Masterfully blending narrative and interpretation, and R.F. Foster's
Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 looks at how key events in Irish history
contributed to the creation of the 'Irish Nation'. 'The most brilliant
and courageous Irish historian of his generation'
Colm Tóibín, London Review of Books 'Remarkable ... Foster gives a wise
and balanced account of both forces of unity and forces of diversity ...
a master work of scholarship'
Bernard Crick, New Statesman 'A tour de force ... Anyone who really
wants to make sense of Ireland and the Irish must read Roy Foster's
magnificent and accessible Modern Ireland'
Anthony Clare 'A magnificent book. It supersedes all other accounts of
modern Irish history'
Conor Cruise O'Brien, Sunday Times 'Dazzling ... a masterly survey not
so much of the events of Irish history over the past four centuries as
of the way in which those events acted upon the peoples living in
Ireland to produce in our own time an Irish Nation ... a gigantic and
distinguished undertaking'
Robert Kee, Observer 'A work of gigantic importance. It is everything
that a history book should be. It is beautifully and clearly written; it
seeps wisdom through its every pore; it is full of the most elegant and
scholarly insights; it is magnificently authoritative and confident ...
Modern Ireland is quite simply the single most important book on Irish
history written in this generation ... A masterpiece'
Kevin Myers, Irish Times R. F. Foster is Carroll Professor of Irish
History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College,
Oxford. His books include Modern Ireland: 1600-1972, Luck and the Irish
and W. B. Yeats: A Life.
