Hannah Rose Woods

A sharp new history of longing for the good old days. Hannah Rose Woods pens a rich account of all that has been lost to chauvinism and conservatism over the past decade

Rule, Nostalgia announces Woods as one of the most interesting new historians of her generation

An impressive book that ranges from the 16th-century Reformation to Brexit

Financial Times (A 2022 Book of the Year)

Hannah Rose Woods explores how illusory and contested golden ages have haunted Britain since medieval times... [An] intelligent and eminently readable book

Richard Evans, New Statesman (Book of the Day)

A dark history of nostalgia... a timely book... Woods selects and deploys her material well, persuading the reader, in the course of an enjoyable book, that a feeling full of sweetness and sadness is also a dark and dangerous force

Woods is a sharp, iconoclastic writer... A great book

John Harris, The Guardian, Politics Weekly UK’s summer reading list

Eye-opening and thoughtful... Woods has a bright future ahead of her

A must read for anyone wanting to see current events and ideologies in light of the past, and understand where the roots of our sense of a nation originated

Janina Ramirez, bestselling author of Femina

Fascinating and timely, Rule, Nostalgia is an eye-opening history of Britain's enduring fixation with its own past

I heartily recommend Rule, Nostalgia. [It] helps explain where we are, as well as where we came from

Dan Jones, bestselling author of Powers and Thrones

I love this book, a witty, acerbic but warm look at how our national character is built on yearning for a glorious past that is just gone, and actually probably never existed. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be

Adam Rutherford, bestselling author of How to Argue With a Racist

Our national story is so much stranger than we think: this book brilliantly insists that we look at it afresh

James Hawes, bestselling author of The Shortest History of England

Well-argued, timely and hugely entertaining. A great piece of popular history

Jonathan Coe, bestselling author of Middle England

A great, scholarly history, and so searingly relevant

Dan Snow, author of On This Day in History

An utterly eye-opening and enthralling debut, clearly laying out our uniquely British obsession with nostalgia. Required reading for anyone who wants to use the term 'culture war'... I absolutely loved it

Fern Riddell, author of Death in Ten Minutes: The forgotten life of radical suffragette Kitty Marion

A smart, entertaining and meticulously researched backwards look (quite literally) at Britain's history of looking over its shoulder. Deconstructs the lure of the fictitious 'good old days' and how they have been weaponised throughout history. Excellent

Outstanding. A thrilling, elegant and highly original interrogation of how we use our pasts

Musa Okwonga, author of One of Them: An Eton College Memoir

Nostalgia was once considered a terminal condition. Hannah Woods suggests that the culture needs to book itself in for a check-up. Provocative and well-argued, Rule, Nostalgia offers the diagnosis that might lead us to a cure

Matthew Sweet, author of Inventing the Victorians

A triumphal backwards tour through the history of Britain's relationship with its own past. This funny, sad, wise and brilliantly informative book is a crash course in the many pasts that have made our presents

Peter Mitchell, author of Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselves

Rule, Nostalgia is radiant with an enthusiast's passion for their subject, and makes a convincing case that Britain's history is sufficiently weird, fascinating and marvellous, without rewriting it into comforting fables

Rule, Nostalgia is a triumphal backwards tour through the history of Britain's relationship with its own past, a chronicle of our state of perpetual longing for a paradise just gone. Woods' eye is ironic, but never without sympathy as she teases apart the nested structures of mourning and nostalgia on which out national identity is built. This funny, sad, wise and brilliantly informative book is both a plea for historiographical literacy and a crash course in the many pasts that have made our presents

A Backwards History of Britain

** A FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN AND GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR ** 
 
'A must read' - Janina Ramirez, bestselling author of Femina 
 
'An eye-opening history of Britain's enduring fixation with its own past' - Jeremy Paxman 
 
'Rule, Nostalgia announces Woods as one of the most interesting new historians of her generation' - Dan Snow 
 
 
Longing to go back to the 'good old days' is nothing new. For hundreds of years, the British have mourned the loss of tradition and called for a revival of 'simpler', 'better' ways of life, from modern politicians indulging in fantasies of an imperial past, to Victorian artists yearning to retreat into a medieval dream of Merry England. But were the 'good old days' ever quite how we remember them? 
 
Rule, Nostalgia is a surprising, timely new history of Britain that separates the history from the fantasy and traces back to its origins the powerful influence that nostalgia's perpetual backwards glance has had on British history, politics and society.

Hannah Rose Woods

Praise for Rule, Nostalgia

Indispensible and fascinating

A sharp new history of longing for the good old days. Hannah Rose Woods pens a rich account of all that has been lost to chauvinism and conservatism over the past decade

Rule, Nostalgia announces Woods as one of the most interesting new historians of her generation

Indispensible and fascinating

A sharp new history of longing for the good old days. Hannah Rose Woods pens a rich account of all that has been lost to chauvinism and conservatism over the past decade

Rule, Nostalgia announces Woods as one of the most interesting new historians of her generation

Indispensible and fascinating

A sharp new history of longing for the good old days. Hannah Rose Woods pens a rich account of all that has been lost to chauvinism and conservatism over the past decade

Rule, Nostalgia announces Woods as one of the most interesting new historians of her generation

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