The purpose of this article is to identify the place of the Roman Britain image in the constructing of the British national identity at the stage of schooling. The results of the analysis also help to reveal the relation between national and European history in the British historical consciousness, which is important for studying the problems of Great Britain's participation in the European Union. The studies of the impact on national identity through education in general and the history books in particular appeared in the 2000s. This is owing to the deeper understanding of identity as a dynamic system which is influenced by political forces. The majority of these socio-anthropological studies consider the Asian, African or Eastern European precedents. They deal with intensification of nation-building during the postcolonial or post-socialist periods. Currently, however, educational policy in the field of national history of such leading West European countries like France and Germany attracts the interest of researchers. Hitherto British textbooks have not been considered, especially in the area of ancient history. This text fills this gap. British government involvement in determining the content of education is limited to a few frame recommendations. Most textbooks on history follow them. It can be concluded based on the features of the examined textbooks that in the 2000s-2010s most of British publishers did not represent the history of Britain as part of the pan-European history of Roman civilization. Moreover, the textbooks denied any continuity between Roman Britain and subsequent historical periods. British historical and cultural selfness is identified mostly with the Celtic tradition; the Roman conquest is presented as a kind of mishap, a fluctuation which did not have a significant impact and did not leave significant traces, except for roads and fortresses. A distance between Britain and the Mediterranean cultural community is created, each of them presented as an independent and equal cultural area. Also the texts in the textbooks are strictly reviewed to keep correctness of the description of the Romans and the Britons. Any judgments, negative or positive characteristics are absent, which correlates with the goals of the EU cultural policy. Hence, in turn, the tendency explicates to perceive the history of Roman Britain as academic, emotionally neutral. The period of Roman presence in Britain in school education is treated as a transitory historical episode, entertaining as itself, but not making a significant impact on the British national identity.

Рассматривается проблема репрезентации образа Римской Британии в британских школьных учебниках 1990-2010-х гг. Структура и содержание учебников по истории проанализированы с точки зрения отображения участия древнеримской цивилизации в формирования британской идентичности. В результате отмечено избегание оценочных и сравнительных характеристик и, за единственным исключением, отсутствие рассмотрения римского влияния на современное общество. Римская Британия репрезентируется как не связанный с британской идентичностью эпизод истории.