Description
The Brexit vote continues to be a source of debate and anxiety in Britain. As the tenth anniversary of the referendum looms, it is now possible to see how commentaries before the vote and in its aftermath were flawed by naivete and unawareness as well as ingrained bias that reached across the political divide and into the media. When contemporary opinions are coupled with cultural history, the result of the referendum was completely predictable.
This book also illuminates how the responses to the referendum result confirmed a long distrust that many had felt. Populist arguments were of little consequence by comparison to decades of lived experience that had formed an abiding scepticism in the government and the media. Critically, Brexit did not just expose a divide in society concerning E.U. membership but unmasked a significant disconnect between politicians, the media and the public.
Cultural Dissonance is a unique study of politicians, journalists, writers and academics that shows the path to the referendum and how the responses to the vote reemphasized the reasons for those who chose to leave the E.U. Viewed in context, Brexit was not a surprise.
About the Author
Iain Quinn is an award-winning cultural historian, musicologist, organist and composer who has worked on both sides of the Atlantic for the past thirty years. With more than one hundred publications including five monographs, his research is focussed on the intersections of politics, music, literature and religion. He is a professor at Florida State University and an Honorary Research Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2024 he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries.
Contents
Introduction
Part 1 Social Mobility and Supposed Unknowing
Chapter 1 Shock, Language and the New Class System
Chapter 2 Social Mobility and Class Warfare
Chapter 3 Established Othering and the Resistance to Reality
Chapter 4 Little Englanders
Chapter 5 False Equivalence and False Flags
Chapter 6 The Failure of Project Fear and Unforgiven Damage
Chapter 7 The ‘Mistake’
Part 2 The Media
Chapter 8 The Media and the Limit of Experience
Chapter 9 A Cultural Distance
Part 3 The Poverty of Promises
Chapter 10 The Memory of Margaret Thatcher
Chapter 11 Stability versus Change
Chapter 12 The Cultural Impact of Darwinian Capitalism
Part 4 The Political Figure
Chapter 13 An Established Detachment
Chapter 14 The Vanishing Middle Ground – A Changing World
Chapter 15 Europe – The Question of Conformity
Chapter 16 Europe – Legitimacy, Populism, Intractability
Chapter 17 Austerity – Local and European
Part 5 Unity Beyond Politics
Chapter 18 A Memory of Another Time
Chapter 19 Community as Home
Chapter 20 The Role of the Queen
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Endorsements and Reviews
The great unwashed turn out to be – instead – the great unwatched, in Quinn’s brilliant analysis of Brexit Britain. The lesson? Patronise ordinary British people at your peril, and focus frustration instead on a hollowed-out political and media mainstream, all of whom should be locked in a room with this book until they’ve read it – twice. Jeremy Frost, Human Rights Barrister and former Precentor, Canterbury Cathedral
Ten years on, what have we learned from Brexit? Why did it happen? How has it shaped us as a nation? Such a moment in history can define a generation and shape a culture; but this decision by the electorate and the division it caused, did not come from nowhere. Over decades, increasing political despondency, a growing mistrust in authority, and media manipulation converged to change the course of British Politics, and though entirely predictable, no-one really saw it coming. With a savvy and critical eye, Iain Quinn reflects on the turn of events that lead to Brexit and how it was long in the making. There is much to learn here about culture, history and a warning to perhaps be more attentive to the tides and currents in society that shape our political life. Revd Dr Victoria Johnson, Dean of Chapel and Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge
An unbiased and unsparing autopsy of a political, social and economic catastrophe. Quinn’s book is an alarming reminder that so long as the lessons of Brexit Britain go unlearned, the arrival of another, even greater, catastrophe is only a matter of time. Kenneth Woods, Artistic Direction of English Symphony Orchestra, Colorado MahlerFest and the Elgar Festival
