Books like Britons by Linda Colley

Beric, a boy‑chief of a British tribe, leads resistance against Rome, is captured, trained as a gladiator, saviors a Christian maid, earns favor with Nero, escapes to form an outlaw band, then returns to rule his people wisely.

The state, wrote Aristotle, "is a compound made up of citizens; and this compels us to consider who should properly be called a citizen and what a citizen really is." These are the questions, with their broad implications for the modern nation-state, that Rogers Brubaker addresses here. In a time when the flow of information, capital, and immigration has blurred the definition of the state, Brubaker's sustained analysis of the origins and vicissitudes of citizenship in France and Germany reveals much about civic boundaries in the modern world. The difference between French and German definitions of citizenship is instructive - and, for millions of immigrants from North Africa, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, decisive. Brubaker explores this difference - between the territorial basis of the French citizenry and the German emphasis on blood descent - and shows how it translates into rights and restrictions for millions of would-be French and German citizens. Why French citizenship is territorially inclusive, and German citizenship ethnically exclusive, becomes clear in Brubaker's historical account of distinctive French and German paths to nation-statehood. Two fundamental legal principles of national citizenship emerge from this analysis, leading Brubaker to broad and original observations on the constitution of the modern state. We live in a world bounded and defined by the legal institution of citizenship. The plight of immigrants moving across Western Europe has made this a particularly salient point, one frequently missed but finally brought into sharp focus here. Linking law, state, economy, and culture across two countries and centuries, this book offers a powerful explanation of forces that shape the modern world and delineate its future.

An extremely large chunk of British History that reads like a story from the days of the Roman Invasion through to the reign of HM Queen Victoria.

As this century comes to a close, debates over immigration policy, racial preferences, and multiculturalism challenge the consensus that formerly grounded our national culture. The question of our national identity is as urgent as it has ever been in our history. Is our society disintegrating into a collection of separate ethnic enclaves, or is there a way that we can forge a coherent, unified identity as we enter the 21st century? In this book Michael Lind provides a comprehensive revisionist view of the American past and offers a concrete proposal for nation-building reforms to strengthen the American future. He shows that the forces of nationalism and the ideal of a trans-racial melting pot need not be in conflict with each other, and he provides a practical agenda for a liberal nationalist revolution that would combine a new color-blind liberalism in civil rights with practical measures for reducing class based barriers to racial integration.

Patrick Smith examines post‑1945 Japan, arguing that increased affluence, the Cold War’s end, and the death of Emperor Hirohito have driven a national redefinition and new individual‑society relationships under American influence.