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Rule, Nostalgia
Britain is an island ruled by nostalgia, but nostalgia today isn't what it used to be...
Longing to go back to the 'good old days' is nothing new. For hundreds of years, the British have mourned the loss of older national identities and called for a revival 'simple', 'better' ways of life - from Margaret Thatcher's call for a return to 'Victorian values' in the 1980s, to William Blake's protest against the 'dark satanic mills' of the Industrial Revolution that were fast transforming England's green and pleasant land, to sixteenth-century observers looking back wistfully to a 'Merry England' before the upheavals of the Reformation. By the time we reach the 1500s, we find a country nostalgic for a vision of home that looks very different to our own. But were the 'good old days' ever quite how we remember them?
Beginning in the present, cultural historian Hannah Rose Woods takes us back on an eye-opening tour through five hundred years of Britain's perennial fixation with its own past to reveal that history is more complex than we care to remember. Asking why nostalgia has been such an enduring and seductive emotion across hundreds of years of change, Woods separates the history from the fantasy, debunks pervasive myths about the past, and illuminates the remarkable influence that nostalgia's perpetual backwards glance has had on British history, politics and society.
Rule, Nostalgia is a timely and enlightening interrogation of national character, emotion, identity and myth making that elucidates how this nostalgic isle's history was written, re-written and (rightly or wrongly) remembered.
Longing to go back to the 'good old days' is nothing new. For hundreds of years, the British have mourned the loss of older national identities and called for a revival 'simple', 'better' ways of life - from Margaret Thatcher's call for a return to 'Victorian values' in the 1980s, to William Blake's protest against the 'dark satanic mills' of the Industrial Revolution that were fast transforming England's green and pleasant land, to sixteenth-century observers looking back wistfully to a 'Merry England' before the upheavals of the Reformation. By the time we reach the 1500s, we find a country nostalgic for a vision of home that looks very different to our own. But were the 'good old days' ever quite how we remember them?
Beginning in the present, cultural historian Hannah Rose Woods takes us back on an eye-opening tour through five hundred years of Britain's perennial fixation with its own past to reveal that history is more complex than we care to remember. Asking why nostalgia has been such an enduring and seductive emotion across hundreds of years of change, Woods separates the history from the fantasy, debunks pervasive myths about the past, and illuminates the remarkable influence that nostalgia's perpetual backwards glance has had on British history, politics and society.
Rule, Nostalgia is a timely and enlightening interrogation of national character, emotion, identity and myth making that elucidates how this nostalgic isle's history was written, re-written and (rightly or wrongly) remembered.
394 pages, Hardcover
First published May 26, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
October 5, 2023
I’m so glad I read this as it was absolutely fascinating. ‘Rule, Nostalgia’ is a history book with a bit of a twist in that not only does it start in the present day and work backwards but it is also about history itself or rather the history of the role of history. Woods explores the idea that history is not fixed as such and is constantly rewritten. How we view it and what we see as important or not is often far more linked to the present moment than the past. We often think it was better before, that the nation was greater and view the past with skewed rose- tinted glasses. The thing is every generation, era and century have done exactly the same thing. Not only does this influence how we look at the past but it can change how we view the present too, something frequently harnessed by politicians, leaders and media.
The timing of this book couldn’t be more apt as Brexit, Boris Johnson, MPs standing to be the new Prime Minister are constantly in the news and use propaganda of the British past to paint a picture of today and an imagined ideal future. As terms such as ‘woke’ are branded round and arguments and counter arguments take place about statues and which history is told this book shows that many of these ideas are not new but where danger lies is in silencing anyone who questions the history and nostalgic image a country paints. So much of reading this made me think of Benedict Anderson’s ‘Imagined Communities’ idea and his writing on nationalism. I can see this book really making people think.
As Woods goes back through hundreds of years she shows how the arguments and nostalgia have clear patterns throughout the ages. Her writing while being informative and packed full of information is extremely readable and not dry in the slightest. Honestly I really loved reading this one. If nothing else everyone needs to read the conclusion!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The timing of this book couldn’t be more apt as Brexit, Boris Johnson, MPs standing to be the new Prime Minister are constantly in the news and use propaganda of the British past to paint a picture of today and an imagined ideal future. As terms such as ‘woke’ are branded round and arguments and counter arguments take place about statues and which history is told this book shows that many of these ideas are not new but where danger lies is in silencing anyone who questions the history and nostalgic image a country paints. So much of reading this made me think of Benedict Anderson’s ‘Imagined Communities’ idea and his writing on nationalism. I can see this book really making people think.
As Woods goes back through hundreds of years she shows how the arguments and nostalgia have clear patterns throughout the ages. Her writing while being informative and packed full of information is extremely readable and not dry in the slightest. Honestly I really loved reading this one. If nothing else everyone needs to read the conclusion!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
May 19, 2024
In this review I am going to do something I try and resist which is complaining because the author hasn't written the book I think they should have. Maybe I felt dissatisfied when I read in the introduction a very convoluted sentence explaining how she was going to look at nostalgia not simply in terms of England but also Scotland and Wales but not Ireland, north or south. Which just put me in a bad mode because you would imagine that having spent nearly a thousand years attempting to conquer and keep Ireland and that in the Brexit negotiations it was 'the precious, precious Union' as PM Theresa May referred to it (making it sound like a bit of ugly china that everyone hated and ignored but was put prominently display when the cadet branch of the family visited) which caused all the problems in the Brexit negotiations, that Ireland deserved some mention. Though when you look at the eight mentions Wales gets Ireland's six is not bad since it is actually excluded from the narrative.
The problem with this book is that it is based on making a big thing out of something that everyone should know, that every age looks back to a 'lost' golden era just over the horizon. This is such a banal trope that I am amazed it made it into a book proposal without everyone, including the author, collapsing into screeching fits of laughter at its banality. Is the stating of the blindingly obvious what readers want?
The fact that the author tries to look at 19th century forebodings of imperial decay and decline, never mind late 19th century parliamentary history, without mentioning Ireland is symptomatic of not just this books problem, but the problem of most people in the UK know absolutely nothing about there history. How many of them noticed that Charles III at his coronation swore:
"That I shall inviolably maintain and preserve the Settlement of the True Protestant Religion as established by the laws of Scotland in prosecution of the Claim of Right and particularly an Act intituled an ‘Act for Securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government’"
never mind if they know what it means. The vast ignorance knows no class or economic bounds, in fact the more expensively educated the stupider they are likely to be, as writers for the Spectator like Boris Johnson exemplify so effortlessly.
Knowing that people in England, and the further backwards from WWII we go that 'people' becomes an ever smaller representation of the actual population of England, were obsessed with a previous era as being the good time tells us less then an examination of who created this 'nostalgia' or why certain periods were romanticised as good in preference to others. Again the perspective is always skewered by who you asked. I doubt if those who marched on the Pilgrimage of Grace thought much of Henry VIII or the thousands of sailors who defeated the Armada and were discharged unpaid to wander the lanes of England thought much of 'good queen Bess'.
Understanding how nostalgia is constructed and what gets left out is far more to the point then being overwhelmed by simplicities that looking back for the good old days is in fact perennial.
The problem with this book is that it is based on making a big thing out of something that everyone should know, that every age looks back to a 'lost' golden era just over the horizon. This is such a banal trope that I am amazed it made it into a book proposal without everyone, including the author, collapsing into screeching fits of laughter at its banality. Is the stating of the blindingly obvious what readers want?
The fact that the author tries to look at 19th century forebodings of imperial decay and decline, never mind late 19th century parliamentary history, without mentioning Ireland is symptomatic of not just this books problem, but the problem of most people in the UK know absolutely nothing about there history. How many of them noticed that Charles III at his coronation swore:
"That I shall inviolably maintain and preserve the Settlement of the True Protestant Religion as established by the laws of Scotland in prosecution of the Claim of Right and particularly an Act intituled an ‘Act for Securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government’"
never mind if they know what it means. The vast ignorance knows no class or economic bounds, in fact the more expensively educated the stupider they are likely to be, as writers for the Spectator like Boris Johnson exemplify so effortlessly.
Knowing that people in England, and the further backwards from WWII we go that 'people' becomes an ever smaller representation of the actual population of England, were obsessed with a previous era as being the good time tells us less then an examination of who created this 'nostalgia' or why certain periods were romanticised as good in preference to others. Again the perspective is always skewered by who you asked. I doubt if those who marched on the Pilgrimage of Grace thought much of Henry VIII or the thousands of sailors who defeated the Armada and were discharged unpaid to wander the lanes of England thought much of 'good queen Bess'.
Understanding how nostalgia is constructed and what gets left out is far more to the point then being overwhelmed by simplicities that looking back for the good old days is in fact perennial.
December 4, 2022
4.5 Stars!
“People have always looked back with longing; forgetting, in turn, that the people they looked back to were doing the same.”
Ah nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be… If only nostalgia was a competitive sport then England would win the world cup every time and then we wouldn’t have to listen to desperate and deluded Englishmen still going on about 1966.
On the strength of this Woods is clearly a fresh and vital new voice. This is told with clarity, depth and conviction. We see that the power and sway of nostalgia is so excessive and pervasive that it can start to take on the appearance of a collective hypnosis or mass psychosis. But of course there is glory in hardship, moral superiority in suffering. But who is really suffering and who is really profiting?...
“The English have a habit of inventing ‘tradition’ out of thin air, to suit the spirit of the times, and then almost immediately waxing mournfully nostalgic about them, as though they were a vital and now tragically dying part of our cultural heritage.”
Kate Fox.
Of course in these hyper-connected times we are probably more isolated and depressed than at any time in recorded history. The known, controllable certainty of the past will all too often trump the frightening uncertainty of the present and future. And so nostalgia provides a reassuring and vital role as a go to drug for those in power to utilise, it’s cheap, widely available and incredibly addictive.
“The whole point of consumerism seemed to be that you could forget the problems of the present and enjoy the best of both worlds, imagining yourself into a past free from struggle or anxiety whilst enjoying the material benefits of the modern world.”
We learn that during a peaceful march for woman’s safety in reaction to the recent rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer, in March 2021, it was felt necessary and appropriate for the statue of Winston Churchill to be given round the clock Police protection. And not only that but soon after a bill passed its second reading in Parliament meaning that a ten year jail sentence for defacing a statue of Churchill?...Police Minister, Kit Malthouse defended the law, insisting that it possessed “emotional value.” This gives a chilling example of how toxic nostalgia can become.
This is really easy to read, but still has a lot of historical and cultural detail packed in there. It's a thoroughly researched account, and I like the technique she uses by steadily going back in time with each chapter, which works really well. This does a great job of ridiculing and exposing nostalgia for the fix-all fallacy it really is, and she does a fine job of showing us that it clearly it has existed as long as we have, and this is another fine addition to the growing body of work on the mythology of Empire.
September 2, 2023
This was a work which posed a very simple question: to what extent is what we call ‘history’ dominated by nostalgia? What we discover, as readers, is that no matter how far back you go, the popular imagination always yearns for a golden age which has just passed, in a cycle of endless regression back to Eden.
More pressing issues raised by this question are the contemporary dangers of getting sucked into this cycle of nostalgia, with the author offering a strong critique of the present-day desire to promote an ‘official’ history, and the problems with allowing such a narrative to take hold.
Highly recommended read for anyone interested in the culture wars, or the politicisation of history more generally.
More pressing issues raised by this question are the contemporary dangers of getting sucked into this cycle of nostalgia, with the author offering a strong critique of the present-day desire to promote an ‘official’ history, and the problems with allowing such a narrative to take hold.
Highly recommended read for anyone interested in the culture wars, or the politicisation of history more generally.
November 3, 2022
Really I want to give this book 3½ stars but it won't let me...
I love the concept of this book and in parts it's great. Starting in the present and the time in history people currently nostalgise about, then going back to that time and finding they were nostalgising about an earlier time back then is a brilliant concept. The start of the book, and then the final third, I found really enlightening in that respect, though the middle half of the book was a bit more tedious – essentially every generation looks back to the more stable, traditional and rural one that came before, and I felt like quite a lot of words were used to say that.
I love the concept of this book and in parts it's great. Starting in the present and the time in history people currently nostalgise about, then going back to that time and finding they were nostalgising about an earlier time back then is a brilliant concept. The start of the book, and then the final third, I found really enlightening in that respect, though the middle half of the book was a bit more tedious – essentially every generation looks back to the more stable, traditional and rural one that came before, and I felt like quite a lot of words were used to say that.
June 21, 2022
It's an interesting and thought provoking book, perfect for this age when nationalisms and populisms are looking back to mythical past gold ages.
As a matter of fact this already happened a couple of millenia ago when Romans living in the imperial age looked back at the Republican age as the golden one.
I loved this books because there's a lot of myths about Britain past ages and the author did an excellent jobs in debunking them and picturing a more realistic image.
Well researched and well told.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
As a matter of fact this already happened a couple of millenia ago when Romans living in the imperial age looked back at the Republican age as the golden one.
I loved this books because there's a lot of myths about Britain past ages and the author did an excellent jobs in debunking them and picturing a more realistic image.
Well researched and well told.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
June 1, 2022
I loved it! ‘Rule, Nostalgia’ is timely, illuminating, well researched, and a hugely enjoyable 5* read!
If you are curious about why we are always looking backwards to a better age, interested in British history, politics, and society, and looking for an intellectually stimulating book that will help you to understand the present this book is for you!
I found that this fresh take on ‘Who do You Think You Are’ for Britain illuminates not only our yearning for a lost past but also important debates relating to Britain’s place in the world and how history is used - and abused.
I particularly liked the witty, engaging style and quirky details with which cultural historian Hannah Rose Woods drew me into thinking about contemporary issues, as if speaking directly to me from where she used to lecture at the University of Cambridge.
I highly recommend this as a relevant and very entertaining read for our post Brexit times in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year and think this book deserves to be a best seller!
If you are curious about why we are always looking backwards to a better age, interested in British history, politics, and society, and looking for an intellectually stimulating book that will help you to understand the present this book is for you!
I found that this fresh take on ‘Who do You Think You Are’ for Britain illuminates not only our yearning for a lost past but also important debates relating to Britain’s place in the world and how history is used - and abused.
I particularly liked the witty, engaging style and quirky details with which cultural historian Hannah Rose Woods drew me into thinking about contemporary issues, as if speaking directly to me from where she used to lecture at the University of Cambridge.
I highly recommend this as a relevant and very entertaining read for our post Brexit times in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year and think this book deserves to be a best seller!
July 12, 2022
The full title of Rule, Nostalgia is "A Backwards History Of Britain", which it certainly is - back to the Elizabethan age. Buit the project Hannah Rose Woods has set herself here, or has been set by the particularly jingoistic aftermath of Brexit, is to tell a history of histories of Britain, or more exactly a history of nostalgia and heritage has been shackled to political causes. And by telling it backwards, she can start where the load of nostalgia is highest, the present whilst debunking a few one sides myths (she debunks nearly all of the actual history - but it is important to note that both sides have happily utilised rose tinted glasses and golden ages when they need to.
The difficulty she faces however is as she travels back into the past (and its a chapter per age) her sources of chatter about "the good old days" becomes less plentiful. There is probably as much material being churned out in the modern media in a week, than she has to go on for the 17th Century, particularly when the kind of talk about lionising the past is the place of editorials or political pronouncements which just weren't recorded in the same way back then. This is necessarily a problem - her end point around the period of Shakespeare has a big honking touch up of history right there in Henry V and its ilk. But what is a very novel and interesting technique to talk about history in the first four chapters does almost become a straight history in the back few. I also think there is possibly a little bit more room for reflection than her conclusion. Perhaps it doesn't need it, she makes the point over and over again with the history that people have used history, and retellings, and nostalgia for their own purposes forever. There is a good Susan Sontag quote near the end that reminds us that we don't remember the day to day irritations of a holiday, only the golden moments. This is a decent counter reminder of that.
So whilst I enjoyed Rule, Nostalgia, and do think its central thesis is a strong one, there are tensions here - not least that this backwards and sometimes askew version of history sometimes expects to to know the history (particularly in the modern period), and sometimes spends quite a bit of time telling you it. Whilst this is necessarily an issue, it does make the book feel a little disjointed. But the history she tells is well researched, resourced and with a light enough touch to make the whole thing very readable. And of course, the very nature of the book, she delights in showing her working.
The difficulty she faces however is as she travels back into the past (and its a chapter per age) her sources of chatter about "the good old days" becomes less plentiful. There is probably as much material being churned out in the modern media in a week, than she has to go on for the 17th Century, particularly when the kind of talk about lionising the past is the place of editorials or political pronouncements which just weren't recorded in the same way back then. This is necessarily a problem - her end point around the period of Shakespeare has a big honking touch up of history right there in Henry V and its ilk. But what is a very novel and interesting technique to talk about history in the first four chapters does almost become a straight history in the back few. I also think there is possibly a little bit more room for reflection than her conclusion. Perhaps it doesn't need it, she makes the point over and over again with the history that people have used history, and retellings, and nostalgia for their own purposes forever. There is a good Susan Sontag quote near the end that reminds us that we don't remember the day to day irritations of a holiday, only the golden moments. This is a decent counter reminder of that.
So whilst I enjoyed Rule, Nostalgia, and do think its central thesis is a strong one, there are tensions here - not least that this backwards and sometimes askew version of history sometimes expects to to know the history (particularly in the modern period), and sometimes spends quite a bit of time telling you it. Whilst this is necessarily an issue, it does make the book feel a little disjointed. But the history she tells is well researched, resourced and with a light enough touch to make the whole thing very readable. And of course, the very nature of the book, she delights in showing her working.
August 11, 2022
I really enjoyed the premise of this book. I picked it up because I've always cringed when people make statements such as "we're living in a world now when [insert something negative that has always been the case]", or "people these days [negative thing]", or the big one, "standards are slipping". These statements are often rooted in sexism, racism, imperialism and more, and usually idealise a false past, and this book did a good job of showing that that is the case. I loved the discussion of the current right wing complaint that people are trying to "rewrite history", when a. that is literally a historian's job, and b. it's hypocrisy when they are the ones who are trying to portray a false history (e.g. people complaining that anglophone WW1 or WW2 films that *accurately* show people of colour and colonial regiments fighting are being "distracting" and trying to "rewrite the past"). I feel equipped now to suggest this book to people (especially British people) who make those statements. However, while this book gave countless good examples of the way British people have literally always been looking back nostalgically to a past that never truly existed, it didn't go beyond the examples enough for me. I wanted a bit more analysis of the examples, and more of a discussion of why this happens. I also was left wanting a discussion of why Woods sees this as a British phenomenon, and perhaps a comparison of how nostalgia figures in the cultures of other nations.
August 14, 2022
This is a really interesting and quite addictive book about how nostalgia plays a part in our lives. I hadn't realised how it is used in modern politics until I read this book and now I have noticed it in many advertising campaigns.
The author starts with Britain today, this works really well as it meant that as a reader I could immediately identify and recognise things that are and have been happening within the last couple of years. Using examples, the author shows how words and meanings are used to convey a feeling. A couple of good examples are from the pandemic - "Keep Calm and Carry On" and also the Brexit message of "Make Britain Great Again" are phrases from 20th Century history, yet play on the current feeling of Britishness. This is only one very small example, but it is one that we can remember seeing or hearing at some point over the last couple of years and probably within the last couple of weeks as the Tories are awaiting who will take over from PM Boris.
As I said, starting with the present day is a great way of showing the point of this book and its relevance. The author doesn't show just one side, she shows different sides and this gives various viewpoints and perspectives from everyday people to those who are known for whatever reason.
The nostalgic view of people back through the years is something that has always happened, and when a campaign or favour is needed or support required, then phrases that have been used in the past are brought back out again. They worked well to appeal to the sense of belonging, of family and of friendships. However, they are not always from the best of Britain's history and this is where viewpoints and perspectives become very important.
This is a very readable book, I suppose you could say that the author is like the devil's advocate as she shares different arguments, ideologies, p[olicies, religions and opinions. It is a well-researched book and I really enjoyed the way it was laid out. It was a book I initially planned on dipping in and out of but soon found myself caught up in it and read it within a couple of days.
Great for those who like history and how history has been used over the generations. Very enjoyable and informative and I would definitely recommend it.
The author starts with Britain today, this works really well as it meant that as a reader I could immediately identify and recognise things that are and have been happening within the last couple of years. Using examples, the author shows how words and meanings are used to convey a feeling. A couple of good examples are from the pandemic - "Keep Calm and Carry On" and also the Brexit message of "Make Britain Great Again" are phrases from 20th Century history, yet play on the current feeling of Britishness. This is only one very small example, but it is one that we can remember seeing or hearing at some point over the last couple of years and probably within the last couple of weeks as the Tories are awaiting who will take over from PM Boris.
As I said, starting with the present day is a great way of showing the point of this book and its relevance. The author doesn't show just one side, she shows different sides and this gives various viewpoints and perspectives from everyday people to those who are known for whatever reason.
The nostalgic view of people back through the years is something that has always happened, and when a campaign or favour is needed or support required, then phrases that have been used in the past are brought back out again. They worked well to appeal to the sense of belonging, of family and of friendships. However, they are not always from the best of Britain's history and this is where viewpoints and perspectives become very important.
This is a very readable book, I suppose you could say that the author is like the devil's advocate as she shares different arguments, ideologies, p[olicies, religions and opinions. It is a well-researched book and I really enjoyed the way it was laid out. It was a book I initially planned on dipping in and out of but soon found myself caught up in it and read it within a couple of days.
Great for those who like history and how history has been used over the generations. Very enjoyable and informative and I would definitely recommend it.
February 17, 2023
Ah, the good old days. A time when the summers lasted forever and everyone " looked out for each other. But try telling the kids of today that.
This book looks at the concept of nostalgia, particularly for those of us living in England. The starting point is during the lockdown of the pandemic, when the Black Lives Matter movement toppled statues of the perceived great men of yesteryear and questioned all that was good with British history. But nostalgia has always existed, as Woods points out, not just from our grandparents and the 'Blitz spirit' but William Blakes' calling out against the 'dark satanic mills' the Industrial Revolution brought in to replace the green countryside, or folk reminiscing about 'Merry England' before the Reformation spoiled everything and the Victorians erecting statues of the Medieval Richard the Lionheart.
Interesting that Woods argues that this nostalgia is more a English 'affliction' than a Welsh or Scottish one, especially considering that my Scottish grandmother was always bemoaning that things weren't as good as in the 1920s. But hey, she explains that concept very well and good for her as it's not something I have considered before. Is nostalgia really about expanding and defending the Empire? Or merely another form of control?
At a time when the world closed down due to the pandemic, I remembered fondly those days when we were free to go where we wanted, go abroad instead of staying home doing our bit for the Covid effort. There were comparisons to the World Wars, the Home Front, stiff-upper lip, the Blitz, Keep Calm and Carry On. The book compares modern issues such as the pandemic, Brexit and the politicians rhetoric to the English psyche. All discussed inthis book with plenty more to think about.
This is a fascinating book, well researched and laid out with a highly original idea. Accessible to everyone, extremely well written and an absolutely brilliant idea that will strike a chord with all of us.
This book looks at the concept of nostalgia, particularly for those of us living in England. The starting point is during the lockdown of the pandemic, when the Black Lives Matter movement toppled statues of the perceived great men of yesteryear and questioned all that was good with British history. But nostalgia has always existed, as Woods points out, not just from our grandparents and the 'Blitz spirit' but William Blakes' calling out against the 'dark satanic mills' the Industrial Revolution brought in to replace the green countryside, or folk reminiscing about 'Merry England' before the Reformation spoiled everything and the Victorians erecting statues of the Medieval Richard the Lionheart.
Interesting that Woods argues that this nostalgia is more a English 'affliction' than a Welsh or Scottish one, especially considering that my Scottish grandmother was always bemoaning that things weren't as good as in the 1920s. But hey, she explains that concept very well and good for her as it's not something I have considered before. Is nostalgia really about expanding and defending the Empire? Or merely another form of control?
At a time when the world closed down due to the pandemic, I remembered fondly those days when we were free to go where we wanted, go abroad instead of staying home doing our bit for the Covid effort. There were comparisons to the World Wars, the Home Front, stiff-upper lip, the Blitz, Keep Calm and Carry On. The book compares modern issues such as the pandemic, Brexit and the politicians rhetoric to the English psyche. All discussed inthis book with plenty more to think about.
This is a fascinating book, well researched and laid out with a highly original idea. Accessible to everyone, extremely well written and an absolutely brilliant idea that will strike a chord with all of us.
September 25, 2022
A pacey, topical and well written account of how our history has always been defined, for political, social and -yes- nostalgic reasons with reference to the 'good old days'. These might have been the immediate past, or some more distant Golden Age to which we should aspire. And naturally, when looking at those golden days of old, we pick and mix those aspects of history which suit our own particular argument. As we have always done. Hannah Rose Woods leads us back, century by century to Tudor times to develop her argument that we have always misremembered or manipulated history for our own ends. Readable and thought-provoking.
February 10, 2023
A stimulating reflection on how nostalgia pervades every generation, HRW starts in the present and works back to the 16th century, examining trends, illustrating each age with illuminating anecdotes, memoirs from contemporaries reflecting their anxieties and concerns, as well as their aspirations and hopes. The world is constantly in flux and this idea of change always prompting people to look back to work out how to go forward is cast as a fundamental component of our existence. A very useful read for those who think the world was always better 'in the good old days'.
February 5, 2024
In Rule, Nostalgia Hannah Rose Woods takes a different approach to most history books by starting in the present. She then works her way backwards, looking at nostalgia in each period, examining how the people of the time viewed their recent past.
It's an interesting idea - essentially the book becomes a history of history. Her point is that whatever the period, people always look back wistfully, with rose tinted glasses, at a past that didn't really exist. She ties her argument in to explain modern phenomena, such as the current culture wars and Brexit. It does get a little repetitive, as seemingly every generation always has wished for the good old days. However that doesn't stop it being fascinating, especially when she looks at periods of intense upheaval like the Reformation.
What it all comes down to though, is that people just don't like change.
It's an interesting idea - essentially the book becomes a history of history. Her point is that whatever the period, people always look back wistfully, with rose tinted glasses, at a past that didn't really exist. She ties her argument in to explain modern phenomena, such as the current culture wars and Brexit. It does get a little repetitive, as seemingly every generation always has wished for the good old days. However that doesn't stop it being fascinating, especially when she looks at periods of intense upheaval like the Reformation.
What it all comes down to though, is that people just don't like change.
June 9, 2022
A history book written backwards?
The idea might sound bizarre, but in fact, in the case of Hannah Rose Woods’ excellent new book, it makes perfect sense. For this is a history of nostalgia itself. As Woods gradually takes us back from the 2020s to the Tudor era, it makes so much sense that a chapter covering the years 1914 to 1945 should follow the one focusing on the period spanning 1945 to 1979, that it soon begins to seem normal.
Indeed, there never seems to have been a time when Britain wasn’t taking a fond look back over its shoulder to savour the apparent security and certainties of the recent past. Many today might mourn the passing of the immediate post-war decades. But Woods is good at myth-busting and points out things were rarely as simple as they seem. From the perspective of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Britain seemed, on the one hand, to be drifting into seemingly irreversible decline. We had lost our empire, been humiliated over Suez and as the 1960s moved into the 1970s, seemed to be perpetually lurching from one national crisis to another. This is all true enough. But at the same time as Harold Macmillan pointed out, “most of our people have never had it so good.” During his premiership and for nearly twenty years after it, lots of people had more money and free time than ever, acquiring cars, living in their own homes and going on foreign holidays for the first time. The year 1977 is often seen as marking something of a national low point, coming so soon after the 1976 IMF Crisis. But surveys from that year indicate Britons were then amongst the happiest peoples in the world. As the Canadian philosopher, Joni Michell had argued a few years earlier, “Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?”
There is more. Contrary to popular myth, lots of people were pleased to be moved out of their slums, most people who went to the New Towns didn’t regret it and some people were never happier during their entire lives than when the Nazis were bombing them during the Second World War.
In short, this is an enjoyable and well written book, packed with insights. You’ll be sure to remember it fondly, once it’s all over.
The idea might sound bizarre, but in fact, in the case of Hannah Rose Woods’ excellent new book, it makes perfect sense. For this is a history of nostalgia itself. As Woods gradually takes us back from the 2020s to the Tudor era, it makes so much sense that a chapter covering the years 1914 to 1945 should follow the one focusing on the period spanning 1945 to 1979, that it soon begins to seem normal.
Indeed, there never seems to have been a time when Britain wasn’t taking a fond look back over its shoulder to savour the apparent security and certainties of the recent past. Many today might mourn the passing of the immediate post-war decades. But Woods is good at myth-busting and points out things were rarely as simple as they seem. From the perspective of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Britain seemed, on the one hand, to be drifting into seemingly irreversible decline. We had lost our empire, been humiliated over Suez and as the 1960s moved into the 1970s, seemed to be perpetually lurching from one national crisis to another. This is all true enough. But at the same time as Harold Macmillan pointed out, “most of our people have never had it so good.” During his premiership and for nearly twenty years after it, lots of people had more money and free time than ever, acquiring cars, living in their own homes and going on foreign holidays for the first time. The year 1977 is often seen as marking something of a national low point, coming so soon after the 1976 IMF Crisis. But surveys from that year indicate Britons were then amongst the happiest peoples in the world. As the Canadian philosopher, Joni Michell had argued a few years earlier, “Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?”
There is more. Contrary to popular myth, lots of people were pleased to be moved out of their slums, most people who went to the New Towns didn’t regret it and some people were never happier during their entire lives than when the Nazis were bombing them during the Second World War.
In short, this is an enjoyable and well written book, packed with insights. You’ll be sure to remember it fondly, once it’s all over.
January 29, 2023
I might reattempt this audiobook when I’m in a different mood, but it was just so boring to me. Very little of the book was topical, and while it did a good job displaying that nostalgia has always been wielded in the way we in the present are familiar with, it didn’t really feel especially interesting to me.
February 3, 2023
I Loved it!
This is a history book that successfully accomplishes the aims it sets out in the introduction, and has fun doing so.
If you read the description of the book and said to yourself that would be brilliant if done well, then rest easy because Hannah Rose Woods knocks it out of the park (or whatever the British variant of that saying is)
- Is this book relevant to American audiences? YES! Very much so. The phenomenon described here is universal and definitely applies to our daily personal experience. Especially in the atmosphere of 'Alternative Facts'.
I can strongly recommend to anyone who is sick of hearing past events taken out of context or creatively 'misremembered' to support a political agenda. Or for anyone who is mystified by claims that an accurate account of history is unpatriotic or (god forbid) "Revisionist".
This is a history book that successfully accomplishes the aims it sets out in the introduction, and has fun doing so.
If you read the description of the book and said to yourself that would be brilliant if done well, then rest easy because Hannah Rose Woods knocks it out of the park (or whatever the British variant of that saying is)
- Is this book relevant to American audiences? YES! Very much so. The phenomenon described here is universal and definitely applies to our daily personal experience. Especially in the atmosphere of 'Alternative Facts'.
I can strongly recommend to anyone who is sick of hearing past events taken out of context or creatively 'misremembered' to support a political agenda. Or for anyone who is mystified by claims that an accurate account of history is unpatriotic or (god forbid) "Revisionist".
September 21, 2022
i haven’t the effort for a pun here, it took me way too long to read this and i just want to start something else
September 17, 2022
I was looking forward to this book as history is my favourite subject and the idea of looking back to 'the good old days' of previous generations seemed like a great idea.
But oh dear; this book is dry and way too detailed and academic for the mainstream reader. Now that my studying days are over I prefer a much lighter delivery of facts. And a bit less politician bashing. They might deserve it from our current viewpoint but it will make the book very dated very quickly and unlikely to be a popular read for too long.
But oh dear; this book is dry and way too detailed and academic for the mainstream reader. Now that my studying days are over I prefer a much lighter delivery of facts. And a bit less politician bashing. They might deserve it from our current viewpoint but it will make the book very dated very quickly and unlikely to be a popular read for too long.
February 4, 2023
the nostalgia for the past is probs applicable to many people (and countries) in the world, although I think Britain's Imperialism / Colonisation over 1/4 of the people in the world at a certain time is certainly unique.
October 25, 2023
Hannah Rose Woods has crafted a superb book that entertains as much as it does illuminates and does so without trying to be witty or find some forced clever idea that doesn't work. Instead, she writes with the absolute precision you'd expect from an historian. Deeper meanings (if there are any) you have to glean for yourself.
What IS clever - genuinely so - is the premise that the very nature of nostalgia, that of looking back to the past, should be the way to write the book: backwards.
Woods starts in the present, looking at our own very British version of the MAGA phenomenon and the continual call to make Britain great again, return to post-war values etc. Then she goes back to Thatcher's time, then back to the time of the world wars; and so on, until we get as far back as the Tudor period where she arbitrarily stops. It's clear she could continue, but the point is made: we always look back to a time that didn't exist.
I'm not sure this is a peculiarly British thing to do and Woods does raise this point in part. I suspect it is the nature of all human social groups to have a degree of rose-tinted specs for the half-remembered past. And further back we all get fed the romanticism of times before our grandparents via movies, books and, occasionally, historical sources too.
But Woods focuses on the British, I think, not just because it is British history in which she has expertise, but because of a point briefly raised at the end of her book. There she posits that the British love to look back on a falsely portrayed past precisely because it IS false portrayed. We revel in reinvention.
It is hard to deny this as history shows us doing this again and again. The Renaissance, Peter Frankopan points out in his brilliant book, The Silk Roads, is really a 'naissance'. We invented a classical past for ourselves. Henry VIII and his advisors (Wolsey etc) invented an English history and theology that allowed him to pull away from papal Rome. This seems to be the nature of the English. When we want something, we change our history to make it always so.
Is this a bad thing? Woods avoids saying it, preferring to let the voices of the past do the talking as much as possible. Nevertheless, I would be surprised if I found she was an immigrant-hating, brexit-loving tory. There's more than enough vibes that she looks disparagingly on the vociferous right wingers whinging away on social media day after day. If so, I agree with her. I'm all for looking to the past fondly - I do it often as I recall such happy times half a century ago. But when doing so gives rise to hatred towards others, I find it all rather bitter.
Britain is not very good at looking at itself honestly. We jingo ourselves up and blag our way through every criticism with the swagger of a Boris Johnson. The result is often the immense suffering of other people. It's not nice and when we are faced with it, we retreat into fantasies all the more and dismiss the claims. Woods book is a timely reminder that we British have a long history of doing this. It is more than time for us to change.
What IS clever - genuinely so - is the premise that the very nature of nostalgia, that of looking back to the past, should be the way to write the book: backwards.
Woods starts in the present, looking at our own very British version of the MAGA phenomenon and the continual call to make Britain great again, return to post-war values etc. Then she goes back to Thatcher's time, then back to the time of the world wars; and so on, until we get as far back as the Tudor period where she arbitrarily stops. It's clear she could continue, but the point is made: we always look back to a time that didn't exist.
I'm not sure this is a peculiarly British thing to do and Woods does raise this point in part. I suspect it is the nature of all human social groups to have a degree of rose-tinted specs for the half-remembered past. And further back we all get fed the romanticism of times before our grandparents via movies, books and, occasionally, historical sources too.
But Woods focuses on the British, I think, not just because it is British history in which she has expertise, but because of a point briefly raised at the end of her book. There she posits that the British love to look back on a falsely portrayed past precisely because it IS false portrayed. We revel in reinvention.
It is hard to deny this as history shows us doing this again and again. The Renaissance, Peter Frankopan points out in his brilliant book, The Silk Roads, is really a 'naissance'. We invented a classical past for ourselves. Henry VIII and his advisors (Wolsey etc) invented an English history and theology that allowed him to pull away from papal Rome. This seems to be the nature of the English. When we want something, we change our history to make it always so.
Is this a bad thing? Woods avoids saying it, preferring to let the voices of the past do the talking as much as possible. Nevertheless, I would be surprised if I found she was an immigrant-hating, brexit-loving tory. There's more than enough vibes that she looks disparagingly on the vociferous right wingers whinging away on social media day after day. If so, I agree with her. I'm all for looking to the past fondly - I do it often as I recall such happy times half a century ago. But when doing so gives rise to hatred towards others, I find it all rather bitter.
Britain is not very good at looking at itself honestly. We jingo ourselves up and blag our way through every criticism with the swagger of a Boris Johnson. The result is often the immense suffering of other people. It's not nice and when we are faced with it, we retreat into fantasies all the more and dismiss the claims. Woods book is a timely reminder that we British have a long history of doing this. It is more than time for us to change.
January 25, 2025
This is all at once a very pleasant read, incredibly informative and deeply thought-provoking.
The style is a perfect balance of precision and elegance while being accessible : the author must love words to select and arrange them so masterfully, but consistently steers clear of impenetrable jargon or unnecessarily convoluted statements. In fact, she makes her points, even the more sophisticated and counter-intuitive ones, in a straightforward and convincing manner that leaves ample room for nuance.
While historical events, figures and trends as such are not the primary focus of the book, I still learned a ton and I’m sure that even those much more knowledgeable than I am about British history (most likely a vast majority of those who have/will read this book) will get a lot out of it. Part of that is because the author doesn’t approach her investigation merely as a historian but also, at times, as a cultural critic. At least, that’s how I account for the dazzling array of sources she scrutinizes to capture the mood of a period. Pop culture, fashion, autobiographies & journals, poetry & drama, centuries-old trends in interior design and architecture, and the list goes on : all of these are described and contextualized in such a way that they shed light on the period under discussion and the perceptions of those who lived at the time.
The book’s power also stems from its very clever construct, one which matches its topic perfectly. In this study of nostalgia, the chapters are in reverse chronological order (ch1 covers 2021-1979, ch2 1979-1940 all the way up -or down- to ch7 for 1688-1530). This is a way of taking seriously the idea that someone’s nostalgic feelings say more about them and what they feel is missing in their life than it does about the past times they emotionally hark back to. The trick here is that a new chapter, ie a step back in time, is not about “correcting” or “setting the record straight” about the silly nonsense that has just been presented, it is about understanding what people in this new, older period were feeling nostalgic about, the sense of change/loss/confusion that they were processing. This approach allows for fascinating insights into the ambivalence people often have about the times they live in. While they often have fond memories they like to bring up, that doesn't always, or even in most cases, mean they would trade their current circumstances for the past they’re referring to. There are class dynamics at play here, which the author enthusiastically engages with in what are perhaps the strongest passages of a book absolutely chock-full of worthy contenders.
If you’ve read this far, it will come as no surprise that I will be keeping an eye out for the future works of Hannah Rose Woods. With a bit of luck, there should plenty to choose from going forward as she is currently 31 years old (I think ; I believe I read that somewhere but can’t remember/find where).
The style is a perfect balance of precision and elegance while being accessible : the author must love words to select and arrange them so masterfully, but consistently steers clear of impenetrable jargon or unnecessarily convoluted statements. In fact, she makes her points, even the more sophisticated and counter-intuitive ones, in a straightforward and convincing manner that leaves ample room for nuance.
While historical events, figures and trends as such are not the primary focus of the book, I still learned a ton and I’m sure that even those much more knowledgeable than I am about British history (most likely a vast majority of those who have/will read this book) will get a lot out of it. Part of that is because the author doesn’t approach her investigation merely as a historian but also, at times, as a cultural critic. At least, that’s how I account for the dazzling array of sources she scrutinizes to capture the mood of a period. Pop culture, fashion, autobiographies & journals, poetry & drama, centuries-old trends in interior design and architecture, and the list goes on : all of these are described and contextualized in such a way that they shed light on the period under discussion and the perceptions of those who lived at the time.
The book’s power also stems from its very clever construct, one which matches its topic perfectly. In this study of nostalgia, the chapters are in reverse chronological order (ch1 covers 2021-1979, ch2 1979-1940 all the way up -or down- to ch7 for 1688-1530). This is a way of taking seriously the idea that someone’s nostalgic feelings say more about them and what they feel is missing in their life than it does about the past times they emotionally hark back to. The trick here is that a new chapter, ie a step back in time, is not about “correcting” or “setting the record straight” about the silly nonsense that has just been presented, it is about understanding what people in this new, older period were feeling nostalgic about, the sense of change/loss/confusion that they were processing. This approach allows for fascinating insights into the ambivalence people often have about the times they live in. While they often have fond memories they like to bring up, that doesn't always, or even in most cases, mean they would trade their current circumstances for the past they’re referring to. There are class dynamics at play here, which the author enthusiastically engages with in what are perhaps the strongest passages of a book absolutely chock-full of worthy contenders.
If you’ve read this far, it will come as no surprise that I will be keeping an eye out for the future works of Hannah Rose Woods. With a bit of luck, there should plenty to choose from going forward as she is currently 31 years old (I think ; I believe I read that somewhere but can’t remember/find where).
July 12, 2024
Thank you to Netgalley, the.publisher and author for a free copy of this ebook in return for a review.
The author’s scope for this book is enormous and that is fascinating for a historian. To be able to explore such a wide sweep of history seems somewhat dangerous but she does have one particular focus and that is pitched perfectly.
As both an English teacher and a history graduate it has always fascinated me that in many of Shakespeare’s plays he notes that everyone looks back to their childhood with rose tinted glasses. One of the beauties of Shakespeare is how his observations are so universal that they still work all these centuries later but this one has always intrigued me. I remember getting into an argument with a woman on the internet who told me how idyllic the 50s were and no woman had to go to work, and when I pointed out that that just wasn’t true I was dismissed because I hadn’t lived through that time period so how could I know? This is the idea that the writer is trying to tackle - how false our understanding is that somehow the past was much better than now. And I think that is an immensely important thing to address.
So she literally starts in the 2020s and explores how politicians, the media and the people view the past and she charts this nostalgia for all things gone all the way back to Tudor times. And finds that every generation looks back to see the past as better than the present, just as Shakespeare warned all those years ago.
One of her observations that I really appreciated and made me rethink is the idea of 2012. For me, I felt that the London Olympics really were the height of national pride and togetherness that was destroyed four years later by Brexit, but as she points out even that is nostalgia now and not really true. That at the time not everyone was looking on and thinking how amazing the British were - especially not the British themselves. For those of us who remember that summer fondly - me a sport hater who actually was swayed by all the pageantry - it does us good to re-access this simplistic point of view.
I think this book should be compulsory reading for everyone in government and schools. I think the concepts in this book should be discussed widely and as a nation we should be aware of how false our memories are. Aware that our national narratives are exactly that, narratives and we need to take our own memories with a pinch of salt.
But I’d also like someone to explain why it is we do this. Where does this slightly delusional understanding of our past come from and what are its benefits. For something so deeply human, so universal across the ages and the world, there must be some kind of psychological reason for why we need to believe in what is sometimes patently ridiculous.
Brilliant book, I’m so glad I read it and so glad it opened my mind. Totally recommended.
The author’s scope for this book is enormous and that is fascinating for a historian. To be able to explore such a wide sweep of history seems somewhat dangerous but she does have one particular focus and that is pitched perfectly.
As both an English teacher and a history graduate it has always fascinated me that in many of Shakespeare’s plays he notes that everyone looks back to their childhood with rose tinted glasses. One of the beauties of Shakespeare is how his observations are so universal that they still work all these centuries later but this one has always intrigued me. I remember getting into an argument with a woman on the internet who told me how idyllic the 50s were and no woman had to go to work, and when I pointed out that that just wasn’t true I was dismissed because I hadn’t lived through that time period so how could I know? This is the idea that the writer is trying to tackle - how false our understanding is that somehow the past was much better than now. And I think that is an immensely important thing to address.
So she literally starts in the 2020s and explores how politicians, the media and the people view the past and she charts this nostalgia for all things gone all the way back to Tudor times. And finds that every generation looks back to see the past as better than the present, just as Shakespeare warned all those years ago.
One of her observations that I really appreciated and made me rethink is the idea of 2012. For me, I felt that the London Olympics really were the height of national pride and togetherness that was destroyed four years later by Brexit, but as she points out even that is nostalgia now and not really true. That at the time not everyone was looking on and thinking how amazing the British were - especially not the British themselves. For those of us who remember that summer fondly - me a sport hater who actually was swayed by all the pageantry - it does us good to re-access this simplistic point of view.
I think this book should be compulsory reading for everyone in government and schools. I think the concepts in this book should be discussed widely and as a nation we should be aware of how false our memories are. Aware that our national narratives are exactly that, narratives and we need to take our own memories with a pinch of salt.
But I’d also like someone to explain why it is we do this. Where does this slightly delusional understanding of our past come from and what are its benefits. For something so deeply human, so universal across the ages and the world, there must be some kind of psychological reason for why we need to believe in what is sometimes patently ridiculous.
Brilliant book, I’m so glad I read it and so glad it opened my mind. Totally recommended.
December 20, 2022
This is a very clever way of looking at recent history and past history through a different lens. Ms Woods looks at how we use "nostalgia" as a concept and almost as a weapon. She takes Brexit, statues being demolished and other such "Britishness" and contrasts them with Tudor times and through the years to show nothing is new but also we don’t really want to go back to "the good old days". Boris Johnson often harks back, Margaret Thatcher harked back but the past isn’t quite the country they conjured up.
I had been unaware of the true sense of desecration during the Reformation. The extent to which the establishment needed to crush the beautiful things in monasteries and Cathedrals etc.,
"Other accounts described Harley as ordering a church cross not only to be removed but ‘beaten in pieces, even to dust’ with a sledgehammer, and then sprinkled over the footpath to be ‘trodden on in the churchyard’, forcing the congregation to profane it still further as they filed in to worship."
"But our innate and very human tendency to rose-tint the past is something that we need to handle extremely carefully; something we need to balance against reminding ourselves of the messiness of reality; that the stories we tell about the past are not the same thing as the past as it was lived at the time."
Ms Woods describes nostalgia as "forever yearning for impossible satisfaction." This neatly sums up why we all do the rosy look back. But when you consider genuine history, the propaganda (or indeed nonsense) becomes much clearer. The book really gets you thinking and while the author does not say we shouldn’t be nostalgic, she does say we need to be aware while we’re doing it.
" ‘In the past,’ quipped the German comedian and philosopher of the absurd Karl Valentin in the 1920’s, ‘even the future is better.’ "
This is an excellent, entertaining, and very thought provoking book.
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley
I had been unaware of the true sense of desecration during the Reformation. The extent to which the establishment needed to crush the beautiful things in monasteries and Cathedrals etc.,
"Other accounts described Harley as ordering a church cross not only to be removed but ‘beaten in pieces, even to dust’ with a sledgehammer, and then sprinkled over the footpath to be ‘trodden on in the churchyard’, forcing the congregation to profane it still further as they filed in to worship."
"But our innate and very human tendency to rose-tint the past is something that we need to handle extremely carefully; something we need to balance against reminding ourselves of the messiness of reality; that the stories we tell about the past are not the same thing as the past as it was lived at the time."
Ms Woods describes nostalgia as "forever yearning for impossible satisfaction." This neatly sums up why we all do the rosy look back. But when you consider genuine history, the propaganda (or indeed nonsense) becomes much clearer. The book really gets you thinking and while the author does not say we shouldn’t be nostalgic, she does say we need to be aware while we’re doing it.
" ‘In the past,’ quipped the German comedian and philosopher of the absurd Karl Valentin in the 1920’s, ‘even the future is better.’ "
This is an excellent, entertaining, and very thought provoking book.
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley
April 2, 2023
Over the last decade, it has been impossible to escape imagery of the Second World War in British culture, politics, and identity. From ‘blitz spirit’ to ‘keep calm and carry on’, it’s become a powerful part of how we see ourselves as a nation during hard times. In this book, Hannah Rose Woods proves that this is not just a modern phenomenon. For centuries, the British have been looking back to an earlier era for inspiration and a sense of national identity.
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It’s a really interesting approach to a history book, starting in the modern day and working backwards. By looking at each preceding era in turn, Woods shows a more complete picture of the eras we have been nostalgic for. It’s a fascinating read, fleshing out the romanticised images we have of the past. She also thoroughly debunks the idea that in doing so she might be ‘rewriting history’, as many historians were accused of during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. She doesn’t shy away from the realities of the past, proving that often nostalgia is just that.
It was also really interesting to see some of the themes that kept occurring. While I think perhaps more could have been done to explore some of them (such as pastoralism and Euro-scepticism) it was nice as a reader to spot them, and some themes – specifically imperialism – were tied together really well through the different chapters.
While this is best described as a history book, I don’t think it provided a lot of new information about British history. What it did provide, though, is a new lens and angle to look at it from, and a much-needed deep dive into how our national identity has been constructed.
I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.
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It’s a really interesting approach to a history book, starting in the modern day and working backwards. By looking at each preceding era in turn, Woods shows a more complete picture of the eras we have been nostalgic for. It’s a fascinating read, fleshing out the romanticised images we have of the past. She also thoroughly debunks the idea that in doing so she might be ‘rewriting history’, as many historians were accused of during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. She doesn’t shy away from the realities of the past, proving that often nostalgia is just that.
It was also really interesting to see some of the themes that kept occurring. While I think perhaps more could have been done to explore some of them (such as pastoralism and Euro-scepticism) it was nice as a reader to spot them, and some themes – specifically imperialism – were tied together really well through the different chapters.
While this is best described as a history book, I don’t think it provided a lot of new information about British history. What it did provide, though, is a new lens and angle to look at it from, and a much-needed deep dive into how our national identity has been constructed.
I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.
August 24, 2022
This is a messily written book but in looking at nostalgia through the ages it makes important points. Firstly, the current weaponisation of nostalgia is not new - the rows between statue toppers and traditionalists in the wake of BLM is neatly compared with different versions of history proposed by both sides in the English civil war. In 1612 one courtier proposed to the king that a healthy dose of nostalgia for Merrie England would stave off criticism of government. The comparison with the Johnson government could hardly be more apposite .
The book also shows the great irony of nostalgia - quite apart from the fact that it looks back to a rose tinted version of the past that never was. That is that the eras being looked back to were either looking back themselves or trying to escape from their entrenched values. While Thatcher harked on Victorian values , some Victorian’s sought escape from the strictures of their time in naturism whiskey others, even reform movements such as Chartism, saw feudalism of the past as a top down system in which everybody was accountable .while the edwardians hid from their changing rule in books like Peter Pan where eternal childhood was possible and everything was ok of one believed in fairies .
The book also shies that much of political phraseology is just a meaningless phrase, an invented problem to invent a solution, such as Cameron’s broken Britain. Even given the very real economic problems of the seventies, Thatchers Britain in decline is not entirely true.
It’s a bit of an undisciplined splurge but some interesting historical ground is covered along the way. The constant romantic evoking of wired war two in the Covid pandemic is a luxury for generations who never experienced war. Nostalgia in politics is inherently dangerous and thus book shows why.
The book also shows the great irony of nostalgia - quite apart from the fact that it looks back to a rose tinted version of the past that never was. That is that the eras being looked back to were either looking back themselves or trying to escape from their entrenched values. While Thatcher harked on Victorian values , some Victorian’s sought escape from the strictures of their time in naturism whiskey others, even reform movements such as Chartism, saw feudalism of the past as a top down system in which everybody was accountable .while the edwardians hid from their changing rule in books like Peter Pan where eternal childhood was possible and everything was ok of one believed in fairies .
The book also shies that much of political phraseology is just a meaningless phrase, an invented problem to invent a solution, such as Cameron’s broken Britain. Even given the very real economic problems of the seventies, Thatchers Britain in decline is not entirely true.
It’s a bit of an undisciplined splurge but some interesting historical ground is covered along the way. The constant romantic evoking of wired war two in the Covid pandemic is a luxury for generations who never experienced war. Nostalgia in politics is inherently dangerous and thus book shows why.
December 10, 2022
When I was a child, summers were always golden. Just don’t get me started on the youth of today!
I enjoyed Hannah Rose Woods examination of ‘The Golden Past’ and an historical back, back, further back, in this island’s history, showing that every generation looks back to (obviously mythical and mis-remembered) past Arcadias.
What was missing for me was the fact that I’m not convinced this is a purely BRITISH failure. Rather, Nostalgia is written into us as a species, and I rather suspect that one could take the history of any nation – or, one small correction – any nation which has had an empire, and been, once the powerful nation of history – and one would find this.
And I believe that nostalgia connects to our personal lives. Childhood, after all (if we are the fortunate ones) is a time when we have few responsibilities. Life stretches out, full of possibilities in our imaginations, and it’s a time of idealistic dreaming, and, perhaps a sense that whatever we imagine or desire, might come to fruition for us. As we get older, we begin to look back on our disappointments, what we didn’t achieve. That illusion and nostalgia is seen in every generation, where the more elderly see that the behaviour of the young is going to some kind of rack and ruin.
So, I would have liked this to be tied more to individual psychology, and also to have had evidence offered that this is a purely British disease, to disabuse me of my own assessment that it isn’t, but is something endemic in every nation, particularly those who saw themselves as world leaders at any time in history
I enjoyed Hannah Rose Woods examination of ‘The Golden Past’ and an historical back, back, further back, in this island’s history, showing that every generation looks back to (obviously mythical and mis-remembered) past Arcadias.
What was missing for me was the fact that I’m not convinced this is a purely BRITISH failure. Rather, Nostalgia is written into us as a species, and I rather suspect that one could take the history of any nation – or, one small correction – any nation which has had an empire, and been, once the powerful nation of history – and one would find this.
And I believe that nostalgia connects to our personal lives. Childhood, after all (if we are the fortunate ones) is a time when we have few responsibilities. Life stretches out, full of possibilities in our imaginations, and it’s a time of idealistic dreaming, and, perhaps a sense that whatever we imagine or desire, might come to fruition for us. As we get older, we begin to look back on our disappointments, what we didn’t achieve. That illusion and nostalgia is seen in every generation, where the more elderly see that the behaviour of the young is going to some kind of rack and ruin.
So, I would have liked this to be tied more to individual psychology, and also to have had evidence offered that this is a purely British disease, to disabuse me of my own assessment that it isn’t, but is something endemic in every nation, particularly those who saw themselves as world leaders at any time in history
October 23, 2022
“the past itself is rewritten to embody what the present is felt to be lacking” - this sentence captures the book well, it's a really good look at the way that generations upon generations in Britain yearn for a time gone by searching for an unobtainable and ambiguous "golden age" in a previous period that wasn't as rosy as the people who lived through those times say it was. I like the backwards theme of the chapters, and the explanation that the nostalgic phenomenon in British history isn't new, starting with contemporary debates about how we choose to remember the past with the removal of statues like Edward Colston and nostalgia's hold on political debates such as the "take back control" element of Brexit or the wartime spirit evoked by politicians to see through COVID-19. The book then goes back even further to Thatcher, the Industrial Revolution, and the Tudor period where people mourned and searched for a past in order to shape the present and future. This book rightly analyses nostalgia as something that has shackled generations of Britons to be backwards looking and in the worst case as a source of indulgence causing people to reject all thought of re-examining British history. As quite a nostalgic person myself who often seeks comfort in the past with all the stability and certainty it provides it was very interesting to see how these same feelings have also played out throughout British history, politics and society for hundreds of years
May 6, 2023
I did my BA dissertation on the way Parisians in the decades leading up the Revolution, and how the general feeling about the city went from 'pretty good' to 'everything is rubbish and falling apart, the past was better'. So naturally I was very drawn to this book, about the history of nostalgia in Britain, told in reverse chronological order.
I really enjoyed this book. The first chapter, on the last few decades, contextualised the nostalgias I am familiar with really well, including drawing out the nostalgias from both sides of the Brexit referendum. The section on the nostalgia felt by immigrants and their children was surprisingly emotional, especially the description from a second generation Irish woman born in the 1960s, whose nostalgia for the Ireland of her childhood holidays was so very very real to me as a 1980s second generation Irish.
Dr Woods unearths a number of rich seams of information, showing how every generation loves to find a 'good' bit of history to obsess on, and a 'bad' bit to hate, the latter usually resulting in buildings being pulled down or altered. If the cycles of history described continue to move at the same rate, I think I might well live to see the great nostalgia wave for 60s brutalism.
This is the sort of book I want to give to people who don't read much history, because I think there's a lot to learn and relate to for all.
I really enjoyed this book. The first chapter, on the last few decades, contextualised the nostalgias I am familiar with really well, including drawing out the nostalgias from both sides of the Brexit referendum. The section on the nostalgia felt by immigrants and their children was surprisingly emotional, especially the description from a second generation Irish woman born in the 1960s, whose nostalgia for the Ireland of her childhood holidays was so very very real to me as a 1980s second generation Irish.
Dr Woods unearths a number of rich seams of information, showing how every generation loves to find a 'good' bit of history to obsess on, and a 'bad' bit to hate, the latter usually resulting in buildings being pulled down or altered. If the cycles of history described continue to move at the same rate, I think I might well live to see the great nostalgia wave for 60s brutalism.
This is the sort of book I want to give to people who don't read much history, because I think there's a lot to learn and relate to for all.
July 8, 2022
4.5*.
This book caught my attention as I'm a fan of Hannah Rose Woods. I'm no history buff - I don't generally read a lot of history books - but I remember Woods absolutely smashed being captain of her University Challenge team and really enjoyed watching her on that.
As an English person who has lived in Scotland for almost 10 years now, I'm often amused by the difference between the English and Scottish media when it comes to reflecting on our shared history. This is something Woods reflects on in this book, which uses nostalgia as a theme to reflect on the past 500 years of British history. Effectively every age, every generation, likes to wish for the 'good old days' wearing rose-tinted spectacles. When the 'good old days' was generally anything but.
I learned a lot of interesting facts and stories from this book and enjoyed Woods' reflections on similarities with present day situations and political messaging. Even going back 500 years (this book goes backwards in time) it gave more of an insight into the actual day-to-day actions and trivialities of real people that was eye-opening.
This was fairly accessible to non-history fans but there were a few times towards the end of the book where there was definitely some assumed knowledge that I didn't have. Slightly confusing at times but it forced me to do a lot of my own research where I learned even more! A really fun and engaging journey through history that I highly recommend if you want to find out more about British (mostly English) history - and often the history that today's media likes to try and forget!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book caught my attention as I'm a fan of Hannah Rose Woods. I'm no history buff - I don't generally read a lot of history books - but I remember Woods absolutely smashed being captain of her University Challenge team and really enjoyed watching her on that.
As an English person who has lived in Scotland for almost 10 years now, I'm often amused by the difference between the English and Scottish media when it comes to reflecting on our shared history. This is something Woods reflects on in this book, which uses nostalgia as a theme to reflect on the past 500 years of British history. Effectively every age, every generation, likes to wish for the 'good old days' wearing rose-tinted spectacles. When the 'good old days' was generally anything but.
I learned a lot of interesting facts and stories from this book and enjoyed Woods' reflections on similarities with present day situations and political messaging. Even going back 500 years (this book goes backwards in time) it gave more of an insight into the actual day-to-day actions and trivialities of real people that was eye-opening.
This was fairly accessible to non-history fans but there were a few times towards the end of the book where there was definitely some assumed knowledge that I didn't have. Slightly confusing at times but it forced me to do a lot of my own research where I learned even more! A really fun and engaging journey through history that I highly recommend if you want to find out more about British (mostly English) history - and often the history that today's media likes to try and forget!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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