Yehuda Cohen

"Yehuda Cohen's aim is nothing less than to lay before us a full and detailed account of both the origins and prospect of British national identity and religious heritage. By charting with great skill and amazing erudition the evolution of British nationality from antiquity to the present, the author shows us Britain's unique place and role in the European Union."

Prof. Avihu Zakai, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of Exile

and Kingdom: History and Apocalypse in the Puritan Migration to America

(Cambridge University Press).

In the series: A Post- or Super-Nationality in the European Union (more details about the ten-volumes series "A Post- or Super-Nationality in the European Union" may be found at http://www.priestspublishing.com)

The series' purpose is to discover the true level of national identity within the European Union - whether specific state-nationality prevails, whether that nationality is solid and, if not, whether a consolidated process of pan-European nationality is taking the place of the state-nationality system. The series deals with ten groups: the Germans, the French, the Spanish, the Italians, the British, the Dutch, the Polish, the Hungarians, the Bulgarians, and the Swedes, and explains behavioral patterns within each group, how those were created, in what way history shaped each unique group, and what future role those groups may play in the European Union.

The volume about the British focuses on their vibrant nationality. Its conclusions suggest that the British are unique among the ten groups: living on their island, they feel aloof from the Europeans, they have strong memories of their past empire, and they feel proud of their monarchy that symbolizes their glorious past - a feeling that strengthened them in times of peril during two World Wars. Thus the British do not seem inclined to exchange their identity for European nationality and economy, and they alone of the ten groups may eventually leave the EU in order to retain their identity.

Yehuda Cohen is a Jerusalem advocate whose post-doctoral work at the Political Science Department of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem focused on nationality and the European Union. He is the author of two previous works - Who's Afraid of a Jewish State? Constitutional and Ideological Aspects (2001), and Why Religion? (2003), a study of the role of religion and nationality.