Ireland: A History - Softcover

Bartlett, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107422345 ISBN 13: 9781107422346

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Ireland has rarely been out of the news during the past thirty years. Whether as a war-zone in which Catholic nationalists and Protestant Unionists struggled for supremacy, a case study in conflict resolution or an economy that for a time promised to make the Irish among the wealthiest people on the planet, the two Irelands have truly captured the world's imagination. Yet single-volume histories of Ireland are rare. Here, Thomas Bartlett, one of the country's leading historians, sets out a fascinating new history that ranges from prehistory to the present. Integrating politics, society and culture, he offers an authoritative historical road map that shows exactly how – and why – Ireland, north and south, arrived at where it is today. This is an indispensable guide to both the legacies of the past for Ireland's present and to the problems confronting north and south in the contemporary world.

About this title

Review

'Based on wide reading, clearly structured, elegantly expressed, spiced with a sardonic wit, steering a skilful course through the treacherous ideological rapids of Irish historiography, Bartlett's Ireland deserves to become a classic.' J. Joseph Lee, New York University and author of Ireland 1912–1985

'Vivid and nuanced, personal and scholarly, this audacious survey of the Irish past and present is magisterial in its range, but full of novelistic details, unexpected insights and wry observation. Professor Bartlett has the gift of explanation without simplification'. Declan Kiberd, author of Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation

'There are other single volume histories which cover the Iron Age through to the present but this accomplished and judicious book is by far the best, and will be read with interest and favour by both scholars and a wider audience. It will naturally take its place alongside the most distinguished survey-writing on Irish history.' Alvin Jackson, author of Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000

'Thomas Bartlett's Ireland: A History is a hugely sobering and stimulating read and a great deal more than yet just another history of Ireland. For anyone genuinely interested in the make-up and ethos of ... our country and in who we are, it is not to be missed.' Galway Advertiser

'Every decade in a country's history needs a new overview of its past. Tom Bartlett has presented us with a very fine one indeed ... All historians live in hope that the framers of policies for the future might take some lessons from their work. Lord knows today they are in need of some new inspiration. Hopefully they will find it in this even-handed, often irreverent, frequently humorous and beautifully written new work by Tom Bartlett.' The Irish Times

'Ireland: A History is consistently readable, engaging and fresh. A bevy of survey Irish histories are currently available ... this is superior to them all.' History Ireland

'Ireland: A History is compulsive reading ... There is a vigorous freshness here, not so much the exploding of ancient clichés but the discovery of new implications to them.' The Australian

'When so much passion has entered into the making and writing of Irish history, a dispassionate narrative must be applauded. But beneath the smooth flow of Thomas Bartlett's writing there is a pulse of controlled anger. It is this attribute, rarely breaking the surface, which raises an exemplary text into a classic.' Tony Barnard, The Times Literary Supplement

'Bartlett's engrossing volume ... is a tinder box for the reader's imagination. It will rank among the best monographs of Irish historians ... This handsome hardback is an ideal read for the long holiday evenings at the end of the year ...' Books Ireland

'... this one-volume history of Ireland is a well-written work of superb scholarship and is highly recommended to everyone who has an interest in Irish history.' The Irish Catholic

Book Description

A magisterial new history of Ireland from prehistory to the present. Examining Irish politics, society, culture and economic history, Thomas Bartlett traces the long evolution of the two Irish states which emerged in the early twentieth century as well as the problems that confront them both in the twenty-first century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1107422345
• ISBN 13: 9781107422346
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 642