The Importance of Being English: Eyeing the Sceptered Isles

Politically the empire ceased to exist as a cohesive unit. And in a world that aimed at free trade, the tariff barriers that bound the Commonwealth economically threatened to become an anachronism. So whereas in the first half of the twentieth century, Great Britain still played a central role on the world stage as leader of a commonwealth and an empire, in the latter half both had disintegrated and the role had become ceremonial.

EUROPEAN (DIS)UNION

The second of Churchill's concentric circles was to be the community of Europe. It leaped into existence in May 1950, when French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, a plan conceived of by France's postwar economic comissioner, Jean Monnet, welcomed by German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and supported by U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson. The plan for combining basic industries was the first step toward merging continental Europe's economies with the aim, among others, of preventing future wars.

Ernest Bevin balked. The Schuman Plan had been sprung on him as a surprise. It looked like a plot, a continental cartel, and aroused all sorts of English prejudices in him. By joining Europe, Britain might have taken the lead, but it chose instead to watch, to wait -- and to obstruct.

The European movement went forward anyway. It thrived. Time and again, Britain had a chance both to join it and to lead. There was a strong economic argument for becoming European. But the British remained reluctant to throw in their lot unreservedly with their neighbors, fearing for their independence and special character. When the United Kingdom finally moved to enter Europe, French President Charles de Gaulle barred the way. In the end, the United Kingdom got in in 1973, but as a dissenter, inclined to oppose moves toward further unification.

For hundreds of years, Britain has opposed the unification of the continent under one dominant power, seeing in it a threat to the vital interests of an island nation. England fought Louis XIV and Napoleon, whose Continental System excluded the British isles from European trade. Young quotes de Gaulle's memoirs on a meeting with Harold Macmillan: "The Common Market is the Continental System all over again," the British prime minister told his old friend, the French president. "Britain cannot accept it," Macmillan told him. "I beg you to give it up."

Young has interviewed extensively and tells a tale of Foreign Office officials and other civil servants as well as prime ministers and cabinet members. He offers a full and complete account, a sad tale of official waffling, missed chances, and human frailties. Faced with one of the greatest questions in their country's history, the few British officials who were wise and brave emerge with all the greater credit.

A QUESTION OF CHARACTER

Reluctant to become European, many in British public life advocated an alternative alliance: the special relationship with the United States. A second argument against joining Europe often voiced was that it might jeopardize that relationship.

But it was not there to jeopardize. Repeatedly, America's leaders made it clear that this option was not available. The most frequently repeated statement of the American position was given by Dean Acheson when addressing a student conference at West Point in 1962: "Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role. The attempt to play a separate power role, that is, a role apart from Europe, a role based primarily on a 'special relationship' with the United States, a role based on being head of the Commonwealth," is "about played out." The former secretary of state spoke at the time only as a private citizen. Yet his words carried weight, and accurately stated the American view.

The reality of national character is sometimes questioned, yet it is difficult to discount. Its existence, as Hans Morgenthau wrote long ago in Politics Among Nations, is "contested but . . . incontestable." Any discussion of Britain's relationship with the continent of Europe -- the only area in which Acheson allowed the British a role to play -- tends to end in an appreciation of how different Britons are from everybody else.

Ian Buruma considers Britain's relationship with Europe in that cultural context. In Anglomania he explores the notion of what it is to be British according to foreigners. It is a rewarding undertaking; Britain has had, and continues to have, such an odd character in the eyes of others. The non-British are fascinated by British whimsy, baÛed by British humor and eccentricity, and filled with admiration for British good-sportsmanship.

In her centuries as a top player in international politics, Britannia has made her share of enemies. What is striking is how many admirable traits foreigners nonetheless project on the English, and how widespread has been the passion for Englishness. All over the world, among peoples of various nationality, race, language, and religion, there are those who, regarding themselves as exceptional, believe that, deep down, they are English gentlemen.

Buruma recounts that Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, in sketching out the utopia he planned to establish, provided that "all boys born in the Jewish state would learn to play cricket." In a similar spirit, Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), founder of the modern Olympic games, decided to instill the spirit of fair play in his countrymen by introducing cricket into France.