Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Laurel and the Ivy: The Story of Charles Stewart Parnell and Irish Nationalism (1993)by Robert Kee
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 2865 The Laurel and the Ivy: The Story of Charles Stewart Parnell and Irish Nationalism, by Robert Kee (read 1 May 1996) This book is a masterpiece. I read it because I was so enthralled by Kee's The Green Flag, which won my Best Book of the Year award for 1972. In 1974 my Book of the Year was Jules Abels ' The Parnell Tragedy, mainly because I was new to the Parnell story and I found it of such overwhelming interest. (In this book's bibliography Kee dismisses Abels' book as "now of only secondary interest.") Kee is tougher on Parnell than was Abels, and I found myself very much put off by Parnell's adultery and rejoiced that he was rejected by Ireland after the divorce trial. This book is exceptionally well-written and I gloried in its non-American language. Politics seems so much more subtle in the British Isles. ( ) no reviews | add a review
"News of the sudden death a hundred years ago of the 45-year-old Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell shocked and amazed the public in Europe and the United States. Today he is little more than a name, associated with a sexual scandal which has been used as material for films and plays but largely ignored for its true importance: that it altered the course of British and Irish history." "In ten years this half-American, half-Irish County Wicklow landlord with an English accent gave Irish nationalism its most effective political shape for centuries. In the 1880s his presence dominated British domestic politics. No prime minister could rule without taking into account how he might exercise his power next. Had he lived, the future of British-Irish relations could only have been different." "Robert Kee, in his first major book on Ireland since The Green Flag and his television series for the BBC, Ireland: A Television History, here traces Parnell's early years in politics and his emergence in the context of the faltering state of Irish nationalism at that time. He stresses how ideally suited Parnell's personality was to bring it to life again. Ironically, it was the most personal feature of all in his life that brought the nationalist cause, for which he had done so much, to sudden halt. But its eventual partial triumph many years later was to be based on political foundations that Parnell had helped to establish."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNone
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)941.5081092History and Geography Europe British Isles IrelandLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |