| Publication |
2006.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The English and the French are both former imperial peoples, and to that extent they share certain features of national identity common to peoples who have had empires. That includes a 'missionary' sense of themselves, a feeling that they have, or have had, a purpose in the world wider than the concerns of non-imperial nations. I argue that nevertheless the English and the French have diverged substantially in their self-conceptions. This I put down to a differing experience of empire, the sense especially among the French that the British were more successful in their imperial ventures. I also argue that contrasting domestic histories - evolutionary in the English case, revolutionary in that of the French - have also significantly coloured national identities in the two countries. These factors taken together, I argue, have produced a more intense sense of nationhood and a stronger national consciousness among the French than among the English.
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