Ireland: The Union and its Aftermath (Classics of Irish History)

Published in 1977 and now reissued with a new introduction, this book serves well as a general, accessible interpretation of modern Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Described by its historian author Oliver MacDonagh (1924-2002) as a ""very small book with very large themes,"" it rapidly reached the status of a classic and remains a thought-provoking survey of Ireland from the Act of Union of 1800, which MacDonagh describes as ""the matrix of modern Irish history,"" until modern times. He describes with broad and perceptive strokes the traumatic experience of Ireland's being assimilated by, and resisting assimilation into, a powerful and alien empire.