Author : Jenna Maureen Schultz
Release : 2015
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Kind : eBook
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Book Synopsis Erasing the Border by : Jenna Maureen Schultz

Download or read book Erasing the Border written by Jenna Maureen Schultz. This book was released on 2015. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Erasing the Border: National Identity and the Anglo-Scottish Borderlands, 1552-1660" investigates the ways in which the borderlands served as a symbolic representation of the differences between England and Scotland in the early modern period. This is a reexamination of the narrative of nationalism and the creation of Great Britain during a crucial period of Anglo-Scottish history. The borderline had been established centuries prior and was primarily a government-agreed political boundary that existed with very few topographical markers. I argue that the boundary was made real through the persistence of regional modes of government, local social and economic practices, physical structures, and brief moments of international crises that served to emphasize its existence. As representations of the border, these symbols remained a continuous reminder of the divisions between the kingdoms. Acknowledging the border as the geographic limit of each kingdom was essential to the formation of early modern national identities. The border provided the means through which to designate an "in-group" and "out-group". Administrators and locals attached specific negative characteristics to the opposing realm, further ingraining a sense of difference. Acknowledgement of an "Other" remained essential to a sense of Englishness and Scottishness despite the Union of the Crowns in 1603. In that year, King James VI of Scotland was crowned King James I of England. As the first monarch to rule over both kingdoms, he pushed Parliament and local administrators to redefine the limits of the realm and eliminate any notion of separation between the two peoples. The king attempted to revise the structure of borderland governance, decrease criminal activities, and bridge the differences between the kingdoms. However, I argue that there remained sociopolitical continuities in the borderlands after 1603. Perceptions of the Anglo-Scottish borderline as well as local social and governance practices remained steadfast. This served to uphold separate national identities, resulting in the delayed success of the king's attempts to transform the region into the Middle Shires of a single united kingdom. Through a broader geographic scope and timeframe, this dissertation provides a greater understanding as to the importance of the borderlands for early modern nation building.