Open Access‘ B ritons, strike home’: politics, patriotism and popular song in B ritish culture, c .1695–1900
Author(s) -
Vandrei Martha
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
historical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.203
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1468-2281
pISSN - 0950-3471
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2281.12069
Subject(s) - patriotism , politics , history , media studies , classics , law , political science , sociology
This article calls attention to the forgotten ‘ B ritons, strike home’, a song which, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was acknowledged as a B ritish national anthem on a par with ‘ R ule, B ritannia!’ and ‘ G od save the queen’. It traces the history of the song and the slogan ‘ B ritons, strike home’, highlights the many different contexts in which these patriotic words appeared, and illuminates discussions of patriotism and national identity throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its conclusion ruminates on the utility of digitized sources for recovering the popular culture of the past and the possible implications of this development.