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In Brexit and the British Stephen Green argues that it is time to acknowledge that underlying all the sound and fury of the Brexit debate was a question - whether or not fully recognised - about our identity. Are we British different, special and capable of finding our own way in the world? Who are we, who call ourselves British?
List of contents
The shock and its aftermath
The British in the mirror: what have we become?
Brexit and Global Britain?
The history that weighs on Britain
Unforeseen consequences
The ties that bind us
The mirror crack’d?
A mature identity for Global Britain?
About the author
Stephen Green campaigned for a Remain vote on 23 June in the UK’s Referendum on membership of the European Union. He now chairs London’s Natural History Museum and holds the same position at Asia House, a center of expertise on Asia. An ordained priest in the Church of England, he sits as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, Britain’s second chamber.
Summary
Whatever the eventual outcome of Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union, the critical questions remain: what does the Referendum vote tell us about British society? As with the election of Donald Trump in the United States, why did so few people in Britain see the result coming? Why was there such a fundamental misunderstanding about divisions in society that had existed for years?
In this short but powerful book, Stephen Green argues that it is time to acknowledge that underlying all the sound and fury of the Brexit debate were fundamental questions—whether or not fully recognized—about British identity. Are the British different, special, and capable of finding their own way in the world? Who are they, those who call themselves British? Is it all too easy to blame Brexit on post-industrial decline in the traditional heartlands of the Labor Party, or scaremongering by a band of deluded “Little Englanders”? Or is British identity more complex, deep-rooted—and perhaps, in some sense, troubling—than those of other European nations?
Additional text
"Rather than attacking us with his politics, Green lays bare the social issues associated with Brexit with an examination of history and his philosophy. There is no soapboxing here—he doesn’t beat us about the head with his convictions—he simply takes stock of the contemporary British soul, examines its condition, and then explores this elegantly across 60 pages. A cool head and a considered tone are underrated attributes nowadays, and are all too often lacking in modern political discourse."
— PopMatters
