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Bitter freedom : Ireland in a revolutionary world / Maurice Walsh.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2016Edition: First American editionDescription: xvi, 525 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781631491955
  • 1631491954
Subject(s):
Contents:
Two funerals -- Victory of the rainbow chasers -- The American spirit -- Message to the world -- "Where Tipperary leads, Ireland follows" -- Over a policeman's body -- Ancient faiths -- The virtual republic -- "Would you shoot a man?" -- Bolshevism in the air -- A crowd of unknown men -- The stigma of race -- No pity -- Flying columns -- Frightfulness -- A republic of their own -- Not Irish in the national sense -- The Crown close at hand -- The quietest triumph -- Call to arms -- "Terror will be struck into them" -- Dumping arms -- Jazz mad.
Scope and content: "In the tradition of Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919 comes this groundbreaking history of the Irish Revolution. The Irish Revolution has long been mythologized in American culture, but seldom understood. For too long, the story of Irish independence and its aftermath has been told only within an Anglo-Irish context. Now, in the critically acclaimed Bitter Freedom, journalist Maurice Walsh, with 'a novelist's eye for the illuminating detail of everyday lives in extremis' (Prospect) places revolutionary Ireland in the panorama of the global disorder born of the terrible slaughter of World War I, as well as providing a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human face of the conflict. In this 'invigorating account' (Spectator), Walsh demonstrates how this national revolution, which captured worldwide attention from India to Argentina, was itself shaped by international events, political, economic, and cultural. In the era of Russian Bolshevism and American jazz, developments in Europe and America had a profound effect on Ireland. Bitter Freedom is 'the most vivid and dramatic account of this epoch to date' (Literary Review)"--Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 941.5082 W226 Available 33111008410058
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Irish Revolution has long been mythologized in American culture but seldom understood. Too often, the story of Irish independence and its grinding aftermath in the early part of the twentieth century has been told only within a parochial Anglo-Irish context. Now, in the critically acclaimed Bitter Freedom, Maurice Walsh, with "a novelist's eye for detailing lives in extremis" (Feargal Keane, Prospect), places revolutionary Ireland within the panorama of nationalist movements born out of World War I.

Beginning with the Easter Rising of 1916, Bitter Freedom follows through from the War of Independence to the end of the post-partition civil war in 1924. Walsh renders a history of insurrection, treaty, partition, and civil war in a way that is both compelling and original. Breaking out this history from reductionist, uplifting narratives shrouded in misguided sentiment and romantic falsification, the author provides a gritty, blow-by-blow account of the conflict, from ambushes of soldiers and the swaggering brutality of the Black and Tan militias to city streets raked by sniper fire, police assassinations, and their terrible reprisals; Bitter Freedom provides a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human face of the conflict. Walsh also weaves surprising threads into the story of Irish independence such as jazz, American movies, and psychoanalysis, examining the broader cultural environment of emerging modernity in the early twentieth century, and he shows how Irish nationalism was shaped by a world brimming with revolutionary potential defined by the twin poles of Woodrow Wilson in America and Vladimir Lenin in Russia.

In this "invigorating account" (Spectator), Walsh demonstrates how this national revolution, which captured worldwide attention from India to Argentina, was itself profoundly shaped by international events. Bitter Freedom is "the most vivid and dramatic account of this epoch to date" (Literary Review).

"First published in Great Britain by Faber & Faber Ltd. under the title 'Bitter freedom : Ireland in a revolutionary world, 1918-1922'"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 433-492) and index.

Two funerals -- Victory of the rainbow chasers -- The American spirit -- Message to the world -- "Where Tipperary leads, Ireland follows" -- Over a policeman's body -- Ancient faiths -- The virtual republic -- "Would you shoot a man?" -- Bolshevism in the air -- A crowd of unknown men -- The stigma of race -- No pity -- Flying columns -- Frightfulness -- A republic of their own -- Not Irish in the national sense -- The Crown close at hand -- The quietest triumph -- Call to arms -- "Terror will be struck into them" -- Dumping arms -- Jazz mad.

"In the tradition of Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919 comes this groundbreaking history of the Irish Revolution. The Irish Revolution has long been mythologized in American culture, but seldom understood. For too long, the story of Irish independence and its aftermath has been told only within an Anglo-Irish context. Now, in the critically acclaimed Bitter Freedom, journalist Maurice Walsh, with 'a novelist's eye for the illuminating detail of everyday lives in extremis' (Prospect) places revolutionary Ireland in the panorama of the global disorder born of the terrible slaughter of World War I, as well as providing a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human face of the conflict. In this 'invigorating account' (Spectator), Walsh demonstrates how this national revolution, which captured worldwide attention from India to Argentina, was itself shaped by international events, political, economic, and cultural. In the era of Russian Bolshevism and American jazz, developments in Europe and America had a profound effect on Ireland. Bitter Freedom is 'the most vivid and dramatic account of this epoch to date' (Literary Review)"--Provided by publisher.

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