State of the unions

摘要

On september 18th 2014 the people of Scotland will vote on whether to become an independent country. The choice will depend partly on individuals' hopes and fears about their future as part of a separate state. It will rest also on their vision of 300-plus years of union. What has held the nations of the United Kingdom together for so long-and what is now pulling them apart-is the subject of Linda Colley's short and fascinating study, "Acts of Union and Disunion". The book centres on Britain's internal and external relations but the themes it explores are universal: how national identities react to globalisation and migration. Ms Colley's central thesis is that, like all countries, Britain is a synthetic construct.