{"product_id":"vivid-faces-9780241954249","title":"Vivid Faces","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOBSERVER \u003c\/i\u003eBOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT \u003c\/i\u003eBOOKS OF THE YEAR and \u003ci\u003eOBSERVER \u003c\/i\u003eBOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION''S MORRIS D. FORKOSCH PRIZE 2016\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''The most complete and plausible exploration of the roots of the 1916 Rebellion... essential reading'' Colm Tóibín\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eVivid Faces\u003c\/i\u003e surveys the lives and beliefs of the people who made the Irish Revolution: linked together by youth, radicalism, subversive activities, enthusiasm and love.  Determined to reconstruct the world and defining themselves against their parents, they were in several senses a revolutionary generation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Ireland that eventually emerged bore little relation to the brave new world they had conjured up in student societies, agit-prop theatre groups, vegetarian restaurants, feminist collectives, volunteer militias, Irish-language summer schools,  and radical newspaper offices. Roy Foster''\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTerrific\u003c\/b\u003e . . . It is a measure of his literary skill, as well as his expertise as a historian, that he is able to counterpoint so many life stories without sinking into confusion . . . Foster's prose is urbanely precise and he can pin down character as memorably as Yeats . . . Foster has the alertness of an Edwardian novelist to the nuances of class and location . . . depicted with masterly economy in all its brutality, confusion and courage . . .\u003cb\u003e Patient, analytical, articulate, this is a book that counts because it avoids the Irish vice of replacing history  with commemoration\u003c\/b\u003e -- John Kerrigan * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eThis book . . . reveals a rich and assorted cast of characters with a diversity of views and preoccupations - feminism, socialism, religious diversity, sexual liberalism, the works . . . \u003cb\u003eThe beauty of \u003ci\u003eVivid Faces\u003c\/i\u003e is that it is squarely based on the testimonies of the characters themselves - letters, diaries, articles, books and later memories - and shows them as they were, not in the light of what they became, especially those revolutionaries sanctified in the selective historical memory of the Irish Republic \u003c\/b\u003e. . . There are very funny accounts here of how summer schools in the Irish-speaking west of Ireland were an opportunity for unchaperoned young people enthusiastically to pair off . . . \u003cb\u003eThere can be few better accounts of [these] people . . . than this book.\u003c\/b\u003e Foster writes with unconcealed delight about the foibles of these wonderful individuals as well as their achievements . . . \u003cb\u003eThere will be any number of accounts of the Easter Rising and its genesis in the run up to the centenary, but few will be as enjoyable as this\u003c\/b\u003e -- Melanie McDonagh * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eFoster has managed to produce \u003cb\u003ethe most complete and plausible exploration of the roots of the 1916 Rebellion\u003c\/b\u003e and the power it subsequently exerted over the public imagination. As the centenary approaches, his book will be \u003cb\u003eessential reading\u003c\/b\u003e for anyone who wishes to follow the argument about the Irish revolutionary generation -- Colm Tóibín * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eA significant accomplishment that makes a serious case for the concept of 'generations' in exploring the origins of the Rising . . . Through personal diaries, letters and journals, [Foster] allows us to see how these young people lived. What follows is a portrait of an Ireland that bears little resemblance to the country that emerged after 1922 . . . Foster's book, in unmatchable prose, is a must-read -- Niamh Gallagher * Times Higher Education *\u003cbr\u003ePowerful and absorbing . . . [Foster] draws on decades of engagement with cultural history to bring an original, lively and learned analysis to a fascinating generation . . . Judicious and empathetic, with no attempt to hide his admiration for their idealism, he does not fall into the trap of assessing them acerbically through the lens of the present but allows their own words to breathe. Much of his account is riveting and skilfully woven together, with the analysis enlivened by Foster's customary sparkling prose . . . [he] does a lot to balance male-dominated accounts of the period . . . Crucially, this is not a book built on reductive hindsight; instead it gives us a deep and textured awareness of that \"enclosed, self-referencing, hectic world\" where the thinkers lived, worked, reflected and dreamed -- Diarmaid Ferriter * Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003eRoy Foster . . . has achieved what few have managed: an account of the Irish revolution that captures its quixotic ardour without succumbing to it . . . \u003ci\u003eVivid Faces\u003c\/i\u003e is a wonderful book about revolution - both the specific and the general. I read it in the aftermath of Scotland's abortive revolution by referendum and found Foster's analysis painfully wise -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eWritten by a master-historian, this superbly orchestrated group portrait of Ireland's 'revolutionary generation' from 1890 to 1923 shows how the independence movement drew its ideas, tactics and personnel not from peasant outsiders but metropolitan, middle-class insiders . . . Foster highlights refreshing new perspectives -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eExtraordinary personal journeys outlined in Foster's richly detailed evocation of a period of Irish history in which idealism, bohemianism and artistic creativity went with a resurgence of militant nationalism and what Foster calls 'the cult of the gun' . . . Foster's exhaustively researched history delineates the various streams of cultural and social radicalism that converged in the two decades leading up to the Irish revolution -- Sean O'Hagan * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eSometimes a history book prompts one to reflect on the past and present alike. R F Foster, professor of Irish history at Oxford University, has just published such a text . . . Foster writes so compellingly -- Martin Kettle * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eWritten with a stern sense of authority, but simultaneously leaving room for suggestion, interpretation, debate and nuance, \u003ci\u003eVivid Faces \u003c\/i\u003eis an immensely important analysis of Irish history that will be used again and again as a reference point for generations to come: continuing a much-needed healthy debate about what exactly Irish Republicanism stands for? -- J P O'Malley * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eIt is a relief to read such a study, which takes for granted that the world is incorrigibly plural, and which immerses itself in the stuff of passionate human histories -- Neil Hegarty * Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eThe book itself is a valuable collection of a broad range of views of participants that publishers dared not mention for decades. It dissects the propaganda to provide an insightful look at the real contemporary thinking . . . invaluable historical record -- Ryle Dwyer * Irish Examiner *\u003cbr\u003eGenerous, humane and stylish -- Jonathan Keates * Times Literary Supplement BOOKS OF THE YEAR *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733372776791,"sku":"9780241954249","price":12.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780241954249.jpg?v=1719999957","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/vivid-faces-9780241954249","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}