The language of Anglophobia has been widely accepted as the coin of American politics throughout the nineteenth century. However, the grand narrative of Anglo-American rapprochement in the final quarter of the century has diverted attention away from the many forms and purposes bestowed upon Anglophobia. The discourse of Anglophobia fits hand in glove within debates regarding American nationality and citizenship. For this reason a variety of ethnic, social, and political groups deployed anti-English sentiments for the purposes of mobilizing the electorate and as a surrogate for attacking other social and economic elites. What follows is an examination of the panoply of Anglophobias that existed in Gilded Age America. Utilizing its protean and malleable nature, Anglophobia was a lens through which Americans refracted, reformulated, and refined the concepts of national identity, domestic policy, and American interests abroad.
