Description
Book SynopsisA masterful history of Ireland’s Easter Rising told through the lives of ordinary people who forged a revolutionary generation.
Trade Review"Brilliantly and vigorously reveals the personal histories that shaped the Irish revolutionary moment of the early 20th century." -- Hermione Lee - Wall Street Journal
"[Foster] is well equipped to investigate the cultural context of the revolution. Drawing on a marvelous range of sources, he has succeeded in delineating this generation in half a dozen elegant thematic chapters." -- Keith Jeffery - Wall Street Journal
"A deep, intricate portrait of the generation leading up to the Easter Uprising… fascinating." -- Publishers Weekly
"[An] incisive history." -- The New Yorker
"A fascinating, moving, but often sad account… Foster views [the nationalists] with sympathy, affection, but also with a critical eye… an outstanding tableau." -- Jay Freeman - Booklist
"Telling details repeatedly inform Foster's
Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890-1923, giving texture and depth to the many people filling his large canvas—while scraping away the layers of post-revolution varnish that still makes it so hard to separate mythology from history whenever discussing Ireland." -- Mike Fischer - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"
Vivid Faces is an ingenious and original account of the generation of men and women who created the conditions for revolution in Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century. By looking at social and sexual life, at private diaries, at marriages and friendships, by examining literary as well as military activity, using his brilliant historian’s intelligence, Foster has reinterpreted the 1916 Rebellion in Dublin. The result is the study of a generation who sought not only political but personal freedom, and in doing so, set about reimagining an entire nation." -- Colm Toíbín, author of The Testament of Mary
"There will be many more books to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, but none, I suspect, more stimulating and important than this one." -- Ben Macintyre - Times
