Introduction

This chapter introduces the history of Milton Keynes’ representations within their broader historiographical and cultural contexts. The chapter introduces the main arguments of the book, focusing on the ways that Milton Keynes’ negative representations in British media, political rhetoric and popular culture have functioned to uphold restrictive, closed definitions of national identity, as expressed through its ideal landscape forms. These arguments are framed relative to the broader historical debates around postimperial British cultural identity politics, neoliberalism and the politics of state planning, and the historical trajectory of the nation’s history, through the ideology of declinism. In this context, the history of Milton Keynes’ contentious media representations is contextualised as part of broader cultural narratives around what the nation should look like, where its heritage is, and who it is for.