Reviews

The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church Kathleen Hughes & Ann Hamlin, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 134, ISBN 1.85182.194.5, £9.95 (pb)

In Search of Columba Lesley Whiteside, 1997 Blackrock, Dublin, Columba Press pp. 136, ISBN 1.8560.7180.4, £5.99 (pb)

A History of the Irish Working Class Peter Beresford Ellis, 1996 London, Pluto Press pp.378, ISBN 0.7453.1103.2, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.0009.X, £15.99 (pb)

The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland John McGurk, 1997 Manchester, Manchester University Press pp. xiii + 290, ISBN 0.7190.4959.8, £45.00 (hb)

Edmund Spenser: A View of the State of Ireland Andrew Hadfield & Willy Maley (eds), 1997 Oxford, Blackwell pp. xxvi +197, ISBN 0.63120.534.9, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.63120.535.7, £10.99 (pb)

Inventing and Resisting Britain: Cultural Identities in Britain and Ireland, 1685–1789 Murray Pittock, 1997 London, Macmillan pp.200, ISBN 0.333.65060.3, £42.50 (hb); ISBN 0.333.65061.1, £13.99 (pb)

Linen, Family and Community in Tullylish, County Down, 1690–1914 Marilyn Cohen, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 284, ISBN 1.85182.312.3, £45.00 (hb)

Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century Joep Leerssen, 1996 Cork, Cork University Press in association with Field Day pp. 320, ISBN 1.85918.111.2, £15.95 (pb)

The Historical Dimensions of Irish Catholicism Emmet Larkin, reprint 1997 Washington, The Catholic University of America Press; Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 138, ISBN 1.85182305.0, £9.95 (pb)

The Kingdom of the Ryans: The Irish in Southwest New South Wales 1816–1890 Malcolm Campbell, 1997 Sydney, University of New South Wales Press pp.210, ISBN 0.86840.191.9, A$34.95 (pb)

’This Dreadful Visitation’: The Famine in Lurgan/Portadown Gerard Mac Atasney, with a foreword by Christine Kinealy, 1997 Belfast, Beyond the Pale Publications pp. 126, ISBN 1.900960.02.8, £6.95 (pb)

A Death‐dealing Famine: The Great Hunger in Ireland Christine Kinealy, 1997 London, Pluto Press pp.200, ISBN 0.7453.1075.3, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.1074.5, £12.99 (pb)

Culture, Conflict and Migration: The Irish in Cumbria Donald M. MacRaild, 1998 Liverpool, Liverpool University Press pp.237, ISBN O.85323.652.6, £30.00 (hb); ISBN 0.85323.662.3, £12.95 (pb)

Guns and Chiffon: Women Revolutionaries and Kilmainham Gaol Sinead McCoole, 1996 Dublin, Kilmainham Gaol Museum pp. 70, ISBN 0.7076.3870.4, £5.00 (pb)

Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: A Life Margaret Ward, 1997 Cork, Cork University Press pp.368, ISBN 1.85594.179.1, £45.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85594.187.2, £14.95 (pb)

’They Shall Grow Not Old’: Irish Soldiers and the Great War Myles Dungan, 1997 Dublin, Four Courts Press pp. 218, ISBN 1.85182.347.6, £17.95 (hb)

Rural Ireland, Real Ireland? Jacqueline Genet (ed.), 1996 Gerrard's Cross, Colin Smythe pp.245, ISBN 0.86140.385.1, £28.00 (hb)

Irish Playwrights, 1880–1995: A Resource and Production Sourcebook Beknice Schrank & William W. Demastes (eds), 1997 London, Greenwood Press pp.454, ISBN 0.313.28805.4, £75.95 (hb)

Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy and the First World War Philip Hoare, 1977 London, Gerald Duckworth pp.256, ISBN 0.71562.737.6, £16.95 (hb); ISBN 0.71562.828.3, £11.95 (pb)

Yeats's Nations: Gender, Class and Irishness Marjorie Howes, 1996 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp. 250, ISBN 0.521.56362.3, £35.00 (hb)

Yeats and Women Deirdre Toomey (ed.), 1997 Basingstoke, Macmillan; New York, St. Martin's Press pp.448, ISBN 0.333698.16.9, £19.50 (pb)

James Joyce, Ulysses , and the Construction of Jewish Identity: Culture, Biography, and ‘The Jew’ in Modernist Europe Neil R. Davison, 1996 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp.317, ISBN 0.521.55181.1, £35.00 (hb)

Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing Éibhear Walshe (ed.), 1997 Cork, Cork University Press pp.291, ISBN 1.85918.015.2, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85918.014.0, £16.95 (pb)

Women and Irish Society: A Sociological Reader Anne Byrne & Madeleine Leonard (eds), 1997 Belfast, Beyond the Pale Publications pp. 573, ISBN 1.900960.03.6, £16.95 (pb)

Discrimination and the Irish Community in Britain Mary Hickman & Bronwen Walter, 1997 London, Commission for Racial Equality pp.312, ISBN 1.85442.200.6, £10.00 (pb)

Culture and Policy in Northern Ireland: Anthropology in the Public Arena Hastings Donnan & Graham McFarlane (eds), 1997 Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies pp. 240, ISBN 0.85389.690.9, £9.95 (pb)

Was Ireland Conquered? International Law and the Irish Question Anthony Carty, 1996 London, Pluto Press pp. viii + 203, ISBN 0.7453.0325.0, £40.00 (hb); ISBN 0.7453.0722.1, £12.99 (pb)

Sacrifice of Fools Ian McDonald, 1997 London, Vista pp. 286, ISBN 0.575.60059.4, £5.99 (pb)

Enchanted Journeys: Fifty Years of Irish Writing for Children Robert Dunbar (ed.), 1997 Dublin, O'Brien Press pp. 192, ISBN 0.86278.531.6, £8.99 (hb)

Grace Notes Bernard Mac Laverty, 1997 London, Jonathan Cape pp.278, ISBN 0.224.04429.X, £14.99 (hb); ISBN 0099.77801.7, £5.99 (pb)

The Bridal Suite Matthew Sweeney, 1997 London, Jonathan Cape pp. 49, ISBN 0.224.04328.5, £7.00 (pb)

Verbum et Verbum Micheál Fanning, 1997 Knockeven, Salmon Publishing pp.78, ISBN 1.8976.48898, IR£5.99 (pb)

Mutabilitie Frank McGuinness, 1997 London, Faber & Faber pp. 101, ISBN 0.571.19342.0, £6.99 (pb)

The Boxer Director, Jim Sheridan Universal Studios Inc., 1997

The Butcher Boy Director, Neil Jordan Geffen Pictures, 1997     

The Essential Difference Between History and Science

My thesis is that there is a deep, intractable difference, not between history and science per se , but between paradigmatically central kinds of historical interpretations—call them humanistic historical interpretations —and theories of any sort that are characteristic of the physical sciences. The difference is that unlike theories in the physical sciences good humanistic historical interpretations (purport to) reveal subjectivity, agency, and meaning. I use the controversy provoked by Gordon Wood's recent reinterpretation of the American Revolution to illustrate and substantiate this thesis. I also use it to support the claim that unless one attends to the ways in which humanistic historical interpretations reveal subjectivity, agency, and meaning one has no hope whatsoever of getting the epistemology of historical studies right.     

Planned International Technology Transfer:

Since the mid-1980s, Saudi Arabia has required that a percentage of all defense contracts awarded to foreign suppliers be reinvested back in the kingdom into new technology companies. The result has been three “economic offset” programs, encompassing Western defense producers and their home-country governments in the world's largest example of planned international technology transfer. This paper reviews the three main Saudi offsets—attached to the Peace Shield (United States), al-Yamamah (United Kingdom) and Sawari (France) arms deals—for their genesis, operations, achievements, and problems, using interviews with participants and statistical data on companies formed. It then attempts some evaluation of them against their own original explicit and implicit goals, and draws out some lessons and implications.     

How to Reform a Reform Coalition: Outreach, Agenda Expansion, and Brokerage in Urban School Reform

Coalitions have always played an advocacy role in policymaking, but they are increasingly regarded as a form of community capacity that can be harnessed to civic ends. As explored in this study of urban school reform in Oakland, California, this civic view of coalitions confronts a tension between the cohesiveness and the inclusiveness of coalitions. Coalitions unified around cohesive goals and beliefs are often narrowly based, which can encourage the formation of rival coalitions. By contrast, reform coalitions that build broad-based support across the community may have difficulty developing coherent reform strategies. Using a social network analysis of key stakeholders to analyze the challenges of building civic capacity in Oakland, we find that the school district's recent reform experience more closely resembles an advocacy coalition than a broad civic coalition. The article then explores strategies for developing a broad civic coalition by expanding the existing advocacy coalition. We use the network analysis to identify opportunities for brokerage across individuals, institutions, and issues.