The Transformation of Ireland : 1900-2000

It is significant that it begins in 1900 and ends in 2000 - most accounts have begun in 1912 or 1922 and largely ignored the end of the century. Politics and political parties are examined in detail but high politics does not dominate the book, which rather sets out to answer the question: 'What was it like to grow up and live in 20th-century Ireland'? It makes extensive use of unused or neglected sources. It deals with the North in a comprehensive way, focusing on the social and cultural aspects, not just the obvious political and religious divisions. "This book by one of Ireland's young historians sets out to answer the question - what was it like to grow up and live in twentieth-century Ireland? - and is the first comprehensive social, political, cultural, intellectual and economic survey of that Irish century." "In it Diarmaid Ferriter draws together the many threads that make up the complex story - from the drama of its politics to the 'hidden pasts' drawn from memoirs and previously unused sources. The Transformation of Ireland is also the history of a society, both North and South. In dealing with the bitter struggles in the North it focuses on the social and cultural aspects, not just the obvious political and religious divisions. It also considers women in a way no previous account of modern Ireland has."--BOOK JACKET A comprehensive social, political, cultural, intellectual and economic history of the 20th century in Ireland.