How the Country House Became English
Stephanie Barczewski
(Reaktion Books, £25)
THE rather awkward title of this book can be explained by the author’s previous work on country houses, which came to the not entirely remarkable conclusion that they were often financed by—and contained examples of—the fruits of Empire. (A professor of history at Clemson University in the US, she is the author of Country houses and the British empire, 1700–1930 (2014).) As few country houses look Indian, Caribbean, Kenyan, Australian or Canadian from the outside, she has turned her attention to their Englishness.
They are, Stephanie Barczewski argues, symbols of national identity, expressing the supposed continuity of British—more specifically English—history: so many Downton Abbeys whose appeal has somehow been reinforced by Brexit. She explodes this myth by highlighting the outbreaks of discord that have periodically shattered the peace of this country over the centuries. ‘A history that celebrates order and stability’ is actually ‘filled with
