Britain Before Brexit

"Why do the Brexiteers want to leave?" "Why do the Remainers want to stay?" "What exactly would a post-Brexit Europe look like?"
These questions have dominated the post- Brexit socio-political landscape. In this timely and engaging book Bernard Porter responds to these questions. Each chapter presents different historical episodes contributing to an overall understanding of what Porter calls Britain's "most important move in her national life since she risked her whole being to go to war with Germany in 1939." The book comprises a collection of well-researched and considered chapters ranging from Britain's 'asylum' policy for European refugees in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to 'terrorism' in mainland Britain, and governments responses to it. Porter draws from a range of sources and personal experiences to investigate the cultural and social history that led us (or which specifically didn't lead us) to the decision to leave the European Union. The result is an engaging and personal analysis of Britain's distinctive 'identity', and on its former relations with Europe

Bernard Porter is Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Newcastle, UK. He is a regular contributor to LRB, TLS, Literary Review, Guardian, History Today, academic journals and has lectured around the world. Alongside this, he has also appeared on national radio and television shows. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden. His book, Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society, and Culture in Britain (2004) won the American Historical Association's Morris D. Forkosch Prize in 2005.

List of Illustrations
Preface
Part I: Introduction: Britain and the world
Chapter 1. Britain & Europe, 40,000 BCE to the Present
Chapter 2. Empire
Part II: Britons and Europe
Chapter 3. Britons in Europe: the 19th Century
Chapter 4. Britain and Asylum
Part III: An Orcadian Abroad
Chapter 5. Samuel Laing, Traveller and Philosopher
Chapter 6. The Philistine
Part IV: War in Europe
Chapter 7. World War I: Gallipoli
Chapter 8. World War II: Churchill
Chapter 9. The Home Front
Chapter 10. On the Margins
Part V: Peace
Chapter 11. Hope and Decline
Chapter 12: Thatcher's Time
Part VI: What Now?
Chapter 13. Secrets and Lies
Chapter 14. The Battle for Brexit
Epilogue: National Identity
Further Reading
Index