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The Politics of English Nationhood provides a comprehensive overview of the available evidence and major arguments relating to the revival of Englishness in the last two decades. It examines the challenges which the mainstream political parties have encountered in dealing with 'the English question'.

The character and origins of the politics of identity -- The politics of identity in liberal political theory -- Citizenship, public reason, and collective identity -- Civil society and the morality of association -- The public faces of identity politics -- Identities in motion : the political ethics of social movements -- Liberalism and the politics of difference -- Liberalism and the politics of recognition -- Conclusions

AbstractIn this reply Michael Kenny identifies the distinctiveness of Ackerman's characterisation of Britishness and the case he makes for constitutional reform. But he queries the remedies that he advances and, in particular, the attempt to address the problem of asymmetry through a system of regional government in England. Kenny argues instead that any adequate approach to reform in this area needs to grasp the decline of existing forms of territorial statecraft in the UK and the specific character of, and underlying motivations for, the increasing sense of democratic self‐assertion among the English.

AbstractHistorian, activist and campaigner Edward Thompson is seen as an exemplar of an English radicalism which some see as a lineage with which the contemporary Labour party might fruitfully reconnect. This article examines how Thompson himself understood and characterised the 'English radical idiom' and traces his use and then abandonment of this idea in the middle years of his career. It offers some wider reflections about what the insights and lessons associated with his historical writings and reflections on the distinctive nature of English cultural and social thought.

The constitutional position of England has become the subject of intense focus following the decision by the Conservative Party to table the question of English devolution in the immediate aftermath of the Scottish Referendum. Various pundits have argued that English nationalism has become a major factor in British politics and a source of deepening territorial tension. Academic commentators have been slower to interrogate the nature and implications of these assertions and, despite the ubiquity of references to English interests and anxieties in political discourse, there is a much less extensive analytical literature on the make-up and political dimensions of the national identity of the largest people of the United Kingdom. How, then, should the political status and character of the English identity be understood and studied? Notions of a politicised Englishness reflect various, often contentious, judgements of both interpretive and empirical kinds. This article highlights the different ways in which 'politicisation' in this context has been characterised, and shows that each of these established perspectives yields a different sort of political response and policy approach. I finish with some observations about how politicisation might be conceptualised, and identify the elements of a more comprehensive and fluid understanding of this phenomenon.

From English Votes for English Laws to the rise of Ukip, Englishness is a growing feature of British politics. Michael Kenny examines the rise of English national identity as a political force.