The Break-Up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism

In this twenty-fifth annivery edition of The Break-Up of Britain, Tom Nairn reviews the arguments of his classic study and expands his thesis into the new millenium. He confirms his contention that civic nationalism-but not ethnonationalism-will play an increasing role in the breakdown of the United Kingdom. This, he says, has now assumed an even more rapid pace than when the book was first published. the cumulative strains of Thatcherism and Blairism have had their effect. "The Break-Up of Britain", he writes in the new Introduction "began its life in a still imposing, if narrowing river; by the time the 1981 paperback edition had appeared, the river had begun to feel the approaching rapids- which have accelerated for over twenty years, and attained a crazy place even in the few weeks between beginning and finishing this new edition. The thunder of a waterfall no one conceived of in 1977 is in everyone's ears, as Tony Blair sends off his ships and troops to assist America's assault on the Middle East... In the altered world lying beyond these falls, it is surely unlikely the United Kingdom will survive in anything like its historical form".