The Break Up of Britain

A defining study of British history and politics In this classic text, first published in 1977, Tom Nairn memorably depicts the 'slow foundering' of the United Kingdom on the rocks of imperial decline, constitutional anachronism and the gathering force of civic nationalism. Rich in comparisons between the nationalisms of the British Isles and those of the wider world, thoughtful in its treatment of the interaction between nationality and social class, The Break-Up of Britain concludes with a bravura essay on the Janus-faced nature of national identity. Postscripts from the Thatcher and Blair years trace the political strategies whose upshot accelerated the demise of a British state they were intended to serve. As a second Scottish independence referendum beckons, a new Introduction by Anthony Barnett underlines the book's enduring relevance.

In this new, expanded edition, Nairn reviews the issues and arguments of his classic study, and maintains that the break-up of Britain has advanced with quite unforeseen speed. The shapes of the British crisis, in its latest stage are visible in Thatcher's 'phoney counter-revolution', the convulsions of Labour and the rise of the Social Democrats. The shape of a possible resolution may be glimpsed in the development of the Alternative Economic Strategy and in an 'alternative political strategy' capable of responding the the now more radical nationalisms of Scotland and Wales. This expanded version of The Break-Up of Britain is frank in reconsidering the arguments of the first edition and vigorous in developing them into the present. It will confirm Nairn's matchless standing on the left as an analyst of British politics.