Identity, Purity, and Liberty: The Early Modern Roots of (Anglo-)Saxon Nationhood

In recent years, several British politicians have tried to flaunt a more or less mythical, more or less idealized “Anglo-Saxon identity” for propagandistic reasons. While exposing the shaky ethnographic and linguistic foundations of their concepts is easy enough, it is interesting to find that their slogans have a long history. This chapter tells the story of the birth and political exploitation of “Anglo-Saxonism” in Early Modern England, and argues, incidentally, that no academic terms should be outlawed because politicians use them for their devious purposes.