An insightful but narrowly-focused survey of Irish history - Rated 
It is an Irish proverb that states that there is no fate but the one we make for ourselves. This sentiment pervades Paul Bew's chronicle of the past two centuries of Irish history. Bew covers the island's past from the loss of autonomy under the Act of Union and the subsequent campaign to achieve the unfulfilled promise of Catholic Emancipation, through the growth of nationalism and the partition into the Ireland of today. Though his focus, as he explains in his preface, is on the perspectives underpinning the conflict between the Protestant British and Irish Catholics, what emerges as a persistent theme is the prevalence of missed opportunities, moments when the political actors could have made choices that might have tempered enmity and led to a more positive outcome for the Irish people. Not only does such an approach bring the long-dead figures to life, it also provides the reader with the challenge of viewing well-worn Irish history in a fresh new light.
Yet despite this perspective and the impressive research underpinning it, the book is wanting in two key respects. The first is minor, with the poor editing of the text and the notes. Both are pockmarked with errors, an annoyance in the footnotes, but more problematic in the text as the minor inaccuracies distort the meaning of some events (contrary to the text, for example, Neville Chamberlain's unity proposal was not made while he was prime minister, a detail that considerably diminishes the offer's importance). Such poor editing is disappointing to see in a book produced by a publisher of Oxford's distinction.
More disappointing, though, is the author's narrow focus. As the subtitle indicates, Bew's history of Ireland concentrates predominantly upon high politics; economics and society are examined only through its lens, while the cultural history of the period is hardly addressed at all. The latter is a particularly startling omission for a land where politics and culture are so closely intertwined - the Celtic Revival played a key role in fueling the nationalist movement in the 19th century, yet despite this it is mentioned only once, and even then only in passing. For a series that has produced so many excellent surveys of the modern history of European countries, Bew's book falls short of the comprehensive nature of its predecessors, forcing readers to fill in the gaps by turning elsewhere.
These limitations blemish the overall qualities of this book. As a study of the past two centuries of Irish politics it is unsurpassed, but as a general history of Ireland during the period it is wanting. For a more complete picture, it is best to start with a work like Roy Foster's classic 'Modern Ireland: 1600-1972' before reading Bew's informative work, which provides a fuller understanding of Ireland's tortuous path and some signs of where that path might lead in the future.
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