The Enchanted Glass Paperback by Tom Nairn

Product Details

• Publisher: Verso (2011-11-07)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 440 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781844677757
• Item Weight: 453.6 grams
• Dimensions: 20.32 x 12.95 x 2.31 cm

In this acclaimed study of British statehood, identity and culture, Tom Nairn deftly dispels the conviction that the Royal Family is nothing more than an amusing relic of feudalism or a mere tourist attraction. Instead, he argues that the monarchy is both apex and essence of the British state, the symbol of a national backwardness. In this fully updated edition, Nairn’s powerful and bitterly comic prose lays bare Britain’s peculiar, pseudo-modern, national identity—which remains stubbornly fixated on the Crown and its constitutional framework, the “parliamentary sovereignty” of Westminster.

About the Author

Tom Nairn (1932–2023) was one of the UK’s most gifted left-wing thinkers and a towering radical imagination. His books included The Break-Up of Britain, The Enchanted Glass: Britain and Its Monarchy and The Left Against Europe?