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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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In Our Time

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Factual: History

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

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In Our Time: The Nation State

The Nation State

14/10/1999

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Nation State

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether it is appropriate to think of the UK as a nation.

Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of English national identity and examines how the concept of the Nation State can defend itself against the forces of globalisation.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Nation State. When we speak of our island story which island do we mean?  When did England elide with Britain and why does it sit uneasily alongside the United Kingdom? At the end of the 20th century, the identity of one of the most forceful countries of the millennium is subject to scrutiny, doubt and criticism. What is England now? When did it act as England and not Britain, or the UK, or the British Isles?  And how does its new role fit in with the idea of the Nation State which has dominated the internal and, more dramatically, the external behaviour of many powerful countries over the last few centuries?  Yet despite its mighty past the Nation State itself can now seem powerless against the forces of globalisation. With Norman Davies, Emeritus Professor, London University and author of The Isles: A History; Andrew Marr, former editor of The Independent and author of Ruling Britannia: the Failure and Future of British Democracy.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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