It’s rare for me to post a book review on this main page, in part because it is sent to all subscribers of the blog and I don’t want to pester them with all the books I read! Normally I just list the books here and leave it at that.
But I finished a book on the way home from England that struck me as more than just another book. Jeremy Paxman wrote The English in 1999, but it still reads as a brilliant insight into the English psyche. Anybody who spends time in England needs to read this book. But in addition, anybody in America who wants to understand the roots of our class structure should read this book.
Note that the book is about the English. Not the British. Not the United Kingdom. Not Great Britain. Not Scotland, Wales or Ireland. But the English. That’s what makes the book so fascinating; it delves into this unique group who have done so much to shape the world, but are now shaping their own self-understanding and determining their role in the world. Here are a people who once ruled the largest empire known in history, and then lost most of that empire in the valiant effort to save freedom from the madness of Hitler.
Or at least that’s how they tell the narrative. Paxman’s book offers a broader view, a modern view, and does so without revisionism of history. He delves into the weaknesses and strengths of the English, often making jokes about about his peoples peculiarities. It’s really a self-discovery book that has amazing self awareness. All of my cross cultural training and experience is on full alert for some level of self-deception, but I saw little of that.
I’ve always wondered what it is that drove the English for so many centuries. What made them think they had it all figured out, that theirs was a superior culture, that theirs was a superior faith, that theirs was a superior social system? I’ve wondered these thoughts because I see much the same attitude in some circles within America. To me it seems like a cultural attitude that was handed down from the English to our founding fathers and then permeated our own culture, from Andrew Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. At its best we see it in American diplomacy that promotes the best of the American spirit. At its worst we see it in “skull and bones” type exclusive groups, crass American imperialism, and class elitism among the very rich. Although uniquely American in nature, it has the DNA of English confidence and arrogance. Or so it seems to me.
The book doesn’t explore the American aspect of this, of course, but it does look closely at the English attitudes toward the rest of the world. I found it remarkably helpful as I sort through my own perspectives.
So I really enjoyed this book, and if you are at all interested in the English, it’s a must read.
By the way, if you want to see more pictures of our time in Aldingbourne exploring my family roots, click here. If you want to see pictures of our time in Oxford, London and Stratford, click here.
