The Shape of Irish History - Tapa dura

"Among the Irish historians of the present day, only Dr A.T.Q. Stewart could have written a book that so brilliantly combines a deep knowledge of Irish historiography (especially concerning relations between Catholics and Protestants), wit, and a deep sympathy with his subject. Composed of a series of short, often cutting, reflections on Irish historical patterns since the age of Brian Boru, Stewart's book has a sense of the mixture of grandeur and absurdity that distinguishes the history of Ireland. It's a pleasure to encounter someone who knows what the word "irony" actually means." Donald Harman Akenson, Department of History, Queen's University and Beamish Research Professor in the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool ----- "This is a shapely, well-adjusted, lucid and persuasive undertaking, which should open a few eyes and correct a few misapprehensions." Patricia Craig, Times Literary Supplement ----- "Written with characteristic verve, humor, and precision, The Shape of Irish History is a great pleasure to read. It effectively challenges popular myth and clich and communicates Stewart's ideas to a general audience. This is fine historical writing liberated from the cloisters of academe." David A. Wilson, professor of history and Celtic studies, University of Toronto and author of United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic ----- "Stewart introduces us to an Ireland that was always itself mired in provincial self-interest yet, at the same time, ready to join the wider world of ideas, philosophical, political and, when events conspired, revolutionary." Walter Ellis, the Sunday Times

In an exploration of the essential structure of what is called Irish history, A.T.Q. Stewart looks at some shadowy areas and asks provocative questions about popular misconceptions. Even where such misconceptions have been refuted by academic research, Stewart argues, the information has not percolated into the general domain because modern historians, writing mainly for one another, have lost the wider audience. Criticizing his own profession for purporting to be scientific while largely ignoring the implications of, for example, scientific archaeology, Stewart also opens up the closed shop of Irish history for the general reader. The result is a landmark book - the terrain of Irish history will never be the same again.