Demythologizing the nation's past: David Hume's History of England -- Catharine Macaulay's vindication of radicalism and the republican tradition -- Reassessing religion and the national narrative: John Lingard and the English Reformation -- Placing the constitution at the heart of national identity: Henry Hallam and constitutional history -- Thomas Babington Macaulay: writing the history of a progressive people -- The glories of the Reformation and the origins of empire: J.A. Froude's celebration of the Tudor era -- Edward Augustus Freeman: liberal democracy and national identity -- William Stubbs: the continuity of English history as national identity -- Celebrating the people: J.R. Green's Short History -- Samuel Rawson Gardiner: incorporating dissent into the national story -- In thrall to English tradition and character: G.M. Trevelyan's panoramic histories of the island race -- The Anglosphere as global model: Winston Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples
Summary
Two eminent scholars of historiography examine the concept of national identity through the key multi-volume histories of the last two hundred years. Starting with Humeâ#x80;#x99;s History of England (1754â#x80;#x93;62), they explore the work of British historians whose work had a popular readership and an influence on succeeding generations of British children
