The Making of Modern Ireland 1603-1923

by J.C. Beckett

Second revised edition of this masterly history of a troubled land. "The presentation is not only learned but cool, objective, unimpassioned and yet almost always alive and compassionate as well...As a reference book alone it is immensely valuable...As an example of a humane, scholarly, expert history, Professor Beckett's book will be difficult to surpass." D. B. Quinn in The Belfast Telegraph. 519 pages with index and maps.

Genres: History, Ireland, Nonfiction, Irish Literature, World History

521 pages, Hardcover

First published May 23, 1966

About the author

James Camlin Beckett was a Northern Irish historian.

Reviews

[Steve]

This monochromic effort presupposes a firm grounding in Irish history, which this regrettably forgetful student lacks – this volume would likely have been better received were I more knowledgeable of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, as one example. I imagined riding a commuter express train, my mind lost to wander with hand on chin, watching stations on the line appear and disappear, as if they never existed in the first place. “Was that Charles Parnell I just saw go by?”

There’s an art to great historiography and while Professor Beckett is a suitably credentialed authority on this subject, he failed to engage this sometimes overly critical reader. Sorry Professor Beckett, you receive a solid B for this 461-page research paper. Now that I’ve been introduced to the Annales school and have read several of Barbara Tuchman’s popular histories, I’m confident a better work could be – and should be – produced. Maybe it has been?

Reducing this book to its essence, and acknowledging some exceptions, modern Irish history is an amalgam of the accounts of reactionary, exclusionary propertied interests; tone-deaf, incompetent, arrogant administration; and vicious, parochial hatreds nurtured through uncompromising, though deliciously hypocritical, religious institutions – specifically presbyterian, Anglican and Roman Catholic. Of course, Henry VIII did much to exacerbate the multi-century miseries, so we should never forget or forgive his wretched presence upon history. His reign, however, precedes the years covered in this book and receives only brief mention.

Some may question the conflicts now spread across the world that appear connected to Islam and conclude there is an inimical, sui generis character intrinsic to that brand of religion. But we need look no further than the shores of glorious Albion to note the wrack from the evil conducted under the banners of kindred Christian faiths. This and the broader historical themes I previously noted deserve more inspection than are presented through this desiccated, linear account. The voices of millions of oppressed who suffered through the centuries deserve to be heard so that the lives of billions of oppressed alive today and tomorrow may be bettered through universal awareness – that’s the theory, yet in testing, anyway.

[Jack Glynne-Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just read the final quarter of the book, from 1850 onwards. Not an easy read for a beginner, but I feel I have a good foundation to build on now.

[Michael Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the right level of detail for me.
The Faber Finds edition I used had very small print and a myriad of typographical errors (poor OCR of the original?)

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

J C Beckett's masterly survey of Irish history from the 17th to the early 20th centuries, though now itself half a century old, has stood the test of time. It remains a comprehensive, fair and above all highly readable textbook. Though it has taken me from "the Glorious Twelfth" to "St Paddy's Day" to read it from cover to cover (having owned my copy for 40 years!), I now have a solid foundation on which to base my study of the last century of Irish history, as yet again Ireland moves into an uncertain future, so many of the issues of a hundred years ago still unresolved.

[Michael Linton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a challenging book to read if you didn't have the background of Ireland to begin with. You need to understand how Ireland was in 1603 and the different groups there at the time. It just starts off as the story was already happening (which it was). I learned a little but I need a more basic book. Also, it provided a lot of details in terms of the passage of bills and who was in power in that I didn't understand how it affected the people.

[Kevin]

Great read, covered a lot of ground and weaved nicely how one era moved into another.

[Charles Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know a bit about Ireland…