Quotessence
Home / Authors / Linda Colley
Linda Colley

Linda Colley Quotes

Historian

Filter quotes by topic

AllBritish HistoryBritainBritishGreat BritainWarWayEnglandMenMilitaryPeopleAuthorityBritonsCenturyPeriodsPoliticalScotlandStatesWales18th CenturyAristocracy

Famous Linda Colley Quotes

“Human beings are many-layered creatures, and do not succumb to the hegemony of others as easily as historians and politicians sometimes imply. Those Welsh, Scottish and Anglo-Irish individuals who became part of the British Establishment in this period did not in the main sell out in the sense of becoming Anglicised look-alikes. Instead, they became British in a new and intensely profitable fashion, while remaining in their own minds and behavior Welsh, or Scottish, or Irish aswell.”

MindHumansLooksSometimesIndividualHuman BeingsFashionBecomingPeriodsPoliticianCreaturesBehaviorSellsBritishHistorianEstablishmentProfitableScottishBritish HistoryHegemonyWelsh
Author:Linda Colley
Create image

“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
Create image

“It would be wrong to interpret the growth of British national consciousness in this period in terms of a new cultural and political uniformity being resolutely imposed on the peripheries of the island by its centre. For many poorer and less literate Britons, Scotland, Wales and England remained more potent rallying calls than Great Britain, except in times of danger from abroad. And even among the politically educated, it was common to think in terms of dual nationalities, not a single national identity.”

ThinkingWould BePoliticalGrowthTermCommonConsciousnessDangerIdentityPeriodsEnglandBritishEducatedIslandsBritainCentreScotlandNationalityGreat BritainWalesUniformityBritish HistoryPeripheryRallyingNational IdentityBritons
Author:Linda Colley
Create image