Biography: historical, political and military Books

Book SynopsisThomas Kettle: political activist, journalist, orator, poet, essayist, lawyer, nationalist MP, professor, recruiter, soldier and casualty of war. Born on 9 February 1880, he was killed in the opening minutes of the allied invasion of Ginchy on 9 September 1916, having insisted on leading his men into battle. A leader of the younger generation of constitutional nationalists in his own time, he was all but forgotten as a result of the radicalisation of Irish politics after 1916. His memory was largely kept alive by studies of Ireland's participation in the Great War and by his final poem, written for his daughter Betty, which has appeared in several collections of War poetry. But Thomas Kettle was more than a soldier and recruiter.Although he did not always choose the 'right side', Kettle in fact had a hand in nearly every major political struggle in early twentieth-century Ireland. His struggles with alcoholism and depression overshadowed his great promise, ensuring that his biography is as much a story of wasted potential as it is of great achievement.Trade Review"Bookworm [History Ireland] is always on the lookout for publications that appeal to a particular type of reader: Leaving Cert and A-level student, languid undergrad, or general readers whose enthusiasm for history is not matched by the necessary leisure time to plough through academic monographs - A case in point was the 'Life and Times' series published by the Historical Association of Ireland in the 1990s, which aimed 'to place the lives of leading figures in Irish history against the background of new research'. The good news is that the series is back, with the same mission statement, this time published by UCD Press." History Ireland March/April 2009 "For too long Kettle has been known for the most part only by references to him and quotations from his poetry, writing and recorded witticisms. Thus this comprehensive biography is a welcome addition to the historical literature on the seminal years of Ireland's early twentieth century." J. Anthony Gaughan The Irish Catholic April 9, 2009 "Undeniably gifted and brave he may, consciously or otherwise, have welcomed death as a number do who find war an escape. He was certainly a loss and had he lived a productive life one feels he would have challenged the dreary consensus of Church, Gaelic culture and economic inertia that beset the new state. Or again the destructive side of Kettle might have won. Such are the riddles of truncated promise. Senia Paseta has given us a competent and informative portrait of a figure who, if not exactly dislikable, is not particularly agreeable either." Rory Brennan Books Ireland May 2009 "brief biography of Thomas Kettle, an Irish political activist and professor, concentrates on his importance as a leader of constitutional nationalism up until his death in World War I. The author provides an epilogue demonstrating that modern Ireland now resembles the type of nation Kettle strove to create." Book News Inc August 2009 "Thomas Kettle (1880-1916) has not had a biography to himself since J. B. Lyons published his appropriately named The Enigma of Tom Kettle in 1983 so Senia Paseta's new monograph on this strange and interesting figure is especially welcome. Also welcome is the new series of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times concise biographies, which started out some years ago under the Dundalgan Press imprint. It has now been taken over by the excellent UCD Press and given a makeover and smart new livery, keeping the bright blue colour scheme of the originals. The aim of the series is to provide scholarly and accessibly brief biographies of major figures in Irish history by experts in the field, suitable for Leaving Certificate, A level and undergraduate students but also for the general reader. Paseta sets the 'Life' well within the context of the 'Times' and she has an in-depth knowledge of constitutional politics in Ireland before the Easter Rising. Kettle was never to fulfil his early promise. Dogged by frequent bouts of depression, he succumbed to alcoholism, which hampered his career, and his public exhibitions of drunkenness made him an embarrassment to his friends. Basically, he was yesterday's man. For all his brilliance, he was caught between an outdated constitutional movement that he was too progressive for and a revolutionary republican movement for which he was not progressive enough. The Easter Rising was the work of those who were determined to prevent Home Rule being implemented because it was no longer enough, and he had been left behind. His death on the Western Front in September 1916 was as brave and senseless as any. It's an impressive start to the new series." Click on link for full article: http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/book-reviews/thomas-kettle/.print.html Irish Democrat November 2009Table of ContentsChronology; Introduction; Family Life and Early Influences; Political Apprenticeship; Parliamentarian and Professor; Home Rule, Partition and War; Epilogue; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisJohn Mitchel (1815-75) was born at Camnish, near Dungiven, Co. Derry, the son of a Presbyterian minister. After qualifying as a solicitor, he became a leading contributor to the Nation newspaper and the most militant of the Young Irelanders. Sentenced to 14 years' transportation for attempting to incite rebellion in Ireland in 1848, in captivity he wrote his famous "Jail Journal", which starkly expressed his hatred of the British empire and had an immense influence on later nationalists. Escaping to America after five years, he became a strong supporter of slavery and the Confederate States, and two of his sons died fighting for the South.The harshness of his views, especially his violent hatred of Britain and support for slavery, does much to explain Mitchel's neglect in recent decades. He was, however, one of the most powerful polemical journalists of the nineteenth century and a central figure in the revival of militant Irish nationalism. His portrayal of the famine as deliberate genocide became central to nationalist orthodoxy, and his hatred of British rule and contempt for parliamentary politics did much to inspire Fenianism.This new biography attempts to discover the origins of Mitchel's views, to examine their influence, and to place his anglophobia in a more general critique of the age in which he lived.Trade Review"Bookworm [History Ireland] is always on the lookout for publications that appeal to a particular type of reader: Leaving Cert and A-level student, languid undergrad, or general readers whose enthusiasm for history is not matched by the necessary leisure time to plough through academic monographs - A case in point was the 'Life and Times' series published by the Historical Association of Ireland in the 1990s, which aimed 'to place the lives of leading figures in Irish history against the background of new research'. The good news is that the series is back, with the same mission statement, this time published by UCD Press." History Ireland March/April 2009 "It is a phenomenal tale by any standards and must be respected for its long dedication and endurance in the service of Irish liberation. In the end Mitchel served that cause best by his pen and by the example of his life. Many others made immense sacrifices but few had such an able and, it must be said, such a vituperative pen - Discourse is valueless if you are always betrayed. How valid were Mitchel's views? - Mitchel was out to give the British credit for nothing and so weakened his case. Adaptable in many ways, as in earning a living and finding a place to do so, he was rigid in this. To try to grasp his approach to slavery is not to excuse or endorse it - Perhaps too long a sacrifice did make Mitchel's heart stony in some crucial respects and rendered him a character it is hard to warm to." Rory Brennan Books Ireland May 2009 "Quinn, executive editor of the Dictionary of Irish Biography, offers a new biography of Mitchel (1815-75), whose harsh views of the British empire affected later Irish nationalists, but whose support of slavery after he escaped from prison to the US has led to his neglect by scholars in recent years. He places Mitchel's anglophobia in the context of the times." Book News Inc August 2009 "Also welcome is the new series of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times concise biographies, which started out some years ago under the Dundalgan Press imprint. It has now been taken over by the excellent UCD Press and given a makeover and smart new livery, keeping the bright blue colour scheme of the originals. The aim of the series is to provide scholarly and accessibly brief biographies of major figures in Irish history by experts in the field, suitable for Leaving Certificate, A level and undergraduate students but also for the general reader." Irish Democrat November 2009Table of ContentsForeword; Preface; Chronology of Mitchel's Life and Times; Introduction; Youth and early Life, 1815-45; The Nation, 1845-7; United Irishman, 1848; In Exile, 1848-53; Liberty in America, 1853-4 Southern Citizen, 1855-65; Fenians and Home Rule, 1865-75; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisCharles Stewart Parnell has proved a compelling figure in his own time and to ours. A Protestant landlord who possessed few of the gifts that inspire mass adoration, he was the unlikely object of popular veneration. His long liaison with a married woman, Katharine O'Shea, exposed him to the fury of the Catholic Church. Other Protestants secured niches in the pantheon of national heroes but nearly all earned their places as victims of British rule; Parnell's destruction came at Irish hands. Since initial publication in 1998, new evidence and fresh interpretations allow for a fuller and yet more complex portrait for this revised account of Parnell's life. This revision considers Parnell's career within the context of his times, Anglo-Irish affairs, and theoretical perspectives. It makes extensive use of Parnell's public and parliamentary speeches, arguing that he was an exemplar of new forms of political communication and expressed a coherent ideology rooted in the liberal radicalism of the age. In the end he was a victim of his own successes and of a virulent nationalism that squeezed out the immediate possibility of an inclusive nation. Parnell's vision, though, was never wholly submerged and would reappear in the more cosmopolitan atmosphere of contemporary Ireland.Trade Review'Bookworm [History Ireland] is always on the lookout for publications that appeal to a particular type of reader: Leaving Cert and A-level student, languid undergrad, or general readers whose enthusiasm for history is not matched by the necessary leisure time to plough through academic monographs - A case in point was the 'Life and Times' series published by the Historical Association of Ireland in the 1990s, which aimed 'to place the lives of leading figures in Irish history against the background of new research'. The good news is that the series is back, with the same mission statement, this time published by UCD Press.' History Ireland March/April 2009 'Also welcome is the new series of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times concise biographies, which started out some years ago under the Dundalgan Press imprint. It has now been taken over by the excellent UCD Press and given a makeover and smart new livery, keeping the bright blue colour scheme of the originals. The aim of the series is to provide scholarly and accessibly brief biographies of major figures in Irish history by experts in the field, suitable for Leaving Certificate, A level and undergraduate students but also for the general reader.' Irish Democrat November 2009Table of ContentsChronology of Parnell's Life and Times; The Makings of a Nationalist; Political Apprentice, 1874-6; Obstruction, 1877; Activism and the Dawn of the Land Question, 13 January 1878-7 June 1879; The Land War, 8 June 1879-2 May 1882; Parliamentary Politics, 2 May 1882-22 October 1884; Home Rule, 23 October 1884-8 June 1886; The Plan of Campaign and the Conservatives, 9 June 1886-17 November 1890; The Split, November 1890-October 1891Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisBorn in Waterford in 1888 Rosamond Jacob, of Quaker background, was in many cases a crowd member rather than a leader in the campaigns in which she participated - the turn of the century language revival, the suffrage campaign, the campaigns of the revolutionary period. She adopted an anti-Treaty stance in the 1920s, moving towards a fringe involvement in the activities of socialist republicanism in the early 1930s while continuing to vote Fianna Fail. Her commitment to feminist concerns was life long but at no point did she take or was capable of a leadership role. However, it was Jacob's failure to carve out a strong place in history as an activist which makes her interesting as a subject for biography. Her 'ordinariness' offers an alternative lens on the biographical project. By failing to marry, by her inability to find meaningful paid work, by her countless refusals from publishers, by the limited sales of what work was published, Jacob offers a key into lives more ordinary within the urban middle classes of her time, and suggests a new perspective on female lives. Jacob's life, galvanised at all times by political and feminist debate, offers a means of exploring how the central issues which shaped Irish politics and society in the first half of the twentieth century were experienced and digested by those outside the leadership cadre.Trade Review'This is a wonderfully polychromatic canvas painted in pointillist technique, as absorbing a read as a meticulous Seurat. The detail brings the subject to life.' The Friendly Word Winter 2011 'Jacob was atypical in practically every sphere in which she was active - her milieu and her political journey are interesting, and if Jacob was not successful she was certainly not ordinary, as this ambitious biography well shows.' Irish Times Saturday Jan. 2011 'an informative, engaging and enlightening read.' Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2012 'The interweaving of public and private concerns is well handled by Lane, and her analysis does, as she suggests, offer 'an important alternative angle on what it meant to be a woman, a republican supporter and a human being in Ireland in the period'. While her 'ordinariness' is open to question, this study of Jacob's life is a timely reminder of the need to 'think outside the box' when considering those who peopled the past.' Irish Studies Review 19 (4) 2011 'Leeann Lane's sensitive reading of the diaries forms the backbone of this biographical study, but she largely avoids simply plundering them for information about other, better known individuals. Jacob herself remains admirably at the centre of this book, Lane's insightful reading of her novels adding to the sense of a life unfolding with the turn of each page. - One of the strengths of this biography, in fact, is the way in which Lane chronicles the life of a woman who recorded what it felt like to live in her particular circumstances at different times of her long life, how she moved in and out of ordinariness and how ordinariness itself changed in meaning over the course of the twentieth century. - The biography is richly textured and informative and should be the essential starting-point for anyone interested in the extraordinary life of Rosamond Jacob.' English Historical Review cxxvii: 525 (April 2012) 'Rosamond Jacob, the Irish Republican activist, feminist, and novelist, is the subject of this meticulously researched and thoughtful new biography by Leeann Lane. Jacob was ignored and undervalued during her lifetime, living a solitary life along the fringes of the great political and social movements that shaped the newly postcolonial Irish state in the first half of the twentieth century. Never a leader within these movements but always an active worker on their behalf, Jacob's life is a fascinating portrait of what Lane calls 'a life more ordinary.' - Lane's work in shaping the complex narrative of Jacob's life is feminist historiography at its finest; she interweaves the intimate details of Jacob's struggles to find her place in a patriarchal culture with a thorough assessment of the political realities of life in the years of war and nation building that result in a postcolonial Irish state. The necessary conflation of the personal and the political in Lane's portrait of Jacob offers readers new insight into the frustrating diminishment of women's political participation in Irish governance during the first decades after independence. - It is thanks to the rich archive offered by her private diaries, housed in the National Library, that Lane is able to gain such intimate access into this remarkable woman's insights into her own life and culture. Rosamond Jacob: Third Person Singular is necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of Irish feminism and female political activism during the first half of the twentieth century' Journal of British Studies Here is a copy of Catriona Crowe's speech from the launch on 13 December 2010: I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous- Almost, at times, the Fool. The Love-song of J Alfred Prufrock, TS Eliot's first great poem, contains these lines, where the narrator proclaims his place in the world as ancillary, mildly useful, slightly pompous, slightly stupid, virtuous, timid; in all, an ordinary life with no pretensions to greatness, but saved in some measure by the narrator's self-conscious and accurate version of himself. Leeann Lane's superb biography of Rosamond Jacob presents us with a female life more ordinary than those we have encountered to date for the crucial years leading up to and away from the foundation of the Irish state. As of now, it is fairly inconceivable that a male life of this kind would be considered worthy of extensive biographical study. I suggest that this is an area where women's history is ahead of the game. Rosamond Jacob was born into a Quaker family in Waterford in 1888, moved to Dublin in 1919, and died there, killed while crossing the road, in 1960. She didn't marry, had no children, was not gay. She had an unsatisfactory affair in her forties which meant a great deal to her. She never owned a house, living in rented accommodation all her life. She was involved in various ways in the cultural revival and the nationalist and feminist movements from early adulthood on, never in prominent positions.Her friends included Mrs.Pearse and Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, two of the most iconic women of the revolutionary period; she shared lodgings with Dorothy Macardle and Lucy Kingston, two interesting activists in the spheres of feminism and nationalism. She wrote three novels, two of which were published, a children's book, a history of the United Irishmen, and a fictional biography of Matilda Tone, wife of Theobald. So much for the bald facts. However, what makes Jacob extraordinary is the fact that she kept an almost daily diary from 1897, when she was 9 years old, to 1960, when she died. It comprises 170 'ordinary' volumes, and a final secret volume in which she is more frank about life events such as her affair with Frank Ryan. She also, usefully, sums up each year at the end of its entries. The diary has been used by a great many historians to illuminate various aspects of feminism and nationalism in the nascent independent Ireland, and as a crucial source for biographers of those she knew, like Sheehy Skeffington, Ryan and Macardle. Now, for the first time, this extraordinary document is used to illuminate the personality who created it, tracking her life from late Victorian Waterford to the era of Sean Lemass. Leeann quotes Robert Fothergill on how diaries turn the substance of history inside out: 'In the foreground is the individual consciousness, absolutely resisting the insistence of future historians that that it should experience itself as peripheral.' In the case of Jacob as described and analysed in this biography, the personal voice of the diarist matters as much as the major events she is describing, and her interior life becomes the main event. And what a voice it is. Rosamond Jacob is a mixture of scorn and uncertainty, radical opinions and unsatisfied longings, excluded outsider and acute observer, pacifist and supporter of violent revolution, her own worst enemy and a good friend to others. She comes at us from all kinds of angles, some of them very uncomfortable. Because we are privileged to know her innermost thoughts, we understand how isolated and lonely she sometimes felt, as well as sharing in her moments of triumph or satisfaction. We can observe her trajectory from a sheltered Quaker childhood to the loss of her faith, her deeply instinctive feminism, and her admiration for and commitment to the nationalist cause, as well as her misgivings about some of its methods. Leeann uses her fiction as well as her diary to demonstrate her intellectual, political and emotional development, giving us a wonderfully rounded picture of a woman who lived through and participated in momentous events, but who never felt herself to be at the centre of any of them. Like all good biographies, this one contextualises its subject, giving us the background to Quaker Waterford, Irish Parliamentary Party Waterford, and the development of the Gaelic League, Sinn Fein and suffrage groups in the city. Jacob was involved in the last three, but never assumed a leadership role, preferring to restrict herself to fairly menial tasks like leafleting and organising meetings. Her keen eye, however, took in everything; she remarks on the violent tendencies of the Irish Party supporters in Waterford, the stronghold of John Redmond, and the petty squabbles which regularly erupted in the various groups to which she belonged. Her family circumstances were comfortable but constraining; well into her twenties, she obeyed her mother's rules with regard to where she went. Also, she did not get on well with her sister-in-law, Dorothea, married to her brother Tom, to whom she was close. Her family regarded her with a mixture of alarm and exasperation, fearing that her outspoken radical opinions would prevent her getting married. She was Anglophobic from an early age, remarking on the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, which occurred on the same night as the demise of the household cat, Pansy, that 'we would all much rather go into mourning for her than for that hideous old woman.' (She was a cat lover, and in one of her novels she names the two featured cats Silken Thomas and Mick, after Michael Collins.) In 1909, she commented on a Quaker meeting in Waterford which included a lecture on notable English Quakers: 'Edith Bell said how noble they were and what a pity there were no Irish Friends fit to be classed with these English worthies, whereupon I was constrained to mention that these English worthies were mostly American, and one of them French; and on that everyone - even the Newtown boys - tittered as if I had said something absurd. I wish I could go somewhere where I wasn't known and believed beforehand to be mad, so that my remarks might for a time at least be taken on their own merits and not discounted at once as the necessarily absurd talk of a lunatic.' Here we see her dissatisfaction with the way both her views and her personality are perceived in public gatherings, and her outspokenness counterbalanced with extreme self-consciousness. She had an instinctive feminism quite at odds with prevailing views in Waterford, and was not shy of expressing it, despite the kind of reception she got, not least from her family. In many ways she was way ahead of her time in her dismay at the lack of female involvement in the Gaelic League and her objections to lack of female representation at the upper echelons of Sinn Fein. She also disliked Catholicism, something which created problems for her later as the new independent state solidified into a largely Catholic polity. In 1921, the diary records her distaste at 'the religious orgies that go on outside Mountjoy during executions'. Much of her distaste was aesthetic; she found the bathetic aspects of martyrdom, mourning and commemoration too much for her. But in fairness, she had renounced her Quaker faith early on, and thus placed herself in the small category of people without a religious faith in a highly-charged atmosphere of religiosity among the revolutionary organisations. When two of her nephews made mixed marriages in the 1940s, she was not pleased. She regarded the Ne Temere decree with horror, and considered the Catholic church to be anti-progressive and anti-woman. Her perception of the 1916 Rising was initially at second-hand, but she visited Dublin shortly after it ended and vividly describes the smoking ruins of O'Connell St. Her move to Dublin allowed her to involve herself more closely in the 1918 election and in Cumann na mBan, again in lesser roles, but she enjoyed the camaraderie of working with others for a cause, and while sceptical of what she saw as the predominant enjoyment of violent conflict, was not immune from such excitement herself. She describes hearing from Maighread Trench about Cumann na mBan members praying outside Mountjoy on the morning of Kevin Barry's execution, and 'by her way of telling it and by her expression, it was clear to me that she at least had got some enjoyment out of it. Min Ryan came in and told me all about McSwiney's funeral in Cork, and it was plainer still that she had enjoyed that. Hanna and I agreed that such things are a kind of emotional orgy. I know I am capable of such enjoyment myself and it is revolting to think of.' Such candour on these subjects is highly unusual, then and now. Her commitment to feminism never wavered, and she remained involved in key feminist organisations all her life. The diary records her constant sense of affront at inequality, and she judged politicians on their commitment to female emancipation. She describes a meeting with Arthur Griffith in 1922, when a deputation from various women's organisations attempted to get him to extend the franchise to women over 21 before the Treaty election: 'Griffith started by saying the Dail had no power to alter the franchise, and it would take 8 months to make a new register, and after a good deal of discussion ended by defying us to do our worst, and saying we, or nearly all of us, were really not out for votes but out to wreck the Treaty. He looked worried and was quite cross. He started every sentence with 'To be perfectly frank - which always heralds something nasty.' Jacob was on to spinspeak long before 'going forward' or 'we are where we are'. In the case of De Valera, she had something of a crush on him in the twenties, describing him as 'delicious' in 1926, probably the only time that adjective was applied to him, and believing that he might support female emancipation in power, but by 1937 he had become 'a man who badly needs to be taught a lesson, if only there were enough women with the guts to do it.' She admired people like Peadar O'Donnell and George Gilmore because of their proclaimed commitment to women's rights, but found the maternalistic and child-centred concerns of the Irish Housewives' Association and the Irish Women's Citizens and Local Government Association difficult to relate to as a childless single woman, although she fully endorsed their more general feminist demands. Her affair with Frank Ryan, poster boy of left-wing republicanism in the late twenties and early thirties, was an extremely important event in her life. She was ahead of her time in her sexual frankness, her complete lack of guilt at a non-marital sexual relationship, and her unconcealed admiration for good-looking men, whom she frequently describes in the diary. Ryan turned out to be a bit of a sleeveen, willing enough to show up at her flat at midnight for sex, but sloping off afterwards full of Catholic guilt. He also regularly ignored her at social gatherings, a humiliating experience which she was prepared to endure for the pleasure of his intermittent visits. Her descriptions of his morose silences in the mornings make you want to slap him. Incidentally, we learn that he didn't like sardines or cheese, but loved cake. The time she spent with him may have prevented her from forming a more secure permanent relationship; we'll never know. Like everyone, she wanted to be loved, and she drew a short straw due to her attraction to Ryan, and his inability to commit to her in any meaningful way. At least he didn't marry anyone else. During the affair, she sought help through psychoanalysis, albeit by correspondence with a therapist in London, who unfortunately died just as things were starting to work. She realised that the loss of her father when she was 19 had affected her gravely, as he was a bulwark of support to her, and she had, perhaps, been frozen in a kind of adolescence since that event. Again, we have a woman ahead of her time, reading Freud, trying to find out why she is attracted to a man who can do her no permanent good, and willing to accept fairly serious judgments on her personality and development. The book takes us through the ferment of cultural, revolutionary and feminist activity occurring in Ireland in the two decades leading up to independence, and then through the tangled webs of intertwined left-wing and women's organisations in the twenties and thirties, when the state was solidifying under the two main civil war parties, and there was not much room for anyone else. Jacob expanded her political and feminist interests during this period, joining the Friends of Soviet Russia, and representing the Irish branch on a trip to the Soviet Union in 1931, where she was impressed by the Soviet commitment to equal rights for women. She became involved in the International Alliance of Women, which gave her a chance to be active in the international peace movement and express her natural pacifism. She was not a successful novelist; Callaghan, her first novel, published in 1920, received quite favourable reviews, but was a commercial failure. The Troubled House, her second, while finished in the 1920s, was not published until 1938. Third Person Singular, the novel which provides the subtitle of this biography, has not been published. It is to be hoped that it will be in the near future. I have not read the novels, but Leeann quotes effectively and liberally from them, and some of the writing, and the way in which Jacob uses her characters to express complex emotional and political feelings, is really striking. Here is Maggie Cullen, wife and mother of three sons, in The Troubled House, which is set in the period 1916-21: "It came to my mind what a queer thing it was that my life should spend itself thus, almost entirely in love and care and fear and thought and anxiety over three men and a boy. Was I nothing but a being relative to them, without real existence of my own? Each one of them led his own life, had his centre in his own soul, as a human creature should, but I had no purpose or driving force in myself, nothing that was independent of them. It seemed absurd, futile, unworthy." The Feminine Mystique couldn't have put it better. Her final years were dogged by increasing ill-health - rheumatism, anaemia, shingles, neuralgia, sciatica - the whole dreary catalogue of what lies in store for us all. She seems to have borne these ailments uncomplainingly. She became involved in the anti-nuclear movement, attending meetings to protest against the hydrogen bomb, and joining a new anti-nuclear organisation established the year before she died. (Two women on Charleville Rd. to whom she distributed anti-nuclear leaflets told her "they wouldn't live long and didn't care what happened to the world".) She remained involved in the Irish Housewives' Association, which was enduring accusations of communism in the 1950s, and the Women's Social and Political League, in decline at this stage. A passionate advocate of animal welfare, she was secretary of the Anti-Vivisection League in the '50s. She spent a lot of her time visiting the old and the sick, and in particular in looking after the welfare of widows and mothers of republicans who had fallen on hard times, like Liam Mellows' mother, who drank a lot, and was, in Jacob's inimitable phrase 'as incontinent as blazes.' Rosamond Jacob adopted a number of causes early in her life, at a time when there were plenty of causes available. She remained a feminist, a nationalist, an Irish language revivalist, an animal rights activist, a civil and humanitarian rights proponent, and an opponent of censorship, sectarianism and militarism all her life. She was in many ways a model citizen, taking her responsibilities to participate in and change her society very seriously. She tried very hard to understand herself and to figure out what her unconscious motivations and deepest feelings were. She engaged in an honest (on her side) sexual relationship in early middle age which could have caused her social ruin. The sadnesses in her life, the lack of a close partner or friend being the main one, she bore stoically, knowing she was not the only woman in this situation in twentieth century Ireland. Her great gift to us, the diary in which she confided regularly over a period of 63 years, has now been used to its fullest capacity by Leeann Lane to give us an interior study, beautifully contextualised, of an interesting and brave woman who was well aware of her imperfections, but who never wavered in her conviction that the world could change, that women could be equal to men, and that she could vividly describe these changes and the messy processes involved in their achievement. She would love the idea that we are celebrating her life tonight in Newman House, finally centre-stage.' Catriona Crowe December 2010Table of ContentsONE: Introduction; TWO: Suffrage and Nationalism, 1904-14; THREE: Revolutionary years: Waterford 1915-19; FOUR: Revolutionary years: a Dublin focus 1916-21; FIVE: Single women, sex and the new State; SIX: Politics1922-36; SEVEN: Conclusion(s): Decline and nostalgia 1937-60; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisJustin McCarthy (1830-1912) is the forgotten leader of the Irish Home Rule Movement. Overshadowed by Parnell before him and the 1916 leaders shortly after his death, McCarthy's considerable contribution to the national cause has been largely overlooked. Without his conciliatory chairmanship (1890-6), the Irish Party would have subdivided further after the Parnell split; the critical Liberal alliance would have ended; and the House of Commons would not have passed Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill in 1893. Born in Cork but living in London, McCarthy was not a career politician, but rather a respected and financially successful writer, who championed many liberal causes long before becoming actively involved in politics. He was elected a Home Rule Party MP in 1879, and the party's vice-chairman the following year. His subsequent time as chairman, beginning with the 1890 split, spanned a period of intense struggle over the second Home Rule Bill. During these demanding years he sacrificed his health and income for the national cause - 'the religion of my life'. This biography restores its subject to his rightful place in the front rank of Irish leaders - Parnell, McCarthy, Redmond - who led the Irish Party into parliamentary battle in pursuit of Home Rule.Trade Review'Bookworm [History Ireland] is always on the lookout for publications that appeal to a particular type of reader: Leaving Cert and A-level student, languid undergrad, or general readers whose enthusiasm for history is not matched by the necessary leisure time to plough through academic monographs - A case in point was the 'Life and Times' series published by the Historical Association of Ireland in the 1990s, which aimed 'to place the lives of leading figures in Irish history against the background of new research'. The good news is that the series is back, with the same mission statement, this time published by UCD Press.' History Ireland March/April 2009 'Also welcome is the new series of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times concise biographies, which started out some years ago under the Dundalgan Press imprint. It has now been taken over by the excellent UCD Press and given a makeover and smart new livery, keeping the bright blue colour scheme of the originals. The aim of the series is to provide scholarly and accessibly brief biographies of major figures in Irish history by experts in the field, suitable for Leaving Certificate, A level and undergraduate students but also for the general reader.' Irish Democrat November 2009Table of ContentsChronology of McCarthy's Life and Times; Introduction; The Making of an Irish Nationalist, 1830-53; The Development of a Liberal Propagandist, 1853-79; Vice-Chairman, 1880-90; Reluctant Chairman, 1890-6; Conclusion; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisFrom an adolescent farmer to a local Sinn Fein activist and provincial guerrilla leader, and eventually to chief-of-staff of the IRA, Frank Aiken has an early, hidden history. As with so many of his political generation, Aiken's path to politics began amid the violent upheaval of the Irish revolution. In a career spanning 50 years he served in numerous high-profile ministerial roles and earned widespread recognition for his work as Ireland's representative to the United Nations. Yet these later successes masked a controversial past. This comprehensive study provides the first in-depth look at Aiken's role in Ireland's turbulent revolutionary period, 1916-23. Drawing on a wide variety of original archival sources, this book blends elements of biography and local study to offer both the first exhaustive account of Aiken's role in the conflict, and the first in-depth study of the broader context of republican politics and violence in Ulster in which he played such a pivotal role. This book creates a detailed map of Aiken's formative years, exploring the early movements of the man which would place him at the forefront of Irish and international Free State politics.Trade Review'Lewis has a measured take on the various historical controversies that surround Aiken's career as guerrilla leader - this is a useful book full of well grounded research. Arguments are carefully considered and clearly put.' The Irish Story, November 2014 'The activities of Aiken's Fourth Division of the IRA in the Armagh-South Down-North Louth area are exhaustively analysed. The book also gives a detailed account of Aiken's vain attempts to avert the looming Civil War from his distant stronghold on the Border - Aiken does not come well out of the "dirty war" which saw sectarian murders and brutal reprisals shared between IRA and local B-Specials around the foothills of Slieve Gullion and scenic Camlough.' The Irish Catholic, October 2014 '[Frank Aiken's] role in the revolutionary period is subject to close examination by Matthew Lewis in a book that shows its academic origins in the detail presented, but which succeeds in fleshing out the life of an individual who was formative in the birth and development of the state.' Evening Echo, October 2014 'In the midst of an intensifying commemorative decade, Matthew Lewis's Frank Aiken's War is a welcome addition to the literature on this momentous era. This book focuses on the motivations, realities and consequences of this revolutionary conflict at grassroots level, in Ulster, by blending biography with local history.' Antoine Guillemette, Australasian Journal of Irish Studies, 2016Table of ContentsAbbreviations; Introduction; Prelude to a revolution; Emergence; War for independence; Interlude; Offensive; Civil war; Conclusion; Notes on statistics; Tables; Sources & bibliography; Index; Abbreviations.

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Book SynopsisSean Lemass is generally regarded as the man most responsible for the modernisation of Irish society. This book considers how Lemass evolved as a key figure in Fianna Fail governments and later to become one of the most influential leaders of twentieth-century Ireland. Professor Savage argues that by the time Lemass emerged out of the shadow of Eamon de Valera he had learned valuable lessons concerning the limitations of political power. By 1959 Lemass understood that principle sometimes had to be compromised to ensure the maintenance of political power. This short biography uses a wide array of resources to consider the policies he initiated during his long political career. It also addresses the relationships he developed with a number of institutions including the Government of Northern Ireland and the Catholic Church. This study considers how Lemass grappled with four critical issues during his tenure as Taoiseach. It explores how he tried to advance Ireland's moribund economy, and improve problematic relations with Northern Ireland, the British Government and the Catholic Church.What emerges is a portrait of a shrewd politician intent on moving Ireland forward as a modern, self-confident European nation.Trade Review'The undoubted achievements of this legendary pragmatic politician are teased out in this new addition to the UCD Press "Life and Times new series" ... it takes a thematic structure, usefully examining Lemass's career." History Ireland, March/April 2015 'The author, who has a deep knowledge of the Lemass era, draws on the latest archival information in Britain as well as Ireland to throw further light on the career of a key figure in the consolidation of a young Irish state.' The Irish Catholic, February 2015Table of ContentsForward; Preface; Chronology of Lemass's Life and Times; Introduction; CHAPTER ONE: Sean Lemass and the Politics of Economic Policy; CHAPTER TWO: Lemass and Northern Ireland; CHAPTER THREE: Lemass and the British; CHAPTER FOUR: Lemass and the Catholic Church; CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusion; Archives and libraries; Select Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisMuch has been written about 'Big Jim' Larkin but, remarkably, this is the first full-length biography. Through the research of leading Labour historian Emmet O'Connor, Larkin - Labour leader and agitator - is thoroughly evaluated. Based on newly uncovered and extensive police records, FBI files, and archives of the Communist International in Moscow, O'Connor goes beyond the public figure of heroism to explore the hidden side of a very private person who hated people knowing his business and kept his ambitions and personal demons behind a veil of silence. 'Big Jim' remains the central figure in the history, public history, and mythology of Irish Labour. A powerful orator and brilliant agitator, in popular consciousness Larkin is forever linked with the 1913 Lockout and the formation of the modern Irish Labour movement. Since 1909 he has been the hero of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, the Workers' Union of Ireland, and SIPTU. For all workers, and all employers, his name is synonymous with militancy and solidarity.And yet this 'hero' succeeded in instigating a civil war in Dublin trade unionism, and in time came to be vilified as a 'wrecker' by some of his former comrades. In Big Jim Larkin Emmet O'Connor reveals a man who proves to be both hero and wrecker.Trade Review'Through his re-examination of established sources as well as a range of new material ... O'Connor seeks to present a more comprehensive study of Larkin's life and personality ... Larkin's experiences as family man, international traveller, journalist, and communist provocateur both in America and Ireland are explored, providing us with a more rounded image of Larkin's life than has previously been available.' Brian Ward, Irish Studies Review, August 2016 'In Irish history, the titanic figure of labour leader James Larkin transcends the cause he served ... Emmet O'Connor's excellent biography can surely stake a claim to definitive status. He reconstructs the career of the public man, and in fluent and often elegant prose steers a lucid course through the often murky worlds in which Larkin operated.' John Gibney, Books Ireland, May-June 2016 '... may be his [O'Connor's] masterpiece. Certainly it is now the authoritative life of Big Jim. He is revealed warts and all, and though the warts are many the author does not let them obliterate the features of the real Larkin.' D. R. O'Connor Lysaght, History Ireland, March-April 2016 'Surprisingly, Emmet O'Connor's excellent new book is the first full-length biography of Larkin ... this biography will be indispensable to students of Larkin, the 1913 lockout and Irish labour history generally.' Gerard Noonan, The Irish Story, March 2016 'O'Connor's exhaustively researched biography of Big Jim is a great read and will undoubtedly be regarded as the definitive account of a great but troubled, and troublemaking, man.' Tom Wall, Dublin Review of Books, February 2016 'Dublin is the city most associated with Larkin and Larkinism, but the University of Ulster historian Emmet O'Connor restores Larkin to Liverpool and Larkinism to Belfast ... O'Connor does the hard labour of the historical biography, scratching away at the myth that Larkin would order a strike as casually as requesting bacon for breakfast. He reveals the man underneath: abstemious, a tad prudish; full of nervous energy and strong tea ... It sometimes seems that Larkin's world, and the sort of world he fought for, are very far off. Nevertheless, as this very readable book concludes, he remains "a hero".' Bryce Evans, The Irish Times, 6 February 2016 'Emmet O'Connor's new biography of Jim Larkin is labour history writing at its very best. The author combines an exhaustive knowledge of the source material with a deep empathy for his subject matter while never losing the ability to make sound critical judgement ... It provides the reader with a detailed portrait of Larkin as trade unionist, socialist, republican, propagandist, organiser and family man.'Eoin O Broin, Sunday Business Post, 10 January 2016 'Jim Larkin will forever be remembered for his role in organising the unskilled workers of Dublin, leading them in the great Lockout of 1913 and, although defeated, founding the modern Irish trade union movement in the process. While Emmet O'Connor gives due weight to this period in his masterly new biography he balances it with unrivalled research into Larkin's life after the Lockout, particularly his time in the United States, his relations with the German Empire during the First World War, with the Soviet Union subsequently and his debilitating feuds when he returned to Ireland.'Padraig Yeates, Irish Independent, 28 November, 2015 'This is the first book to cover James Larkin's life in depth and reveals a huge amount of new insight into his remarkable activities.' The Irish Voice, December 2015 'This is an important book by a historian who follows the evidence where it leads ... The work is marked by extensive research ... attractively produced by UCD Press.' T. J. Morrissey, The Irish Catholic, February 2016 'O'Connor's book does help to create a more complete "word -picture" of Larkin, which we shouldn't be afraid to look at more closely. It shows a very human Larkin, subject to all the highs and lows of the victories and defeats that are at the heart of real trade union struggle.' Mark Walshe, Irish Marxist Review, 2016 'O'Connor deserves much credit for how he handled the hidden aspects of Larkin's life ... he has constructed a complete picture of Larkin's life post-1913 ... Big Jim Larkin can now claim to be the definitive account of Larkin's life ... This work tells the story of the real Jim Larkin and exposes many of the myths about the man. It is essential reading.' Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2017 'O'Connor's tremendously detailed research published here fills significant gaps in our knowledge ... For the first time, we have a textured, evidence-based analysis that grapples with the contradictions and complexities of Larkin as public figure and private person ... [this book] should stand as the standard biography of James Larkin for many years to come. It is a superb study of a fascinating historical figure.' Fintan Lane, Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review, 2016Table of ContentsAbbreviations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter 1: A man's man, 1874-1906; Chapter 2: Piping days and roaring nights, 1907; Chapter 3: The leaving of Liverpool, 1908; Chapter 4: The Liverpool leftovers, 1909-10; Chapter 5: Wrath and hope and wonder, 1910-11; Chapter 6: Larkin's next step, 1912-13; Chapter 7: Crushing Larkin, 1913; Chapter 8: Mercury takes flight, 1914; Chapter 9: Kaiser Jim, 1914-17; Chapter 10: Red Jim, 1918-23; Chapter 11: The morals of a European foreign minister, 1923-4; Chapter 12: My way and no way, 1924-45; Chapter 13: Retreat from Moscow, 1927-9; Chapter 14: The Larkintern, 1929-33; Chapter 15: Ishmael, 1934-40; Chapter 16: Evening star, 1941-7; Conclusion: Wirkungsgesehichte; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe Centenary Classics series examines the fascinating time of change and evolution in the Ireland of 100 years ago during the 1916-23 revolutionary period. Each volume is introduced by Fearghal McGarry who sets the scene of this important period in Ireland's history. Rising Out tells the story of Brigadier Sean Connolly, O/C of the Longford Brigade, who was fatally wounded in action on 11 March 1921 at Selton Hill, near Mohill (Co. Leitrim), by British forces during the War of Independence. Comdt-General Ernie O'Malley came across the story in interviews with Tan and Civil War survivors in the early 1950s. The account makes Connolly come alive as a person - his schooling, love of music, education, farming family background and devotion to the nationalist cause. O'Malley, who had actually organised the Irish Volunteers in parts of the area and had known many of the local leaders, gives the social setting for the IRA activities and explains the subtle roles of the IRA General HQ, of the Catholic Church and the Anglo-Irish gentry. Most memorably, he describes in detail what the fighting men actually did locally and what a local leader had to do in order to organise his men.The introduction by his son, Cormac K. H. O'Malley, explains how this memoir came into existence and describes his father's role during the revolutionary period.Trade ReviewCENTENARY CLASSICS: 'Greater familiarity with these sources - including the range of evocative first-hand accounts spanning the revolutionary decade from the Ulster crisis to the Civil War published as part of UCD Press's new Centenary Classics series - should complicate as well as inform commemoration in 2016. Although the achievements of the founding generation will be honoured and, inevitably, appropriated, the urge to celebrate independence should be tempered by an unsentimental understanding of the process by which it was achieved.' Fearghal McGarry 21 March 2016 Irish Examiner; 'UCD Press's new 'Centenary Classics' series makes available eye-witness accounts of key revolutionary episodes including the Ulster crisis; the aftermath of 1916; the rise of Sinn Fein; the War of Independence; the Treaty split; and the Civil War. These provide first-hand perspectives on such topics as the significance of sectarian divisions; the impact of imprisonment on republicanism; the importance of popular mobilisation and guerrilla warfare; and the conflict's divisive legacy. These accounts offer many insights into the influences that shaped the revolutionary generation. The value of these texts does not lie solely in the factual light they shed on past events, they illuminate mentalities, as well as the memory of the revolution, a growing area of research. These stories could be 'made into a patchwork quilt from memory'. This aim alone provides a compelling reason to ensure the wider availability of eye-witness accounts, particularly during a period of commemoration in which politicians and others will claim to speak on their behalf.' Fearghal McGarry, Queen's University Belfast September 2015; 'These contemporary accounts by well known personalities of historical events and attitudes have an immediacy that conventional histories do not have. Introductions by modern historians provide additional historical background and, with hindsight, objectivity.' Books Ireland; 'Scholars of nineteenth-century Irish and Irish-American politics should reacquaint themselves with these classics, part of a long running and immensely useful series from University College Dublin Press.' Irish Literary Supplement. RISING OUT: 'Anything written by O'Malley is of value. The artist's eye for landscape and nature redeems this from being a military manual.' Irish Times; '[O'Malley] not only brings his own skill as a writer to the story but presents something bigger than a biography as he sets than a biography as he sets the war in its social context, in particular the role of the Catholic Church and the local gentry, and gives a vivid description of the activities of the IRA.' Books IrelandTable of ContentsSeries Introduction; Abbreviations; Introduction; Longford; Longford, 1916-18; Longford and National Developments, 1918-20; Longford, 1920: Drumlish, Mostrim, Ballinamuck, Top; Longford, September 1920: Ballymahon and Arvagh Barracks; North Roscommon, October 1920: Castlenode; North Roscomman, November-December 1920: Elphin and Ballinalee Barracks; Dublin Castle, December 1920; Roscommon, October 1920-February 1921: Flying Column, Sheemore, Selton Hill; Appendices; Notes; Index.

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Book SynopsisTogo Heihachiro (1848-1934) was born into a feudal society that had lived in seclusion for 250 years. As a teenage samurai, he witnessed the destruction wrought upon his native land by British warships. As the legendary Silent Admiral, he was at the forefront of innovations in warfare, pioneering the Japanese use of modern gunnery and wireless communication. He is best known as the Nelson of the East for his resounding victory over the Tsar's navy in the Russo-Japanese War, but he also lived a remarkable life studying at a British maritime college, witnessing the Sino-French War, the Hawaiian Revolution, and the Boxer Uprising. After his retirement, he was appointed to oversee the education of the Emperor, Hirohito. This new biography spans Japan's sudden, violent leap out of its self-imposed isolation and into the 20th century. Delving beyond Togo's finest hour at the Battle of Tsushima, it portrays the life of a diffident Japanese sailor in Victorian Britain, his reluctant celebrity in America where he was laid low by Boston cooking and welcomed by his biggest fan, Theodore Roosevelt , forgotten wars over the short-lived Republics of Ezo and Formosa, and the accumulation of peacetime experience that forged a wartime hero.

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Book SynopsisArthur Horner (1894-1968) was a miners' leader from the 1926 general strike to his retirement as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1959. During his life, he played a crucial role in the fight for a national mineworkers union, and in the development of the National Coal Board; he was a champion of the Republicans in Spain; he was imprisoned several times for his views; and, he was in constant demand as a speaker. But it was his warmth, good humour and enthusiasm which made 'little Arthur', as he was affectionately known by his union colleagues, really memorable.Trade Review'Nina Fishman's book is, at last, a worthy record of the significant contributions to the working class and the history of twentieth century Britain by a very remarkable man.' Eric Hobsbawm 'Arthur Horner was a towering, but also a paradoxical figure - a lifelong Communist and fearless champion of his people, who was also an industrial statesman trusted by employers and governments alike. Nina Fishman's biography brings him to life, with all his baffling complexities. She combines meticulous scholarship, psychological insight and mastery of the complex economic and political context. In doing so she has filled a major gap in British labour history.' Professor David Marquand, former Principal, Mansfield College, Oxford 'Nina Fishman's biography of Arthur Horner fills an important gap in the history of coal-mining trade unionism in Wales, Britain and internationally. Arthur Horner was one of the outstanding trade union leaders of the twentieth century - the key figure in the creation of the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Board in the post-war period. His contribution was a lasting one, much admired by succeeding generations of union leaders. Nina Fishman has faithfully and critically recorded this in rich detail.' Hywel Francis, MP for Aberavon 'Had he not insisted on remaining a member of the Communist Party Horner would almost certainly have been a Labour Cabinet Minister and perhaps a chairman of the National Coal Board. In any event he was the most remarkably talented general secretary of the post-war National Union of Mineworkers when that union was at the height of its powers. Professor Nina Fishman's magnum opus biography of Horner will have lasting status as a classic historic work on this truly giant figure of the British labour movement. It is a superb work of research, analysis and wisdom. Geoffrey GoodmanTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgements 615 Abbreviations 618 14 The Post-War Settlement 623 15 General Secretary 675 16 The Sting 727 17 Modus Vivendi 774 18 Threats and Spectres 802 19 Breaking Point 840 20 Holding On 869 21 Swan Song 895 22 Winding Down 929 23 Looking Back 955 Afterword 973 Bibliography 977 Notes 979 Index 1059

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Book SynopsisArthur Horner (1894-1968) was a miners' leader from the 1926 general strike to his retirement as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1959. During his life he played a crucial role in the fight for a national mineworkers union, and in the development of the National Coal Board. He was a champion of the Republicans in Spain, was imprisoned several times for his views, and was in constant demand as a speaker. But it was his warmth, good humour and enthusiasm which made 'little Arthur', as he was affectionately known by his union colleagues, really memorable. Horner was a committed communist, but was also able to exercise effective leadership in a major trade union committed to social democratic principles, playing a key role in the social democratic settlement after the second world war.

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Book SynopsisArthur Horner (1894-1968) was a miners' leader from the 1926 general strike to his retirement as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1959. During his life, he played a crucial role in the fight for a national mineworkers union, and in the development of the National Coal Board; he was a champion of the Republicans in Spain; he was imprisoned several times for his views; and, he was in constant demand as a speaker. But it was his warmth, good humour and enthusiasm which made 'little Arthur', as he was affectionately known by his union colleagues, really memorable.Trade Review'Nina Fishman's book is, at last, a worthy record of the significant contributions to the working class and the history of twentieth century Britain by a very remarkable man.' Eric Hobsbawm 'Arthur Horner was a towering, but also a paradoxical figure - a lifelong Communist and fearless champion of his people, who was also an industrial statesman trusted by employers and governments alike. Nina Fishman's biography brings him to life, with all his baffling complexities. She combines meticulous scholarship, psychological insight and mastery of the complex economic and political context. In doing so she has filled a major gap in British labour history.' Professor David Marquand, former Principal, Mansfield College, Oxford 'Nina Fishman's biography of Arthur Horner fills an important gap in the history of coal-mining trade unionism in Wales, Britain and internationally. Arthur Horner was one of the outstanding trade union leaders of the twentieth century - the key figure in the creation of the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Coal Board in the post-war period. His contribution was a lasting one, much admired by succeeding generations of union leaders. Nina Fishman has faithfully and critically recorded this in rich detail.' Hywel Francis, MP for Aberavon 'Had he not insisted on remaining a member of the Communist Party Horner would almost certainly have been a Labour Cabinet Minister and perhaps a chairman of the National Coal Board. In any event he was the most remarkably talented general secretary of the post-war National Union of Mineworkers when that union was at the height of its powers. Professor Nina Fishman's magnum opus biography of Horner will have lasting status as a classic historic work on this truly giant figure of the British labour movement. It is a superb work of research, analysis and wisdom. Geoffrey GoodmanTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgements 615 Abbreviations 618 14 The Post-War Settlement 623 15 General Secretary 675 16 The Sting 727 17 Modus Vivendi 774 18 Threats and Spectres 802 19 Breaking Point 840 20 Holding On 869 21 Swan Song 895 22 Winding Down 929 23 Looking Back 955 Afterword 973 Bibliography 977 Notes 979 Index 1059

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Book SynopsisJohn Saville (1916-2009) was one of the leading socialist academics of his generation, and one of the most influential figures in British labour history. This new collection of essays offers a variety of perspectives on his lifetime's work. A first section - commitments - assesses Saville's activities, at different times during his life, as a communist, as a founder of the New Left, and as editor (with Ralph Miliband) of the long-running Socialist Register. The middle section - themes - looks at key themes which mattered for Saville, from revolutionary anti-imperialism in India to the politics of Cold War and debates in labour history. In part three - interventions - contributors discuss Saville's contributions to contemporary historical understanding of Chartism, British labourism and the Cold War. The aim is to offer critical analysis and reflection in the tradition which Saville himself did so much to establish.Table of ContentsContents Kevin Morgan - The good old cause Madeleine Davis - The New Reasoner and the Early New Left Colin Leys - 'Honest socialists': John Saville and the Socialist Register John Sakkas - The first casualty of a socialist foreign policy? Greece and Britain in the 1940s Dianne Kirby - Islam and the Religious Cold War Sobhanlal Datta Gupta - History re-examined: anti-imperialism, the Communist Party of India and international communism Tony Adams - Port workers and politics: religion, casual labour and voting in English docklands, 1900-1922 Malcolm Chase - The Chartist movement and 1848 David Howell - The ideology of labourism John Callaghan - The politics of continuity

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Book SynopsisBert Ramelson (1910-1994) was a remarkable man who lived through remarkable times. Born into a Jewish ghetto in pre-1917 Ukraine, he went on to become Britain's foremost communist during the turbulent years of industrial strife in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. He lived through the first years of the Bolshevik revolution and the ensuing Civil War - during which members of his family were murdered in the anti-Semitic pogroms of the period. After a short spell in Palestine working on a Kibbutz, he fought in the Spanish Civil War as a member of the Canadian contingent of the International Brigade, and then as a tank commander with the British Army in the Second World War. Having been taken prisoner at Tobruk, Ramelson went on to lead a mass breakout from an Italian Prisoner of War Camp. From 1937 onwards, Ramelson lived as a professional revolutionary. After the war he spent nearly twenty years as a full-time Communist Party worker in Yorkshire, but it was his appointment as the Party's National Industrial Organiser in 1965 that brought him to national prominence. During this period he received the accolade of being named by prime minister Harold Wilson as the most dangerous man in Britain. As well as playing a leading role on the industrial scene, Ramelson was also centrally involved in the leadership of the Communist Party, where he played a key role in many a stormy debate - including taking the lead in confronting the Soviet authorities when he denounced their 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.Trade Review'Bert Ramelson is best known as the Communist Party's industrial organiser during the days of the Wilson, Heath and Callaghan governments. With others on the left he helped to develop a mass movement based on organised workers which was strong enough to block anti-trade union legislation and protect workers' rights. We badly need such a movement today, with an even broader canvas. Much can be learned about how to do this from studying Bert's life.' Rodney Bickerstaffe, former TUC President

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Book Synopsis"Pierre Gouthiere: Virtuoso Gilder at the French Court" celebrates the life of Pierre Gouthiere (1732-1813), considered to be one of the best Parisian bronze chasers and gilders of the eighteenth-century. Gouthiere became gilder to Louis XV in 1767, and is credited with inventing a new type of gilding that left a matte finish"dorure au mat"one of the hallmarks of his work. Although incredibly successful in his day, Gouthiere died in relative obscurity and poverty; unlike some of his contemporaries his works never regained popularity after the French Revolution.The inclusion of detailed entries and plates of forty works positively attributed to Gouthiere, five essays by leading experts which examine Gouthiere's life, career, clientele, and gilding techniques, as well as examples of his work from French, British and American collections, ensure that this beautiful volume is an invaluable new resource on Gouthiere. The only other volume on this master was published in 1920, and is now long out of print.Table of ContentsDirector's Foreword; Acknowledgments; Note to the Reader; Pierre Gouthiere: A Gilded Legend by Charlotte Vignon; The Life and Work of Pierre Gouthiere by Christian Baulez; Gouthiere's Network of Architects and Designers by Anne Forray-Carlier; Gouthiere's Network of Craftsmen by Christian Baulez; "Twenty Fingers on Each Hand": Pierre Gouthiere's Chasing and Gilding Techniques by Joseph Godla; Gouthiere's Legacy: Nineteenth-Century Collectors in Britain by Helen Jacobsen; Catalogue Raisonne: Silver Gilt; Vases, Incense Burners, Ewers, and Pots-Pourris; Clocks; Light Fixtures; Firedogs; Architectural Elements; Chimneypieces; Tables; Furniture Mounts; Columns and Pedestals; Catalogue Notes; Appendix 1; Appendix 2; Bibliography; Photography Credits; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis is Brough Scott's moving biography of his grandfather - the author of the best-selling Warrior. 'Galloper' Jack Seely was at the heart of some of the most important events of the first part of the 20th century. His early life was one of adventure, sailing to the antipodes, saving the crew of a French ship wrecked off the coast of the Isle of Wight and later raising a squadron and joining the Boer War, where he was awarded the DSO for his bravery. On his return to England he was elected Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, but just like his close friend Winston Churchill, later crossed over to the Liberal party. At the outbreak of the First World War, Seely went to the Western Front and there made his name as a humane and innovative leader. Written with honesty and wit, this is an exciting, unusual and thought-provoking biography of a man who has been unfairly treated by history.Trade ReviewAn enthralling book about a wild adventurer, a courageous soldier, a politician [and] a statesman. Ian Wooldrige, Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisIn 1894, Martin Conway became the first man to walk the Alps 'from end to end' when he completed a 1,000-mile journey from the Col de Tende in Italy to the summit of the Ankogel in Austria. On a midsummer's morning, nearly 120 years later, Simon Thompson followed in his footsteps, setting out to explore both the mountains and the man. A charming rogue who led a 'fantastically eventful' life, according to The Times, Conway was a climber and pioneering explorer of the Himalaya, Spitsbergen, the Andes and Patagonia; a serial pursuer of American heiresses; an historian, collector and Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge; a company director and stock market promoter of dubious gold mines and non-existent rubber forests; the founder of the Imperial War Museum; the first foreigner to see the Russian crown jewels after the revolution; a successful journalist and author of over thirty books; a liberal politician; and a conservative MP. Shortly before he died, he was created 1st Baron Conway of Allington. Conway was a clubbable man who counted Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, J. P. Morgan, John Ruskin, Mark Twain and Edward Whymper among his many friends and acquaintances. An imperialist, a dreamer, a liar and a cheat, Conway 'walked in sunshine all his life', according to contemporaries, but he was also a restless, discontented man, constantly searching for meaning and purpose in his life. And that search that led him back, time and time again, to the Alps. In A Long Walk with Lord Conway, Simon Thompson retraces Conway's long journey over the peaks, passes and glaciers of the Alps and rediscovers the life of a complex and remarkable English adventurer.Trade Review'A Long Walk with Lord Conway, an absorbing amalgam of travel, biography and history, will help to rehabilitate one of the more 'colourful late Victorian personalities'.'--Times Literary Supplement

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