1 Introduction: Imagining and Reimagining ‘Britain’ 1

2 The State Created 7

A Providential People 7
A Messianic State 10
Providentialism Without Religion 13
The Triumph of the Metropolitan British State 19
Social Citizenship and British Identity: Providentialism Without Empire 22
Statecraft and State Mission 26
Notes 27

3 The State in Decay 29

The Decay of British Social Citizenship 30
The Decay of the Metropolitan Elite 32
The Decay of the World State 35
The Decay of the Unionist Settlement 39
Inventing and Reinventing the State 44
Notes 44

4 The State Recreated 47

Creative Statecraft and the Reinvention of Britain 47
Recasting the Post-War Settlement 48
Reshaping State–Civil Society Relations 52
Reshaping the Constitution 55
Recreating British Identity 59
Statecraft and the Recreation of the State 65
Notes 65

5 The End of the State? 69

The Millennium as a Climactic Moment 69
The Crisis of the British Economy 71
The Crisis of the British Party System 73
The Sundered Union and the Crisis of Providentialism 77
Waking from a Nightmare 85

Notes 89
References 91
Index 101