This is an interesting exploration of how some of those things often taken for granted as ancient traditions came to be. It opens with a (presumably intentionally) provocative essay by Trevor-Roper on the origins of Scottish highland dress, suggesting that it was in fact invented by an Englishman, and bears little relation to the clothes worn historically. The subsequent essays on the use of tradition in the British royal family, and in colonial India and Africa are much more interesting, and a useful addition to the Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities on nationalism in both Europe and its colonies.