It would have once been uncontroversial to suggest nations have characteristics that not only distinguish them from other countries, but that are also worth understanding — if not celebrating — especially by those who might wish to help guide those nations’ destinies along alternative paths.

But with the cultural aversion to all things ‘chauvinistic’, together with the post-modern turn towards deconstruction of all such ‘constructs’, discussion of national character has fallen out of favour.