| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Methods/Theory

Patrick O'Mahony and Gerard Delanty. Rethinking Irish History: Nationalism, Identity and Ideology. New York: St. Martin's. 1998. Pp. 222. $65.00.

This book is a short, often opaque, critical reinterpretation of the historical construction of Irish national identity. The authors, Patrick O'Mahoney and Gerard Delanty, are not historians but sociologists, and they see their volume as an exercise in "critical social science" (p. 15). Thus they hope to influence current political thinking in Ireland by subjecting the history of Irish national identity formation to critical examination. The book is based entirely on secondary work. It offers some interesting insights, and its basic point is valid, if not particularly original. However, it is written so abstractly and often so awkwardly that it seems unlikely to have the impact on either students of Irish history or current Irish political activists that its content deserves. 1

The authors' premise is that because a particular formulation of national identity has dominated Ireland since the founding of the Free State, the Irish have been reluctant to examine the nation's flaws, which include economic and gender inequalities, dependent development, clerical domination of education and other social services, and prejudice against modernization. From national identity come national institutions; hence to the authors it follows that a correct understanding of the process by which national identity was constructed is necessary before a dialogue on national difficulties can take place. . . .

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