Ireland and the British Empire
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Ireland and the British Empire
（The Oxford history of the British Empire, . Companion series）
Oxford University Press, 2004
Available at 31 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Modern Irish history was determined by the rise, expansion, and decline of the British Empire. And British imperial history, from the age of Atlantic expansion to the age of decolonization, was moulded in part by Irish experience. But the nature of Ireland's position in the Empire has always been a matter of contentious dispute. Was Ireland a sister kingdom and equal partner in a larger British state? Or was it, because of its proximity and strategic importance, the
Empire's most subjugated colony? Contemporaries disagreed strongly on these questions, and historians continue to do so. Questions of this sort can only be answered historically: Ireland's relationship with Britain and the Empire developed and changed over time, as did the Empire itself. This book
offers the first comprehensive history of the subject from the early modern era through the contemporary period. The contributors seek to specify the nature of Ireland's entanglement with empire over time: from the conquest and colonization of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, through the consolidation of Ascendancy rule in the eighteenth, the Act of Union in the period 1801-1921, the emergence of an Irish Free State and Republic, and eventual withdrawal from the British Commonwealth in
1948. They also consider the participation of Irish people in the Empire overseas, as soldiers, administrators, merchants, migrants, and missionaries; the influence of Irish social, administrative, and constitutional precedents in other colonies; and the impact of Irish nationalism and independence
on the Empire at large. The result is a new interpretation of Irish history in its wider imperial context which is also filled with insights on the origins, expansion, and decline of the British Empire.
This book offers the first comprehensive history of Ireland and the British Empire from the early modern era through the contemporary period. The contributors examine each phase of Ireland's entanglement with the Empire, from conquest and colonisation to independence, along with the extensive participation of Irish people in the Empire overseas, and the impact of Irish politics and nationalism on other British colonies. The result is a new interpretation of Irish history in its wider imperial
context which is also filled with insights on the origins, expansion, and decline of the British Empire.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
The purpose of the five volumes of the Oxford History of the British Empire was to provide a comprehensive study of the Empire from its beginning to end, the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as the rulers, and the significance of the British Empire as a theme in world history. The volumes in the Companion Series carry forward this purpose by exploring themes that were not possible to cover adequately in the main series, and to provide fresh interpretations of significant
topics.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Ireland and the British Empire
- 1. A Laboratory for Empire?: Early Modern Ireland and English Imperialism
- 2. 'This famous island set in a Virginian sea': Ireland in the British Empire, 1690-1801
- 3. The Irish in the Empire
- 4. Empire and Fiction: The Irish Novel
- 5. Ireland, the Union, and the Empire
- 6. Ireland, the Empire, and the Commonwealth
- 7. Historiography
- 8. Postcolonial Ireland
- Index
by "Nielsen BookData"