Product Description

Synthesizing a vast body of scholarly work, Henry Patterson offers a compelling narrative of contemporary Ireland as a place poised between the divisiveness of deep-seated conflict and the modernizing - but perhaps no less divisive - pull of ever-greater material prosperity. Although the two states of Ireland have strikingly divergent histories, Patterson shows more clearly than any previous historian how interdependent those histories - and the mirroring ideologies that have fuelled them - have been. With its fresh and unpredictable readings of key events and developments on the island since the outbreak of the second world war, Ireland Since 1939 is an authoritative and gripping account from one of the most distinguished Irish historians at work today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #390544 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

About the Author
Henry Patterson is Professor of Politics at the University of Ulster. His previous books include The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA.

Customer Reviews

Essential text of reference
There are some gaps in this book. But I can only think of one, and to cover it fully would disproportionately increase the size of the book.

Anyone wishing to fully, and as far as possible impartially, asses the history of Ireland in the past 50 years must start here. This is by no means a pocket or quick guide to Irish history and politics, but it a detailed, fair, and unique study into a complex and varied subject. The impartial and properly contextualised treatment of Unionism, particularly during the Brooke years, is unique in terms of its detail and lack of lazy stereotypes and assumptions. Full use of the public and private deposits at the Public Records Office have added immeasurable value to this work.

Patterson's works on the IRA and areas of southern Irish politics are well known, as is his collaboration with Bew and Gibbon, however Ireland since 1939 stands out as an outstanding work that cannot be overlooked as a key study of Irish and Northern Irish politics.