Stability, unity and nonchalance: What does it mean to be English?

An epic new history of England offers some eye-catching conclusions on Englishness - suggesting, among other things, that a "remarkable" level of cultural unity and a relative openness to other cultures are both key components of English national identity. The history of England shows that we have, in the long term, been very stable. We are not a nation in decline - and we never really have been. Robert Tombs It may seem difficult to believe amid continual current debates over immigration, but an aversion to patriotic flag-waving and a relative tolerance of other cultures are both key components of English identity, according to a new history of England, published today. The conclusions are just two of those reached in The English and Their History, a sweeping survey of the last 13 centuries by the historian Professor Robert Tombs which, by examining the development of the nation and Englishness since Anglo-Saxon times, attempts to answer the enduring and complex question of what it means to be English. Part of that answer, he suggests, is to be found in a healthy "nonchalance" about national identity that has made the English - while by no means saints - resistant to racism and broadly tolerant of other cultures. This is, however, only one small piece of the extensive verdict that Tombs , who teaches and researches modern European History at St John's College, University of Cambridge, reaches in the conclusion of a study that has been six years in the making.