- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
This study of an ordinary town in Northern England is
"a thoughtful, sympathetic portrait of white working-class life…essential reading" (
Guardian).
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What do the English think? Every country has a dominant set of beliefs and attitudes concerning everything from how to live a good life, how we should organize society, and the roles of the sexes. Yet despite many attempts to define England's national character, what might be called the nation's philosophy has remained largely unexamined until now.
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Philosopher Julian Baggini pinpointed postcode S66 on the outskirts of Rotherham as England in microcosm—an area that reflected most accurately the full range of the nation's inhabitants, its most typical mix of urban and rural, old and young, married and single. He then spent six months living there, immersing himself in this typical English Everytown, in order to get to know the mind of a people. It sees the world as full of patterns and order, a view manifest in its enjoyment of gambling. It has a functional, puritanical streak, evident in its notoriously bad cuisine. In the English mind, men should be men and women should be women (but it's not sure what children should be). Sympathetic but critical, serious yet witty, Baggini's account of the English as represented by this particular spot on its map is both a portrait of its people and a personal story about being an alien in your own land.
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"Baggini turns out to be a sensitive observer who takes people and places on their own terms. He is also good at examining his own prejudices and fears." —Independent
"An insightful and often amusing investigation of what it means to be English." —London Review of Books
Â
What do the English think? Every country has a dominant set of beliefs and attitudes concerning everything from how to live a good life, how we should organize society, and the roles of the sexes. Yet despite many attempts to define England's national character, what might be called the nation's philosophy has remained largely unexamined until now.
Â
Philosopher Julian Baggini pinpointed postcode S66 on the outskirts of Rotherham as England in microcosm—an area that reflected most accurately the full range of the nation's inhabitants, its most typical mix of urban and rural, old and young, married and single. He then spent six months living there, immersing himself in this typical English Everytown, in order to get to know the mind of a people. It sees the world as full of patterns and order, a view manifest in its enjoyment of gambling. It has a functional, puritanical streak, evident in its notoriously bad cuisine. In the English mind, men should be men and women should be women (but it's not sure what children should be). Sympathetic but critical, serious yet witty, Baggini's account of the English as represented by this particular spot on its map is both a portrait of its people and a personal story about being an alien in your own land.
Â
"Baggini turns out to be a sensitive observer who takes people and places on their own terms. He is also good at examining his own prejudices and fears." —Independent
"An insightful and often amusing investigation of what it means to be English." —London Review of Books
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Yes, you can access Welcome to Everytown by Julian Baggini in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Modern British History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Praise
- Title Page
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Names
- Contents
- Prologue: Finding Everytown
- 1: Working-class Roots
- 2: Culture Shocks
- 3: Illiberal Democrats
- 4: The Good Life
- 5: All We Can Eat
- 6: Hefted Holidaymakers
- 7: Gambling on Reality
- 8: Our Cup of Tea
- 9: Ladies and Gentlemen
- 10: Down with the Youth
- 11: The End
- Epilogue: The English Philosophy
- The English in Numbers
- Notes
- About the Author
- ALSO BY JULIAN BAGGINI
- Copyright
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