In this prize-winning book, Linda Colley interweaves political, military, and social history to recount how England, Wales, and Scotland joined together to form a new British nation and how heroes and politicians, artists and writers, and ordinary men and women helped forge a British identity. 82 b&w illustrations.

How was Great Britain made? And what does it mean to be British? This brilliant and seminal book examines how a more cohesive British nation was invented after 1707 and how this new national identity was nurtured through war, religion, trade, and empire. Lavishly illustrated and powerful, Britons remains a major contribution to our understanding of Britain's past, and continues to influence ongoing controversies about this polity's survival and future. This edition contains an extensive new preface by the author.

"A sweeping survey, . . . evocatively illustrated and engagingly written."--Harriet Ritvo, New York Times Book Review

"Challenging, fascinating, enormously well informed."--John Barrell, London Review of Books

"Linda Colley writes with clarity and grace...Her stimulating book will be, and deserves to be influential"--E. P. Thompson, Dissent

Linda Colley is Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University.

Winner of the Wolfson History Prize

A New York Times NotableBook