Jim Bennett notes exciting developments:
A century ago it was commonplace to use the idea of “the English-speaking peoples” as a conceptual category and analytical framework. But the idea eventually faded, partly because too many of the people who wrote about it used a social-darwinist, or even a racially-based analysis that became increasingly suspect and increasingly irrelevant as a predictor. The rise of an educated, English-speaking middle class in India, for example, demanded that the British authorities either launch India down the path to self-governing Dominion status along the lines of Canada, or abandon its fundamental principles, or eventually see India become an independent republic. So in away the first iteration of english-speaking consciousness became a victim both of the ideological confusions of its time, and its own success.
Now a new iteration of the idea and analytical framework, suitable for its times, is emerging. It promises to be an interesting period.
Read the whole thing.