Conclusion: Everyone’s Morality

Respectability still determines the manners and morals of society; the history which has filled these pages is still with us. To be sure, nationalism itself no longer plays an important role in upholding respectability. Most national symbols, like national monuments, seem to have spent their force. Yet the stereotypes remain. Clean-cut Englishmen, Germans, or for that matter Americans, are ideal types whose very appearance reflects their sexual restraint, self-control, and quiet strength. Surely, even today, Rupert Brooke or Walter Flex would be welcome as reflecting the best of their nation’s youth. The concept of manliness is still very much with