The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power and Social Elites, 1878-1960

Explores the changing fortunes of the landed elite in the six counties that became Northern Ireland from the land war of the late 1870s to the last days of the Unionist government at Stormont in the 1960s. Purdue examines the social, economic, and political challenges faced by the north's landed elite-tenant agitation, the break-up of their estates, and the growing political challenge initially from Belfast's mercantile class and, eventually, from populist political movements-and determines the extent to which these undermined the foundations of their influence.