Tombs treats the British Empire as integral to English identity—through emigration, trade, and military service—but also as a source of moral and political contradictions. He notes that “Englishness” was often defined overseas (e.g., in North America, India, Australia) as much as at home.
Tombs’ history is a corrective to both exceptionalist pride and self-critical amnesia. It shows the English as a pragmatic, adaptive people—often violent and creative, hierarchical and rebellious. The past, he argues, is not a manual but a lens. the english and their history pdf
Two world wars accelerated state intervention (e.g., the 1945 welfare state). The loss of empire and the “decline” narrative of the 1970s is reassessed: Tombs argues England adapted rather than collapsed, shifting toward a post-industrial, multicultural society. Tombs treats the British Empire as integral to