Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood: The England of G.K. Chesterton

by Julia Stapleton

Overview

This book links the concepts of patriotism, Christianity, and nationhood in the journalistic writings of G.K. Chesterton and emphasizes their roots within the English attachments that were central to his political and spiritual persona. It further connects Chesterton to the vibrant debate about English national identity in the early years of the twentieth century, which was instrumental in shaping not only his political convictions, but also his religious convictions. Christianity, Patriotism and Nationhood explores his changing conception of the English people from an early, menacing account of their revolutionary potential in the face of plutocracy to the more complex portraits he drew of their character on recognizing their political passivity after the First World War.

As Chesterton was above all a journalist, the study considers some of the varied outlets in which he expressed his ideas as a distinctly Edwardian man of letters of a strongly patriotic persuasion. His connection with The Illustrated London News over more than three decades proved pivotal in strengthening his patriotism and discourse of nationhood vilified elsewhere, not least in advanced Liberal organs such asThe Nation. Julia Stapleton shows that he was increasingly distanced by fellow Liberals before 1918, on account of the priority he gave nationhood over the state, and patriotism over citizenship. But she argues that his English loyalties were the last echo of an aspect of Victorian Liberalism that had been progressively eroded by loss of confidence among elites in the democratic aptitude of the English people.

Christianity, Patriotism and Nationhood emphasizes that Chesterton upheld a cultural rather than racial conception of national homogeneity, in keeping with the Victorian sources of his thought and the popular patriotism of Edwardian England. It argues that his anti-semitism was ancillary, rather than integral to his understanding of England, and that it was matched by a similar conception of the ant

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739126134
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	01/16/2009
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Julia Stapleton is a reader in the Department of Politics, University of Durham.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter 1: Creeds and Identities
Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Liberal Journalism and the Patriotic Cosmos
Chapter 4 Chapter 3: The Insularity of English Art, Ethics, Politics, and Thought: Chesterton's Critique of theFin de Siècle
Chapter 5 Chapter 4: Liberalism, Democracy, and the English Nation
Chapter 6 Chapter 5: The Dissident Liberal
Chapter 7 Chapter 6: Authenticity, the English, and the Jews
Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Prussianism, Teutonism, and the Literary War
Chapter 9 Chapter 8: History versus Historians in the First World War
Chapter 10 Chapter 9: Nationalism, Internationalism, and the English Past after 1918
Chapter 11 Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Julia Stapleton's well-researched, insightful study is a significant contribution to Chesterton criticism and to British intellectual history. Her substantive and stimulating analysis sparks fresh understandings of the relationship between Chesterton's faith and his politics, and of constructions of British national identity in the early twentienth century. This pioneering integration of hitherto parallel discourses is a great service to scholars of modern British thought and culture; it deserves a wide and appreciative audience.

Adam Schwartz

This is a splendid, detailed, well-balanced and intelligent account of G.K.Chesterton's defense of ancient English ideals and loyalties, against imperialism, futurism and social Darwinism, and of the English people against plutocracy. Dr. Stapleton has done much to help restore Chesterton to his proper place as a well-informed and witty political philosopher.

Stephen R.L.Clark

This is an intriguing and interesting study of one of the more intriguing men of letters of the early twentieth century.

ELT Journal

This is a splendid, detailed, well-balanced and intelligent account of G.K.Chesterton's defense of ancient English ideals and loyalties, against imperialism, futurism and social Darwinism, and of the English people against plutocracy. Dr. Stapleton has done much to help restore Chesterton to his proper place as a well-informed and witty political philosopher.--Stephen R.L.Clark, University of Liverpool

Julia Stapleton's well-researched, insightful study is a significant contribution to Chesterton criticism and to British intellectual history. Her substantive and stimulating analysis sparks fresh understandings of the relationship between Chesterton's faith and his politics, and of constructions of British national identity in the early twentienth century. This pioneering integration of hitherto parallel discourses is a great service to scholars of modern British thought and culture; it deserves a wide and appreciative audience.--Adam Schwartz, author of The Third Spring: G. K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones

This is an intriguing and interesting study of one of the more intriguing men of letters of the early twentieth century.--ELT Journal

From the Publisher

This is an intriguing and interesting study of one of the more intriguing men of letters of the early twentieth century.

Elt