A Question of Identity
It is a deeply unfashionable thing to ask, says Tim Stanley, but might a nation's history be affected by the character of its people?
For a long time it has been forbidden to discuss ‘national character’ when writing history. The idea went out of fashion in the 1950s, when academics decided that nationality was a fraudulent construct. To the contemporary, postmodern scholar, who sees identity as manufactured and ever-changing, it is absurd to read history through the prism of Prussian militarism, British ‘pluck’ or French je ne sais quoi.
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