether British country would survive to remain different from other European countries.
The methodology used by Colley concentrated more on the theme of culture and social history of Britain than on political phenomena. The author used these two main themes to be able to explain the societal norms and myths meant to the Britons and also the reason they considered to value their culture and no other European country's culture. To be able to succeed in his writing, Colley draws heavy visual sources which included the British paintings and any military uniforms which would have some information that explains British identity. The use of these sources was to gather historical information that can be stored in the form of painting and even the ancient political cartoons symbolizing how the previous political leaders looked like and how they dressed. Intending to discover the Britons identity the author had to dig deep in the previous historical work from the Britons society to be able to reconstruct the whole formation of the Britons and how they will be able to survive in the European Empire in days to come.[Linda, Colley. Britons: forging the nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 2005, 29]
Over the years, Colley's writing has been praised for its argument and also for the style used in writing. According to the reader's reaction, the book is being described as “dashingly written and firmly unsentimental”. There have been reactions to questions that have been raised concerning the comprehensiveness of the Britons specifically on the neglecting of Ireland. Recent researches today concerning British history criticizes Colley's work where the studies approach describes his work as insensitive to the reason why many groups in Britain adopted “Britishness” and what this meant to them as Britons society. For instance, in his writing, Colley argues that the issue of Protestantism was a fact divisive problem to both the British people and the Scottish...