BritishNess - British Culture and Iconic Imagery

The Word and The Concept: "Britishness" came into political and academic prominence in the late-20th century, its origins however lie with the formation of the Kingdom in 1707. Britishness was used to refer to Britons as early as 1682, historian Linda Colley asserts that it was after the Acts of Union 1707 that the citizens of Great Britain began to assume a "layered" identit to think of themselves as simultaneously British but also Scottish, English, and or Welsh. In this formative period, Britishness was "closely associated with Protestantism". "The Oxford English Dictionary Online dates the first known use of the term Britishness to refer to the state of being British to a June 1857 issue of Putnam's Monthly Magazine."