Review

General Books

The Lancaster Pamphlet series provides short, factual introductions to major historical topics for British students studying for 'A' Level examinations. This volume from the series does not actually attempt to encapsulate the history of modern Ireland as the jacket notes suggest. Instead T. G. Fraser, University of Ulster historian, identifies and explains the essential political, social and economic developments that have shaped the conflict between Britain, the Irish Republic, and the Unionist and Nationalist communities in Northern Ireland from the settlement of 1921 through the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The work begins with a detail chronological table of events and concludes with a short annotated bibliography of further reading. There is certainly no shortage of modern studies of "the Troubles," but this useful book will be welcomed by students seeking a clear, straightforward, and imminently fair-minded introduction to a complex and deeply controversial subject.	1
Fraser's first three chapters focus on the treaty settlement that led to the partition of modern Ireland in 1922 and on the evolution of the "Irish Free State" and Northern Ireland down to 1949. No era in modern Irish history challenges the judgement of historians more severely than this. The brutal struggle for control of the destiny of the Irish state, the creation of institutions and leadership for the six counties that would constitute Northern Ireland, and the enigmatic leadership of de Valera and Craig all set the mold for twentieth century Ireland, and provoke partisan passions. With clarity and calm reason, Fraser describes the violence that created an Ulster Unionist political monopoly and a security apparatus that would dominate life in the North until the Catholic civil rights movement of the late 1960s. He also explains de Valera's emphasis on political and cultural independence from Britain, his surprising indifference to Partition and to the Republic's economic development, and the unpopular neutrality of the new Irish state in World War II.	2
Chapters four through six examine the dramatic economic changes after World War II that exposed the political and economic weaknesses of Northern Ireland and led to the breakdown of its basic institutions by 1972 when the Stormont Parliament was suspended. The three chapters that follow focus heavily on the "Troubles." This is perhaps the most useful part of the book for students. Fraser places the violent and tangled events of the last three decades in historical context and provides a coherent explanation of the relationship of political fragmentation, community violence, paramilitary terrorism, and multi-national peacemaking. A brief concluding chapter proposes to identify some of the most important studies of the Irish conflict, although providing little guidance to the important perspectives and interpretations that students will encounter beyond a brief mention of John Whyte's important Interpreting Modern Ireland published in 1990. Nonetheless, Ireland in Conflict is well written and should be useful for teachers and students from high school level upward as a starting point to approach the vast scholarly and polemical literature that defines this topic.	3
Western Carolina University   Curtis W. Wood

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