ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the way in which the Isles, for more than three centuries, were intimately connected to and intermittently dominated by the Continent. It describes the long, complex and sometimes tortuous process by which the four nations of the Isles constituted themselves as political entities–mostly in opposition to each other and eventually in subordination to England. The book discusses particularly the students of English as a foreign language, who want an introduction to the history of that part of the world from which the language they are learning originates.
