In this 2002 volume, scholars examine the role of literature in the construction of 'Britishness'.

Introduction David Baker and Willy Maley; Part I: Opening the Field: 1. British history and 'the British history': the same old story? Philip Schwyzer; 2. An uncertain union David Baker and Willy Maley; 3. Revising criticism: Ireland and the British model Andrew Murphy; Part II. Contested Peripheries: 4. 'The lost British lamb': English Catholic exiles and the problem of Britain Christopher Highley; 5. 'Making history': Holinshed's Irish chronicles, 1577 and 1587 Richard A. McCabe; Part III. British Shakespeare: 6. Henry IV: metatheatrical Britain Matthew Greenfield; 7. Uncertain unions: Welsh leeks in Henry V Patricia Parker; 8. Delving to the root: Cymbeline, Scotland, and the English race Mary Floyd-Wilson; Part IV. Union Questions: 9. Reinventing the matter of Britain: undermining the state in Jacobean masques Jayne Elisabeth Archer and Philippa Berry; 10. Mapping British identities: Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine Christopher Ivic; Part V. Britain's Brave New World: 11. Bruited abroad: John White and Thomas Harriot's Colonial Representations of Ancient Britain Andrew Hadfield; 12. The Commonwealth of the Word: New England, Old England, and the Praying Indians Linda Gregerson; Part VI. Restoring Britain: 13. Orrery's Ireland and the British problem, 1641-1679 John Kerrigan; 14. Jacobite literature and national Identities Murray Pittock; Part VII: 15. Historians respond: literature and the new British and Irish histories Jane Ohlmeyer; 16. Text, time, and the pursuit of 'British Identities' Derek Hirst.