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Linda Colley

Linda Colley Quotes

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Famous Linda Colley Quotes

“In virtually every Continental state at this time, aristocracies had to live with the risk that their property might be pillaged or confiscated. Only in Great Britain did it prove possible to float the idea that aristocratic property was in some magical and strictly intangible way the people's property also. The fact that hundreds of thousands of men and women today are willing to accept that privately owned country houses and their contents are part of Britain's national heritage is one more proof of how successfully the British elite reconstructed its cultural image in an age of revolution.”

PeopleMenWayIdeasCountryStatesFactsMightAgeTodayHouseAcceptingRiskWillingRevolutionProveMen And WomenPropertyBritishProofBritainHeritageElitesFloatsAristocracyGreat BritainIntangibleBritish HistoryContinentalAristocraticCountry Houses
Book:Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837
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“Recognising that an ostentatious cult of heroism and state service served an important propaganda function for the British elite does not mean, of course, that we should dismiss it as artificial or insincere. All aristocracies have a strong military tradition, and for many British patricians the protracted warfare of the period was a godsend. It gave them a job, and, more important, a purpose, an opportunity to carry out what they had been trained to do since childhood: ride horses, fire guns, exercise their undoubted physical courage and tell other people what to do.”

PeopleShouldMeanDoeImportantStatesJobsPurposeCoursesOpportunityStrongFireChildhoodMilitaryPeriodsExerciseGunTraditionFunctionHorseBritishPropagandaElitesArtificialHeroismWarfareCultAristocracyBritish HistoryInsincereOstentatiousPhysical Courage
Author:Linda Colley
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