Irish Interest Research Articles

Irish diaspora policy and soft power projection

ABSTRACT Diasporic engagement has not been a common aspect of Irish national projection but Ireland’s recent policy platforms have sought to activate diasporic sentiment in the service of soft power. A broader and more diverse construction of diaspora is put forward and a more nuanced Government of Ireland reach-out is directed at a wider range of global markets’ than has heretofore been the case. This reformulation of global Irish identity and diversified spatial projection of Irish interest points to an assertive spatialization of Irish themes in the global sphere as Ireland seeks to harness its diaspora in pursuit of soft power.

“Do not destroy me before my time”: Iphigenia’s Versions and Appropriations in Contemporary Irish Theatre

Iphigenia in Aulis has been adapted by Irish contemporary playwrights such as Marina Carr, Edna O’Brien or Andy Hinds. This article offers an introductory analysis of the reasons behind the Irish interest towards the Greek tragedy, followed by a comparative study of the three versions mentioned. The identification of the overarching themes will unveil the spaces for transformation: while Carr focuses on the depiction of a modern and corrupt Agamemnon and the rewriting of strong women, O’Brien adds extra plots and characters to highlight feminist voices, and Hinds eliminates, adds and relocates lines from the original play, to write a more performable version. Conclusions reveal the rewriting of the concept of sacrificial women, and present the three plays as relevant contributions to the reception of Euripides in Ireland.

Coping with an EU and Domestic Crisis: Ireland’s Approach to Brexit

ABSTRACT Following the UK decision to leave the EU (European Union), Ireland was confronted with profound political and economic challenges linked to its relationship with both the EU and the UK. With a view to protecting Irish interests, the Irish government pursued determined efforts to ‘seek shelter’ from the EU and to develop a ‘hedging’ strategy. In contrast, Irish national authorities faced a decidedly more difficult challenge in balancing different logics of action vis-à-vis the EU, to which Ireland remains committed, and the UK, which continues to be an economically and politically important neighbour for Ireland. Largely successful EU-focused coping strategies co-existed alongside a less positive effort at maintaining a cordial and constructive British-Irish bilateral relationship. The sum of Ireland’s coping strategies, however, unleashed a series of Europeanisation dynamics which reflect a shift in the nature of Ireland’s traditional relationship with the EU. Brexit has stimulated and motivated a greater propensity to upload Irish preferences, including in relation to the EU’s foreign policy landscape.

Institutional Libraries and Book Collecting Practices in Ireland, 1960–2000

The National Library of Ireland (NLI) became a legal deposit library in 1927, joining Trinity College which had been, since 1801, subject to British legal-deposit legislation. These two institutions were to form the backbone of the country’s large-scale collection and preservation of written heritage during the twentieth century. In augmenting their collections during this time, they faced similar challenges of space and finance, while also benefitting from the dispersal of major private libraries of big houses in the post-civil war era. This article examines the acquisitions policies of these two libraries in the context of broader trends in the rare book trade. It considers the shifting sands of public and university budgets for library-building during the latter half of the twentieth century and examines where books and archives of Irish interest were bought and sold. In particular, it addresses the impact of the growth of US universities and specialist libraries on the market for Irish material from the 1960s onwards. Responding to this increased competition, the Irish institutions managed their collections and acquisitions in new ways, often at increased cost and using selective buying practices. Drawing on catalogues of sales, auctions and library records, this article offers a broad appreciation of the literary-institutional landscape in a period of vast change in Ireland.

The First ‘British’ Colony in the Americas: Inter-kingdom Cooperation and Stuart-British Ideology in the Colonisation of Newfoundland, 1616–1640

The accession of James VI, the Stewart (or Stuart) King of Scots, to the thrones of England and Ireland in 1603 renewed debates about ‘Britishness’. Many of the king’s attempts to popularise and codify his version of the concept were unsuccessful. His vision for closer political union between England and Scotland did not come to pass until 1707 and most historians attribute the formation of British identity to the eighteenth century. Most influentially, Linda Colley has argued that British identity was forged in the crucible of eighteenth-century empire-building as English, Scottish, and Welsh people lived, worked, and fought together across the globe in defence of shared values. English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish people and interests likewise coalesced in the pursuit of empire in the early seventeenth century. They cooperated in attempts to colonise Newfoundland and explicitly promoted the project as British. The Newfoundland example shows that James’ British vision had some success. This article examines the project’s ‘Britishness’ and argues that the 1603 union of the crowns’ role in the formation of British identity and its impact on overseas expansion requires additional attention.

“Like Ireland, Hungary Had Her Struggles for Freedom:” Cultural and Diplomatic Links between Interwar Ireland and Hungary

Abstract The interwar years in Ireland were marked by the widening of international relations following the newly independent Irish Free State’s entry to the League of Nations in 1923. This paper aims to provide insights into a lesser-known part of Irish diplomatic history, focusing on how, besides Geneva, Dublin also became significant as a meeting point with Central European small states from the mid-1920s. It will trace how the foundation of the Honorary Consulate of Hungary in Dublin demonstrated Irish interest in widening economic relations and furthering cultural connections with Central Europe, even if honorary consulates traditionally fulfilled primarily symbolic purposes. Based on so far unpublished archival materials and press records, this article will assess cultural and diplomatic links cultivated under the consulate of Hubert Briscoe, highlighting the significance of independence and Catholicism as a perceived connection between Irish and Hungarian national identities. Ultimately, this article argues that Irish images of East-Central Europe may add to our current understanding of Irish nationalism in the first decades of Irish independence.

Did monetary policy fuel the housing bubble? An application to Ireland

This paper provides empirical evidence of the role of the euro in the genesis of the recent Irish financial-economic crisis. By using a Taylor rule we measure the appropriateness of the ECB’s one-size-fits-all policy rate for the Irish economy. A counterfactual analysis suggests that the Irish interest rate should have been on average 6.5% higher. Using a BVAR and multivariate housing model, we provide econometric evidence that under an alternative sovereign monetary policy, the average house price would have been 25–30% lower just before the housing bust. In addition, it shows that a monetary policy tailored to the needs of the member state prevents housing prices from dramatically increasing.

Translating the Jansenist Controversy in Britain and Ireland

Abstract This article explores perceptions of Jansenism in Britain and Ireland in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Grounded in the theology of Cornelius Jansen, the Catholic bishop of Ypres, the wider Jansenist ‘movement’ was a controversial group of theologians, philosophers, clergy and nuns whose disputes with the papacy and French monarchy endured well into the eighteenth century. These centred on questions of divine grace, papal fallibility and even political dissent. In exploring the translation and reception of these ideas, this article foregrounds a moment in the late 1670s when the natural philosopher Robert Boyle and a group of like-minded Protestants attempted to incorporate Jansenist writings into a translation of the Bible into Irish. Enthusiasm for this was based on widely held perceptions that the Jansenists represented a more rational strain of Catholicism which anticipated a broader reform of Catholic Europe. The ensuing ‘Jansenist Preface’ was intended to help unify Christendom by bringing about a more rational religion among Ireland’s Catholics. The shock felt by Boyle and his collaborators upon actually reading Jansenist works, and the reappraisal this engendered, provides the foundation for a wider exploration of how ideas and representations of the Jansenist controversy moved, were translated, and subsequently engaged with across these confessional spaces. In doing so, this article sets British and Irish interests in Jansenism against wider questions of interconfessional dialogue and European reformation, and explores the place of mobility and translation in the framing of the reformation process.

Legacies of a Broken United Kingdom: British Military Charities, the State and the Courts in Ireland, 1923–29

Over the past forty years, the historiography of British Army ex-serviceman in Ireland has undergone a veritable ‘historical revolution’. Like its British and international counterparts, the historiography on Ireland has focused on the lives and care of these men after the war within the Irish Free State; Irish government policy towards them; and ex-servicemen’s relationships with the Irish and British governments, British agencies and their own often hostile communities. Researchers continue to document the existence, organisation and activities of two British government agencies: the Land Trust and Ministry of Pensions, with brief analyses being undertaken on the British Legion and more especially the Southern Irish Loyalists Relief Association’s vital role in relieving impoverished ex-servicemen and their families. Yet far more can still be said about ‘British’ military charity in Ireland after 1922. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, to discuss two court cases that were fought by the Irish, British and Northern Irish governments and several other Irish interests between 1923 and 1929 over the legacies of two then redundant pre-war Irish military charities. Second, to analyse the place of two court cases within the broader contexts of Irish post-war state-building and the history of the British ex-serviceman, but more especially his family in Ireland. What would their fate be in an independent Ireland?

Central European Border Settlements and Interwar Ireland: a Transnational Study of the North- Eastern Boundary Bureau and the Boundary Commission

ABSTRACTIn the aftermath of the Great War, the birth of new independent small states in East-Central Europe was closely followed in Irish nationalist circles due to the possibility of Partition in Ireland. Newspaper editorials, journal articles and diplomatic accounts illustrate that post-war Ireland had an open attitude toward the settlement of borders on the Continent as the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was similarly controversial. This paper aims to investigate how contemporary Irish commentators perceived the question of boundary settlements in Central Europe in order to provide an insight into the transformation of political space in both Ireland and Central Europe. After providing a brief background to the Irish boundary question, this paper touches upon the most important points in historiography with regard to border settlements in the post-World War I era.. It also discusses Irish Partition history in detail, concentrating on the North-Eastern Boundary Bureau (NEBB) and the Boundary Commission, and the importance of Central European precedents in their work. Moreover, this paper also proposes to provide an insight into the Irish interest in the minority problem in European borderland regions after 1925 in order to illustrate the outward-looking attitude to Irish nationalists, even in relation to borders and minorities.

Contested Constitutionalism? Northern Ireland and the British–Irish Relationship since 2010

This article argues that the root of recent crises and political stalemate in Northern Ireland lies in a constitutional failure. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 played an innovative constitutional role in Northern Ireland, and this was central to peace and stability. Yet, its own principles were underspecified and disputed. Strong convergent action by the British and Irish states functioned as an informal mode of constitutional adjudication and it stabilised the settlement. It failed, however, to emphasise constitutional principles or to embed them within the politics of Northern Ireland. British and Irish interests and capacities have changed and with them also the role the states play in Northern Ireland; the result from 2012 has been recurrent political crisis. If the informal British–Irish approach cannot be sustained, the likely alternative—a narrower form of British sovereigntism—carries still greater dangers to stability.

Did Monetary Policy Fuel the Housing Bubble in Ireland?

This paper provides empirical evidence of the role of the euro in the genesis of the recent Irish financial-economic crisis caused by a regional housing boom and its inevitable bust. By using a Taylor-rule, estimated by Generalized Method of Moments, we measure the appropriateness of the ECB’s one-size-fits-all policy rate for the Irish economy. A counterfactual analysis suggests that the Irish interest rate should have been on average 6.5% higher. In addition, using a multivariate housing model, we provide econometric evidence for the causal relationship between the low interest rate and the Irish housing boom. Under an alternative sovereign monetary policy, the average house price would have been 25 to 30 percent lower just before the housing bust in the second quarter of 2007. In addition, it shows that a monetary policy tailored to the needs of the member state is enough to prevent housing prices from dramatically increasing and suggests that it is not necessary to include a lean against house price fluctuations in monetary policy strategies.

Editorial

Editorial John Doyle Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, Dublin City University This issue of Irish Studies in International Affairs has two thematic sections, along with a selection of other papers. The first theme focuses on conflict and conflict resolution in the South Asian region, and in particular has an interest in opening up a debate on the potential lessons of the Northern Ireland peace process for that region. As those papers are preceded by a substantial introduction below, I will confine myself here simply to thanking all the contributors for making their papers available for publication in this year’s volume, and in particular I thank the international scholars whose papers appear in that section for travelling to Ireland to present their work. The publication of the papers will, it is hoped, advance the debate on how rigorous comparasion between diverse regions is possible, and how lessons can best be drawn from the Northern Ireland case in a manner that is accessible to international audiences. The second thematic section this year marks the ninetieth anniversary of Ireland’s diplomatic relations with the U.S. The papers are drawn from a seminar hosted by the Embassy of Ireland in Washington, D.C. on 7 October 2014, under the title ‘“A Unique Relationship”: Celebrating 90 Years of Ireland–U.S. Relations—The First Decades of Irish Diplomacy in America’. We are very grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and in particular to Ambassador Anne Anderson who opened the seminar, for their cooperation and their permission to publish the papers in Irish Studies in International Affairs. In the first paper, Bernadette Whelan explores the early days of Irish diplomacy, beginning with Harry Boland’s appointment as the official representative of Dáil Éireann in the U.S. from May 1920 to January 1922. Boland, despite some early success, did not in the end secure American recognition of Ireland’s declaration of independence. In March 1922, following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, Timothy A. Smiddy replaced Boland as official representative of Dáil Éireann. Whelan goes on to discuss why it then took from 1922 to 1924 for the U.S. to recognise an independent Irish diplomatic representation formally. Michael Kennedy continues this analysis by situating the appointment of Smiddy in the Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 26 (2015), 1–3. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3318/ISIA.2015.26.20 international context facing Ireland. In a critical year between September 1923 and October 1924, he says, Ireland, then known as the Irish Free State, joined the League of Nations— pointedly as an independent state, attended its first Imperial Conference as a dominion, registered the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 at the League of Nations as an international document and, finally, appointed Smiddy as minister plenipotentiary to the United States as Ireland’s first officially recognised diplomatic representative. Troy Davis complements these papers very nicely with an analysis of the programme of work Smiddy dealt with in his first years in Washington, in particular focusing on his efforts to strengthen the legitimacy of the Free State government. Finally in this section, Ambassador Gerard Keown, writing in a personal capacity, reflects on the first decade of Irish diplomatic activity in the U.S. A wide range of international issues of considerable Irish interest are addressed in the collection of papers that follows that section. Connolly and Doyle draw on the work of U.S. academic William Zartman to place the Northern Ireland peace process within the international literature on conflict mediation. Graham Butler reviews the Interparliamentary Conference (IPC) on the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) since its establishment in 2012. He argues that the IPC ‘has a long way to go’ before it represents a proper oversight body, but nonetheless, given the weakness of Irish parliamentary oversight of foreign and security policy, it still represents a useful forum. David Hallinan explores the role and impact of the EU as a political actor in Northeast Asia, focusing on the People’s Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea...

Ireland, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

In this introduction to Irish Studies in International Affairs I share the normal duty of presenting the papers with two other colleagues—Mervyn O’Driscoll and Jamie Walsh of University College Cork, who organised the symposium on disarmament and non-proliferation, hosted in Academy House, Dublin, in March 2014, from which nine of the first twelve papers in this issue are drawn. As organisers of the event I will leave the honour of introducing those papers to their piece, which follows, but will add my own thanks to all the symposium participants for making their papers available for publication in this year’s volume. This allows the journal to deal comprehensively with a topic that has been explored frequently in individual papers over the years, indicating an ongoing Irish interest in the matter. The range of topics covered by the seminar papers and the expertise involved is impressive, and the human dimension of the debate could not be captured more appropriately than by the inclusion of the testimony by Ms Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb attack. We are again grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for its support for the symposium itself, and for its on-going support for the journal. I would like to thank in particular the then Minister of State at the department, Joe Costello, TD, for speaking at the symposium and for making his contribution available for inclusion in the journal. In addition to the papers directly related to the symposium, three additional papers on disarmament and non-proliferation are included in this volume. A paper by Mervyn and Jamie argues that the Irish contribution to the first Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, in 1975, was important in establishing the credibility of the treaty as an instrument of international law. Saira Bano of the University of Calgary offers a clear and critical analysis of the Indian government’s successful negotiation of international acceptance of its nuclear trade deal with the US, despite its not being a signatory to the NPT, and argues that the deal undermines international

Ireland, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

Ireland, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation John Doyle Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, Dublin City University In this introduction to Irish Studies in International Affairs I share the normal duty of presenting the papers with two other colleagues—Mervyn O’Driscoll and Jamie Walsh of University College Cork, who organised the symposium on disarmament and non-proliferation, hosted in Academy House, Dublin, in March 2014, from which nine of the first twelve papers in this issue are drawn. As organisers of the event I will leave the honour of introducing those papers to their piece, which follows, but will add my own thanks to all the symposium participants for making their papers available for publication in this year’s volume. This allows the journal to deal comprehensively with a topic that has been explored frequently in individual papers over the years, indicating an ongoing Irish interest in the matter.1 The range of topics covered by the seminar papers and the expertise involved is impressive, and the human dimension of the debate could not be captured more appropriately than by the inclusion of the testimony by Ms Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb attack. We are again grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for its support for the symposium itself, and for its on-going support for the journal. I would like to thank in particular the then Minister of State at the department, Joe Costello, TD, for speaking at the symposium and for making his contribution available for inclusion in the journal. In addition to the papers directly related to the symposium, three additional papers on disarmament and non-proliferation are included in this volume. A paper by Mervyn and Jamie argues that the Irish contribution to the first Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, in 1975, was important in establishing the credibility of the treaty as an instrument of international law. Saira Bano of the University of Calgary offers a clear and critical analysis of the Indian government’s successful negotiation of international acceptance of its nuclear trade deal with the US, despite its not being a signatory to the NPT, and argues that the deal undermines international Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 25 (2014), 1–3. doi: 10.3318/ISIA.2014.25.18 1 See, for example, Duncan Smith, ‘Perspectives on the revival of the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty regime in the wake of President Barack Obama’s Prague speech’, Irish Studies in International Affairs 21 (2010), 179–96; Lorna Gold and Eileen Connolly ‘Development and the United Nations: achievements and challenges for the future’, Irish Studies in International Affairs 17 (2006), 61–75; John Doyle ‘Irish diplomacy on the UN Security Council 2001–2: foreign policy-making in the light of day’, Irish Studies in International Affairs 15 (2004), 73–102. non-proliferation efforts. Diana O’Dywer (Dublin City University) in turn offers a reflection on Ireland’s role in the Cluster Munitions Convention, questions the dominant narrative of the importance of civil society activism in concluding that convention and raises a critical mirror to popular perspectives on the Irish state’s role. After the large collection of papers on disarmament, the second section of this year’s volume explores three heretofore under-analysed aspects of the history of Ireland’s diplomacy. Kevin McCarthy offers a very perceptive insight into Eamon de Valera’s relationship with Robert Briscoe, a fellow Fianna Fáil member and Ireland’s only Jewish TD for almost 40 years, and how that interacted with Ireland’s developing position on the question of Palestine and the state of Israel. In a historical reflection on some Irish domestic political events of 2014, McCarthy, whose paper was written before the very public debates on the contemporary crisis in the Department of Justice emerged, comments on how ‘de Valera’s personal ecumenism propelled him to intercede’ in relation to ‘conservative immigration decisions of a reactionary Department of Justice’. Michael Kennedy contributes a fascinating analysis of the case of Andrija Artuković, the Minister of the Interior in the Nazi puppet creation the Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Independent State of Croatia), who gained entry to Ireland after the Second World...

Fianna Fáil, Northern Ireland and the Limits on Conciliation, 1969–1973

This article examines the focus of Fianna Fáil policy initiatives relating to the Northern Ireland issue in the period 1969–1973 within the context of their interpretation of Irish republicanism and beliefs as to where Irish interests lay. Managing the consequences of the emerging conflict within the southern jurisdiction is explored through the lens of national sovereignty, political and institutional authority and the defence of the rights of Irish citizens. Critiques that hold that a fresh politics had emerged in the Republic of Ireland during the 1960s are challenged as the limitations on new thinking on the national question are assessed. The Fianna Fáil administration under Jack Lynch pursued a cautious approach, designed to reaffirm Irish sovereignty to both national and international audiences, uphold political authority and the rule of law within the state and restate the case for Irish reunification at every available opportunity. Confrontations between the British political, security and legal apparatus and their Irish equivalents reflected a resolute Irish government exercising political autonomy in pursuit of its objectives in a manner consistent with the norms of the time. Only slowly did Fianna Fáil reappraise, in a limited manner, its approach when progress at an intergovernmental level seemed possible.

Social Democracy and Partition: The British Labour Party and Northern Ireland, 1951—64

Within the academic literature there appear to be conflicting interpretations about the nature of British Labour policy towards Northern Ireland. Bob Purdie, in his analysis of the small 'Friends of Ireland' pressure grouping in the 1940s, has shown how Irish interests failed to inflame Irish nationalist sympathy among Labour backbenchers,' a view recently challenged by Peter Rose.2 Perhaps most damning of all, Rumpf and Hepburn have concluded negatively, but not without some justification, that 'even British socialism has been unable to intervene in Northern Ireland affairs outside the sectarian framework'.3 A more accurate view would show that in fact Labour's policy has been more complex and contradictory than this. On the basis of evidence recently excavated from the Labour Party Archives one could argue that not only did Labour see the pro-partitionist NILP as a viable non-sectarian alternative to unionism; it also endorsed the party's policies and financed it by way of an annual maintenance grant until as late as 1975.4 One of the most illuminating interpretations of British Labour involvement in Northern Ireland is that provided by the scholar Paul Dixon.5 Dixon's premise, briefly stated, is that the party's attitude to Northern Ireland in the 1960s was conditioned by its attitude to decolonization more generally. He argues that we must view Labour's Irish policy through the prism of a 'classnation' paradigm and not by emphasizing a trans-historical line of enquiry which overestimates the strength of anti-partitionism within its ranks. According to Dixon, it is British Labour's ambiguity over precisely what con-

‘We are Irish Everywhere’: Irish Immigrant Networks in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia

In the nineteenth century, Irish immigrants in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, showed a strong interest in the affairs of Ireland and its residents. Although a distinct minority in these ‘southern’ cities, they formed networks through societies, clubs, militias and Irish nationalist organisations to encourage social activities and ethnic connections among their fellow countrymen and those friendly towards Irish interests. These groups provided opportunities for upwardly-mobile immigrants to improve their social status in America, while retaining their ‘Irishness’. Charity towards new migrants was thus an important element in retaining ethnicity. Irish Protestants initially dominated these networks, but increasingly, as the century progressed, Irish and Irish-American Catholics came to prominence. Nonetheless, interdenominational networks remained strong. Class and sectarian divisions within the Irish communities of these two cities were not as deep or rigid as they were in some other Irish-American communities. Overall this study highlights the great importance of immigrant networks in assuring Irish integration into host societies.

On the Credibility of the Irish Pound in the EMS

In this paper we present new insights in the literature on the credibility of the Irish pound in the European Monetary System (EMS), adding value to the previous research, which has focused either on the correlation between Irish interest rates and Irish Pound/Pound Sterling exchange rate (therefore examining the credibility in an indirect way) or on the traditional credibility indicators. In contrast, we try to provide some additional evidence making use of a wider set of credibility indicators, including the marginal credibility that has not been examined before for the Irish case. At the same time, we extend the analysis by considering in our sample the more recent events in the EMS history, particularly the broadening of fluctuation bands in 1993. Our results suggest credibility gains (i) after the realignments of the Irish pound on 4 August 1986, on 12 January 1987 and on 1 February 1993; (ii) after the broadening of the fluctuation bands to ? 15% on 2 August 1993; and (iii) around the devaluation of the Spanish peseta and the Portuguese escudo on 6 March 1995. On the other hand, we detect some occasional reductions in credibility, notably before the monetary turmoil registered in September 1992 and after the Italian lira rejoined the Exchange Rate Mechanism on 25 November 1996. Finally, it is interesting to note that our results suggest that the marginal credibility measure seems to be the best credibility indicator to capture the main events of the sample period. Therefore, the use of an econometric technique that allows the parameters to change along time is quite appropriate for the study of credibility in a target zone (i.e., stabilizing interventions by the central banks, speculative movements by private agents, and realignments modify the parameters of the process along the period studied), justifying further the contribution of our paper.

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Clandestine Marriage in England, 150–850. By R.B. OUthwaite The Later Tudors. England, 1547–2603. By Penry Williams Thonias Nortorz: The Parliament Man. By Michael A.R. Graves Absolute Monarchy and the Stuart Constitution. By Glenn Burgess The Political World of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, 1621–1641. Henry Parker and the English Civil Way. The Political Thought of the Pirhlic's ‘Privado’. By Michael Mendle Classical Humanism and Republicanism in English Political Thought, 1570–1640. Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649–1776. By Markku Peltonen Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649‐1776. Politics and Society in Great Yarmouth 1660–1722. By Perry Gauci Ireland in the Stuart Papers. Correspondence and Documents of Irish Interest from the Stuart Papers in the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle. Cuto's Letters. Or, Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects. By John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon The Correspondence of Sir Roger Newdigate of Arbury, Warwickshire. Imagining the Middle Class. The Political Representation of Class in Britain, c. 1780–1840. By Dror Wahrman Popular Politics and British Anti‐Slavery. The Mobilisation of Public Opinion Against the Slave Trade, 1787–1807. By J.R. Oldfield Religious Routes to Gladstonian Liberalism. The Church Rate Conzict in England and Wales, 1832–1868. By J.P. Ellens Parliament, Party and Politics in Victorian Britain. By T.A. Jenkins The Era of the Reform League: English Labour and Radical Politics, 1857–1872. Documents Selected by Gustav Mayer. Politics and Law in the Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen. By John Hostettler Conceptualizing the State. Innovation and Dispute in British Political Thought, 1880–2914. By James Meadowcroft Turncoats: Changing Party Allegiance by British Politicians. By Robert Leach SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party. By Ivor Crewe and Anthony King The Conservative Party and the Trade Unions. By Peter Dorey Party Politics and Decolonization. The Conservative Party and British Colonial Policy in Tropical Africa 2951–1964. By Philip Murphy The Winds of Change. Macmillan to Heath 1957–1975. By John Ramsden