In Jeremy
Paxman’s The English, A Portrait of aPeople, the author attempts to establish a national identity for the
English, not British, people. With their Celtic roots, he argues that the Welsh
and Scots have a strong “national” identity. The Welsh have managed to hold on
to their language and their songs while the Scots have their bagpipes,
Parliament, legal system, and field their own football teams in World Cup
competitions. So what about the English?
Paxman
traces the history of the British stereotype, beginning with the obese,
meat-eating, ale-drinking John Bull in the 18th Century followed by
the stiff-upper-lipped Englishman of the 19th and early 20th
Centuries. The latter stereotype is the result of the British public (private
in the U.S.) school system in which boys are treated badly as a matter of
course, made to eat vile or tasteless food, and are expected to just “take it.”
Their training served them well in the two world wars. But what about their 21st
century identity? That is the essence of the book.
For 266
pages, Paxman wanders the country in search of a national identity for the
English, and in some cases, with amusing results. An editor and uber patriot,
Roy Faiers, contends that you don’t have “to be English to be English.” “The
actor James Stewart was an American, but he has Englishness.” By the time you
get to the end of the book, you still have no sense of who a late 20th-Century
Englishman is (other than he loves football and prefers lager). But in a
country as ethnically diverse as England, is it even possible?
In the U.S.,
I have lived in the Northeast, Mid Atlantic, Southwest, and Texas (which is its
own region). In Arizona, many of my friends are from the Midwest—refugees from
the region's harsh winters. I can tell you that, like the English, it is
difficult to say what a typical American is like. There are generalities: we
are very patriotic and more religious than most Western nations, but you only
have to look at our politics to see the great divide.
Although I enjoyed
Paxman’s book, I was looking for something to hold on to—a Eureka moment where
Paxman would reveal the true Englishman, but it never came. And so I ambled
along. Because it was written 14 years ago, it is dated. But even in 1998,
Paxman came up with very little to show for his efforts to find an English
persona. I would think his task would be impossible today.
Mary, you just have to look at me.
ReplyDeleteI AM THE EPITOME OF AN ENGLISHMAN!!!!!!!
Tony
Truthfully, I think you're right. You were everything I expected of an Englishman, including having an umbrella at the ready.
DeleteHi Tony. But you have that bit of Scottish blood in you. Being a fellow Celt, I know that it makes us both much more interesting than your average Englishman/American. :)
ReplyDeleteDo you like lager? That and football were the two defining statements of Englishness.
I think it is atate of mind. During the days of the Empire when a large part of the world was coloured red on the map, many people who were born in the African colonies or India were still English. Their dress, their education (which was exported to the far flung parts of Empire), cultural heritage, history, art , literature ways of talking, thinking, behaving and The Church of england which went eveywhere too made them English. Some, whilst helping to run the Empire never actually came to England came here but they were English.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Paxman has recently written a book and made a new TV series about the Victorians, in conjunction with the Open University.I am sure he has developed his ideas about what it is to be English sincethe book you have read.
As for ethnic origins I have quite a bit of Iriish along with the Scot and a littlle Anglo saxon but i am engllish in everything as llisted above. I prefer local beers to lagers. I don't like lager at all.It's tasteless stuff. I support Southampton Football Club.
henry Jammes that great American writer lived here for most of his life and reallly became an Englishman. James Whistler, the artist did the same thing and so did the oil billionare John Paul Getty. He lived in a vast Elizabethan mansion here in Surrey, about 14 miles from where I live. He dressed like an Englishman and wanted nothing in life but to be English. James Stewart was on his way to being English in demeanor and attitude!!!!!!!!!
I wrote a post recently about, My City. All the ethnic minorities I describe in that article are English too because they chose to be.
It sounds like a very interesting book!
ReplyDelete