British Democracy and Irish Nationalism 1876–1906

Abstract

British Democracy and Irish Nationalism is a study of the impact of the Home Rule controversy on liberalism and popular radicalism in Britain and Ireland. It is also something of a sequel to Biagini's important book, Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform: Popular Liberalism in the Age of Gladstone 1860–1880 (1992). The main argument of the book is that the debate over Home Rule acted as the principal catalyst in the remaking of popular radicalism in the period. Biagini rejects the traditional negative view that Gladstone's obsession with Home Rule split the Liberal party and facilitated the rise of Labour. On the contrary, he claims that Home Rule was popular with the Liberal rank-and-file (including the Labour movement) and not responsible for the terminal decline of the party in the twentieth century. He also argues that the controversy over Home Rule was part of a wider debate about imperialism, democracy and liberty, and the ‘politics of humanitarianism’.