Islamophobia Abroad and Anti-Catholicism at home: The Making of the English Nation

One major feature of printing and publishing in England in the 16th and 17th centuries and repeated in subsequent centuries was that of travel tales to foreign spaces where Protestant males not only met believers in Islam but also encountered other Europeans (mostly Catholics) in those foreign spaces. This paper will attempt to show those travellers’ tales written by Englishmen of the early modern period as well as subsequently were not only based upon Protestant foundations but also contributed to the making of the nation.