National identities and travel in Victorian Britain

"Using numerous published and unpublished travel journals by middle-class men and women from England, Scotland and Wales who toured the Continent and Britain, this book explores the variety of national identities existing in Victorian Britain. Unlike most scholars who focus on a single national identity in Britain, Morgan's study reveals the subtle way that national identity shifted depending on context, particularly geographic context. In so doing, the book also highlights the specific qualities middle-class victorians had in mind when they used such terms as British, English, Scots and Welsh to identify themselves collectively.". "Morgan's book has wide-ranging appeal because it integrates two subject areas of interest to scholars across disciplines - travel and national identity. Furthermore, the book's accessible style and extensive use of the amusing, telling anecdote make it attractive to the non-scholarly reading public as well. In particular, Morgan's work is significant for anyone grappling with geopolitical changes in our time. In that the book analyses multiple national identities in a single state, it illuminates the sort of collective imagining likely to take place among Europeans in a more united Europe and enhances our understanding of why some states are successful at incorporating multiple national identities and others are not."--BOOK JACKET.