I think this is needed towards the end of August. Comments and suggestions welcome. Should be 300 words, getting too long already.
Blog is the first draft of journalism, history some weeks later. (Continental Drift book found in Blackwell's bookshop under Politics, not History)
Legacy of British Empire
( draft for current course , updated from previous course Feb 2017 )
The present situation is part of European history and empires, the Dutch and Portuguese included. The financial aspect of the British Empire is now part of the USA dollar situation. So there is a wider context than first appears.
Public opinion is influenced by empire, notions of jingoism (UK) and exceptionalism (USA) for example. These seem to be less rational than could be shown as related to anything specific. Hitchcock remade the 39 Steps as North by North West , there was not much need to describe the external threat.
History as a subject can cross over with journalism or just speculation. The book Continental Drift by Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon describes UK policy on Europe up to the time of John Major. It shows how attitudes to Empire led to expectations of a role in Europe that turned out to be quite different to reality. The move towards leaving Europe has been based on an idea of “post-Geography” . Brexiteers such as Liam Fox see buccaneers as a role model. In the last year as the arrangements with the EU seem to be more complex than first claimed there has been a switch to more emphasis on issues around race and identity. Boris Johnson is now working with Steve Bannon on concerns around Islam.
How much sense the claims about the economy will make remains to be seen. It is possible that the British government is deluded, as are most of the newspapers and the public. Will a global market be less of a threat for the “just about managing”? It is not yet possible to discuss this as history but whatever happens will be explained as part of a longer story. Possibly the post imperial idea of a Global Britain will fail but the blame will be sorted out by a retreat to a culture that could still be explained through imperial history.
Some links to clarify what was in my original text, based on comments
"post-Geography" is a term used by Liam Fox. It might be futurist but I think it looks back to a previous time for UK options.
https://www.ft.com/content/e456c008-8642-11e6-8897-2359a58ac7a5
Hitchcock continued Buchan themes in film from novels. The course included the adventure stories in print. Hitchcock developed repeated ideas in USA from UK and they fit with Empire and Cold War.
More about Continental Drift
Intro as free PDF
Full info
You have to fill in the gaps towards the end. But it is clear enough about the Empire expectations post WW2 and the early approach to Europe from Heath and Wilson.
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