Brit and avid history fan here! Stiff upper lip is a myth. We used to be a very rebelious lot:
We’re taught about Henry VIII, but not about the mass uprising he had to put down (The Pilgrimage of Grace)
We hear about the Battle of Hastings but not the Harrying of the North.
We’re never taught about the Enclosure Acts (that stole land from the common folk) and the subsequent uprising and brutal repression (including the Midlands Revolt).
We also had the Peasants Revolt trying to stop the crazy taxation during the 100 year war!
And if we’re looking for other acts of rebellion:
The Peterloo Massacre
The General Strike of 1926
The Miner’s Strikes of the 80s
The Battle of Cable Street (Police protecting Nazis)
The Battle of Lewisham (Police protecting Nazis)
But it is far, far better for those in power to make us believe we have always been meek and “stiff upper lip”
EDIT: for people looking for a complete list, this ain’t it. I just chose a few that were in my mind at the time. I also didn’t include anything to do with imposed rule or I’d just gesture vaguely at the island of Ireland.
I also didn’t include anything to do with aristocrats fighting each other. This is an incomplete list of popular uprisings to make a point.
It’s not being meek, it’s being patient and resilient.
I’m French and I used to live in the UK for a while. There is a very strong difference in my experience between going on strike about twice a year (I’m on strike today!), and absolutely never demonstrating and rarely complaining publicly about deep social issues.
The list you provide is actually not very impressive by a lot of other countries standards. I don’t mean it in a demeaning way: there are other levers for social progress, and no country uses them all. But massive social action is not something that the Brits use very often in my experience.
The fact that you lived here a few years is kidna irrelevant to the history of the people of the country. We have been conditioned to think uprising, violent attacks on the people in power, and the power of masses is “just not British”. When history shows it very much is (there basically wasn’t a period for about 800 years where there wasn’t a civil war or popular uprising within England).
This isn’t a complete list by any stretch of the imagination, and I avoided everything to do with the aristocracies (which includes four civil wars just from the top of my head) and anything to do with imposed rule (i.e. English to other areas of the UK).
Some more: Monmouth Rebellion & Rye House Plot, Farnley Wood Plot, The Gunpowder Plot, Bigod’s Rebellion, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Uprising, The Essex Rebellion, The Oxfordshire Uprising (yes, a different one)
The list really does go on.
EDIT for fun here are a few more:
The Lincolnshire Uprising, Yorkshire Rebellion, The Luddites, 2011 London Riots
Northener here. I don’t mean to take away from your point, because you are mostly correct, but my school at least did teach us about the harrying, though I can’t remember how much detail, but it was at least a few lessons on the aftermath of 1066 and how the Normans took control.
I will mention (mostly because I find it funny) that I remember hearing about a planned revolution in Britain (around the time of other European revolutions) that was called off because of the rain.
@astreus@drolex what tosh. Most of that is not British but English history. Nobody in Scotland, Wales and NI was taught these things. And nobody can accuse Scotland & NI of a stiff upper lip given our history as England being the enemy
It’s actually all English history. I avoided Scottish, NI and Welsh because rebellion against imposed rule of the English felt like a different beast to what was being discussed.
And no one in and English school is being taught about these things either.
Brit and avid history fan here! Stiff upper lip is a myth. We used to be a very rebelious lot:
We’re taught about Henry VIII, but not about the mass uprising he had to put down (The Pilgrimage of Grace)
We hear about the Battle of Hastings but not the Harrying of the North.
We’re never taught about the Enclosure Acts (that stole land from the common folk) and the subsequent uprising and brutal repression (including the Midlands Revolt).
We also had the Peasants Revolt trying to stop the crazy taxation during the 100 year war!
And if we’re looking for other acts of rebellion:
The Peterloo Massacre
The General Strike of 1926
The Miner’s Strikes of the 80s
The Battle of Cable Street (Police protecting Nazis)
The Battle of Lewisham (Police protecting Nazis)
But it is far, far better for those in power to make us believe we have always been meek and “stiff upper lip”
EDIT: for people looking for a complete list, this ain’t it. I just chose a few that were in my mind at the time. I also didn’t include anything to do with imposed rule or I’d just gesture vaguely at the island of Ireland.
I also didn’t include anything to do with aristocrats fighting each other. This is an incomplete list of popular uprisings to make a point.
It’s not being meek, it’s being patient and resilient.
I’m French and I used to live in the UK for a while. There is a very strong difference in my experience between going on strike about twice a year (I’m on strike today!), and absolutely never demonstrating and rarely complaining publicly about deep social issues.
The list you provide is actually not very impressive by a lot of other countries standards. I don’t mean it in a demeaning way: there are other levers for social progress, and no country uses them all. But massive social action is not something that the Brits use very often in my experience.
The fact that you lived here a few years is kidna irrelevant to the history of the people of the country. We have been conditioned to think uprising, violent attacks on the people in power, and the power of masses is “just not British”. When history shows it very much is (there basically wasn’t a period for about 800 years where there wasn’t a civil war or popular uprising within England).
This isn’t a complete list by any stretch of the imagination, and I avoided everything to do with the aristocracies (which includes four civil wars just from the top of my head) and anything to do with imposed rule (i.e. English to other areas of the UK).
Some more: Monmouth Rebellion & Rye House Plot, Farnley Wood Plot, The Gunpowder Plot, Bigod’s Rebellion, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Uprising, The Essex Rebellion, The Oxfordshire Uprising (yes, a different one)
The list really does go on.
EDIT for fun here are a few more:
The Lincolnshire Uprising, Yorkshire Rebellion, The Luddites, 2011 London Riots
@astreus @drolex and the whole Luddite movement.
britain has also had riots every time a new tranche of a tory gov is elected, 1980/81 2011 etc…
we are a mardy lot.
The fact I lived in Nottingham for so long and forgot about the freaking Luddites is damn shameful!
Northener here. I don’t mean to take away from your point, because you are mostly correct, but my school at least did teach us about the harrying, though I can’t remember how much detail, but it was at least a few lessons on the aftermath of 1066 and how the Normans took control.
I will mention (mostly because I find it funny) that I remember hearing about a planned revolution in Britain (around the time of other European revolutions) that was called off because of the rain.
@astreus @drolex what tosh. Most of that is not British but English history. Nobody in Scotland, Wales and NI was taught these things. And nobody can accuse Scotland & NI of a stiff upper lip given our history as England being the enemy
It’s actually all English history. I avoided Scottish, NI and Welsh because rebellion against imposed rule of the English felt like a different beast to what was being discussed.
And no one in and English school is being taught about these things either.