Home Rule from a Transnational Perspective: The Irish Parliamentary Party and the United Irish League of America, 1901-1918

Tony King

When John Redmond declared ‘No Irishman in America living 3,000 miles away from the homeland ought to think he has a right to dictate to Ireland’ the Irish leader unwittingly made a rod for his own back. In denying the newly-established United Irish League of America any input into party policy formulation, Redmond risked alienating the nation’s largest diaspora should a home rule crisis ever occur. That such a situation developed in 1914 is an established fact. That it was the product of Redmond’s own naivety is open to conjecture. ‘Home Rule from a Transnational Perspective: The Irish Parliamentary Party and the United Irish League of America, 1901-1918’ explores the Irish Party’s subordination of its American affiliate in light of the ultimate demise of constitutional nationalism in Ireland. This book fills a void in Irish American studies. To date, research in this field has been dominated by Clan na Gael and the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, particularly the transatlantic links that underpinned the Easter Rising in 1916. Little attention has been paid to the Irish party’s efforts to manage the diaspora in the years preceding the insurrection or to the individuals and organisations that proffered a more moderate solution to the age-old Irish Question. Breaking new ground, it offers a fresh and interesting perspective on the fall of the Home Rule Party and helps to explain the seismic shift towards a more radical approach to gaining independence. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Irish America, diaspora studies, Irish independence, and/or home rule. It complements the existing historiography and enhances our knowledge of a largely understudied aspect of Irish nationalism.

The Impacts of Dictatorship on Heritage Management

Minjae Zoh

The relationship between heritage and dictatorship has, arguably, been relatively understudied compared to research on the nation-state. In recognising the importance of understanding how different political systems can have various and particular outcomes on heritage, The Impacts of Dictatorship on Heritage Management has developed the concept of ‘Authorised Dictatorial Discourse’ (ADD) to the ever-growing and evolving field of Heritage Studies. Through the exploration of the various impacts a ‘dictatorship’ can have on the management and uses of heritage sites, this book sets out to examine how a dictator’s interests in certain heritage sites, and particularly territories, can affect how heritage becomes preserved and promoted in both the mid and long terms. Building on Laurajane Smith’s seminal works on Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD) in her book Uses of Heritage (Routledge, 2006), this book also seeks to gain a more precise and in-depth understanding of the relationship between ‘heritage and dictatorship’, how authorised discourses on heritage has been exercised, and how territory policies that influenced the preservation and promotion of heritage sites have been executed. In doing so, The Impacts of Dictatorship on Heritage Management aims to provide a better insight into, demonstrate how, and the extent to which the politics of heritage and territory can be interlinked with this type of political system. This book will appeal to those with a keen interest in heritage management, dictatorship and heritage, South Korean heritage and theoretical heritage management. It will be of particular interest to research students and scholars who are part of this interdisciplinary field.

Ireland's Hope: The “peculiar theories” of James Fintan Lalor

James P. Bruce

In 1847 and 1848 a little-known farmer named James Fintan Lalor wrote a series of newspaper articles in which he outlined his vision for Ireland after the Great Famine. Although they have been reprinted and republished many times since, until now there has been no systematic study of the principles and proposals that Lalor expounded. In this book, the author considers Lalor’s brief career as a writer and offers new insights into his treatment of the national and land questions. By elucidating Lalor’s ideas on these questions, exploring possible influences on his thinking, and assessing the impact of his writings on his contemporaries, the author seeks to address what he regards as two deficiencies in the historiography. The first of these is the tendency to assign only a minor, supporting role to Lalor during the brief heyday of Young Ireland. Academic studies typically portray him as little more than a catalyst in the radicalisation of figures like John Mitchel, rather than as a profoundly original thinker in his own right. The second issue is the commonly held perception of Lalor’s proposals on land tenure as foreshadowing the creation of a “peasant proprietary” later in the century. The author argues that Lalor advocated a much more radical plan that would link his two primary objectives: the creation of a sovereign Irish republic, and transfer of control over landholding from a small number of landlords to the entire Irish people. By comparing and contrasting Lalor’s theories with those of earlier figures such as Thomas Paine and James ‘Bronterre’ O’Brien, this ground-breaking book broadens the perspective on Lalor and his writings beyond the context of Irish nationalism. As the author concludes, Lalor’s unique contribution to Irish radical thought merits a more prominent place in nineteenth-century intellectual history than it has hitherto received. This book will be of great value to anyone interested in Irish history since 1800, especially in the areas of the Great Famine, the Young Ireland movement, and the Land War.

Nigeria's Resource Wars

Edited by Egodi Uchendu, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

'Nigeria’s Resource Wars' reflects on the diversity of conflicts over access to, and allocation of, resources in Nigeria. From the devastating effects of crude oil exploration in the Niger Delta to desertification caused by climate change, and illegal gold mining in Zamfara, to mention a few, Nigeria faces new dimensions of resource-related struggles. The ravaging effects of these resource conflicts between crop farmers and Fulani herders in Nigeria’s Middlebelt and states across Southern Nigeria call for urgent scholarly interventions; with the Fulani cattle breeders’ onslaught altering the histories of many Nigerian families through deaths, loss of homes and investments, and permanent physical incapacity. Currently, there is an almost total breakdown of interethnic relations, with political commentators acknowledging that Nigeria has never been so divided as it presently is in its history. The struggles have now degenerated into kidnaps, armed robbery, and incessant targeted and random killings across the country; compounding the already complex problem of insecurity in Nigeria. The chapters in this volume engage with these issues, presenting the different arguments on resource conflicts in Nigeria. They draw insights from similar conflicts in Nigeria’s colonial/post-independence past and events from around the world to proffer possible solutions to resource-related confrontations in Africa. By offering a collection of different intellectual perspectives on resource conflicts in Nigeria, this volume will be an important reference material for understanding the diversity of thought patterns that underpin the struggle and policy approaches towards resolving conflict situations in Africa. This volume will be of considerable interest to scholars of Africa, researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and conflict studies, and policymakers interested in understanding the resource crisis in Africa.

Publish and Perish: The Practice of Censorship in the British Isles in the Early Modern Period

Edited by Isabelle Fernandes, University of Clermont Auvergne, France

The development of printing practices during Tudor rule led both to the dissemination of religious and secular knowledge, and the development of a legal arsenal to control it. While the vast majority of studies on censorship regard it as being at the origin of the notion of authorship, critics tend to disagree on its actual influence on early modern writings. Who, among the Church and the secular state, were its main supporters? Did it aim at destroying or removing, punishing or protecting, hampering or regulating? Did it propagate a culture of secrecy or, on the contrary, did it help to circulate new ideas and knowledge by controlling them and making them more acceptable to the masses? If the answers to these questions are bound to differ according to the aesthetic and religious biases of both censors and censored, they all lead to one major point of debate: did censorship really work to stop some marginal threat or did it simply improve the lot of early modern writers who turned its limited negative effects into a comforting shield of self-publicity? By suggesting it suppressed neither artistic creativity nor subversive practices, this volume analyses censorship in Britain and Ireland during the Tudor and Stuart periods as an instrument of regulation, rather than a repressive tool. Ideal for both graduate students and general readers interested in Early Modern History, the work sheds new light on a topic as fascinating as it is often misunderstood.

The Idea of Sport in Western Culture from Antiquity to the Contemporary Era

Saverio Battente, University of Siena, Italy

In “The Idea of Sport in Western Culture from Antiquity to the Contemporary Era,” Dr Saverio Battente examines the concept of sport as an element of Western culture. Sport has aided in structuring the collective identities that underpin individual civilisations in the West, and, far from being a merely marginal phenomenon, it has in fact been an essential feature of Western civilisation and culture from antiquity, in its various forms. The starting point of the book is the idea that there is a certain number of universal traits—unchanged across time and different cultures—underlying all sports, even if there are a series of entirely original elements with which sport has been linked over the centuries in specific civilizations. This volume thus makes a comparative analysis of the ancient, modern, and contemporary worlds and various national contexts; longues durées (whose presence transcends anthropological and cultural barriers), divergences, and discontinuities pertaining to the concept of sport are identified and explored. The book also looks at the link between the rise of civilisation and the educational and training function of sport, as well as the connection between a culture’s decline and a growing emphasis on sport as an element of entertainment and spectacle in and of itself.

A History of the Seventies: The political, cultural, social and economic developments that shaped the modern world

Bas Dianda

Relegated to the back bench, the Seventies are often considered as no more than a bridge between the more momentous decades of the Sixties and Eighties. However, delving into this historical period, this book asks; how significant were the Seventies in terms of political, economic and cultural developments? And, to what extent did this decade change the course of the second half of the twentieth century? Seeking to uncover the extraordinary transformative capacity of this era, this book reveals how important events from this decade marked history for many years to come. Grounded in a ‘history of developments,’ this book investigates connections of causality or concomitant causality with events that were yet to come. The first part of this volume traces the economic, political and cultural trends that prevailed during this decade, before turning its attention to the legacies of the Seventies and the events that changed the course of history and that are still having repercussions to this day. From the oil crisis to microwaves, this book offers an in-depth and complete look at the Seventies that will not only be of interest to historians and economists, but also sociologists and those intrigued by the evolution of political, economic and cultural developments.

Cultural Encounters: Cross-disciplinary studies from the Late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

Edited by Désirée Cappa, Warburg Institute et al.

This collection of essays contributes to the growing field of ‘encounter studies’ within the domain of cultural history. The strength of this work is the multi- and interdisciplinary approach, with papers on a broad range of historical times, places, and subjects. While each essay makes a valuable and original contribution to its relevant field(s), the collection as a whole is an attempt to probe more general questions and issues concerning the productive outcomes of cultural encounters throughout the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods. The collection is divided into three sections organised thematically and chronologically. The first, ‘Encounters with the Past,’ focuses on the reception of classical antiquity in medieval images and texts from France, Italy and the British Isles. The second, ‘Encounters with Religion,’ presents a selection of instances in which political, philosophical and natural philosophical issues arise within inter-religious contexts. The final section, ‘Encounters with Humanity,’ contains essays on early science fiction, political symbolism, and Elizabethan drama theory, all of which deal with the conception and expression of humanity, on both the individual and societal level. This volume’s wide range of topics and methodological approaches makes it an important point of reference for researchers and practitioners within the humanities who have an interest in the (cross-)cultural history of the medieval and Renaissance periods.

Mersey Built: The Role of Merseyside in the American Civil War

Robert Thorp

‘Mersey Built’ chronicles the little-known commercial battle that raged between North and South during the American Civil War. The South relied on Europe for its military supplies, which the North tried to stop with a naval blockade of all Southern ports. The South retaliated by destroying Northern merchant ships on the high seas, using war ships, secretly procured from British shipyards and smuggled out of Britain by sympathetic British captains using British crews. The Charleston-based business empire headed by George Trenholm provided a conduit for Confederate finance with its Liverpool branch acting as bankers for the Confederacy’s procurement agents. Merseyside, with its extensive docks and numerous shipyards quickly became the epicenter of Confederate operations in Europe. Several British businessmen bought ships specifically to run supplies through the Union blockade, leaving relationships between the United States and Britain strained, close to breaking point. The book relates the history of Trenholm’s commercial empire, its pre-war expansion into Liverpool and the pivotal role it played in supporting the Confederate war effort. The involvement of other Liverpool-based entrepreneurs and their successes and failures in blockade-running is described. Background histories of the Merseyside ship builders who constructed warships and blockade runners for the Confederacy are included as well as several mini-biographies of the Liverpool-based captains who smuggled out warships and braved the Union blockade. Details of each ship built on Merseyside for involvement in the Civil War are listed. The role of the United States consular service and its extensive, Liverpool-based, spy ring is described, as are the efforts of the United States ambassador in London to influence British government policy on neutrality. The author, a direct descendant of a Liverpool ship builder, and a blockade-running captain, brings new insights and previously unpublished facts to light in this fascinating chapter of history.

Mersey Built: The Role of Merseyside in the American Civil War

Robert Thorp

‘Mersey Built’ chronicles the little-known commercial battle that raged between North and South during the American Civil War. The South relied on Europe for its military supplies, which the North tried to stop with a naval blockade of all Southern ports. The South retaliated by destroying Northern merchant ships on the high seas, using war ships, secretly procured from British shipyards and smuggled out of Britain by sympathetic British captains using British crews. The Charleston-based business empire headed by George Trenholm provided a conduit for Confederate finance with its Liverpool branch acting as bankers for the Confederacy’s procurement agents. Merseyside, with its extensive docks and numerous shipyards quickly became the epicenter of Confederate operations in Europe. Several British businessmen bought ships specifically to run supplies through the Union blockade, leaving relationships between the United States and Britain strained, close to breaking point. The book relates the history of Trenholm’s commercial empire, its pre-war expansion into Liverpool and the pivotal role it played in supporting the Confederate war effort. The involvement of other Liverpool-based entrepreneurs and their successes and failures in blockade-running is described. Background histories of the Merseyside ship builders who constructed warships and blockade runners for the Confederacy are included as well as several mini-biographies of the Liverpool-based captains who smuggled out warships and braved the Union blockade. Details of each ship built on Merseyside for involvement in the Civil War are listed. The role of the United States consular service and its extensive, Liverpool-based, spy ring is described, as are the efforts of the United States ambassador in London to influence British government policy on neutrality. The author, a direct descendant of a Liverpool ship builder, and a blockade-running captain, brings new insights and previously unpublished facts to light in this fascinating chapter of history.

Canada before Confederation: Maps at the Exhibition

Chet Van Duzer, Library of Congress and Lauren Beck, Mount Allison University

Each of the maps featured in this book was showcased in the exhibition “Canada before Confederation: Early Exploration and Mapping,” which took place in several locations, both in Canada and abroad, in Fall of 2017. The authors provide a scholarly study highlighting the importance and unique features of each of these jewels of cartographic history, with particular attention paid to how they demonstrate the development of Canadian identity at the same time that they reveal Indigenous knowledge of the lands now known as Canada.

Napoleon’s Purgatory

The Unseen Humanity of the “Corsican Ogre” in Fatal Exile (with an introduction by J. David Markham)

Thomas M. Barden, Fellow in the International Napoleonic Society

Napoleon’s Purgatory is a work portraying the human side of Napoleon as revealed by those who shared his exile on the island of St. Helena. Through the diaries and journals of the Emperor’s servants, generals, and companions come the stories of Napoleon’s tender love for children, his captivating sense of humor, his eternal love for Josephine, and his agonizing death. Napoleon Bonaparte was sent by the British to the remote island of St. Helena where he could not escape. What followed were six excruciating years of loneliness and depression, mixed with frolicking play with the island’s children, a battle of wills with his British captor, an exploration of his lapsed Catholic faith, and the complex relationship with the members of his entourage. This time in exile was akin to time served in Purgatory for Napoleon. His humanity, suffering, joy in the laughter of children, and longing for Josephine are captured vividly in this work through the detailed use of primary sources written by those who were there. While many considered Napoleon Bonaparte the “Corsican Ogre” for the wars he waged across Europe, he was anything but during his exile on St. Helena.