Choice Review

This study by Howe (Ruskin College, Oxford) resembles the proverbial curate's egg, being very good in parts. It analyzes and evaluates the argument of many Irish nationalist and republican intellectuals and their non-Irish sympathizers that Ireland's past and present troubles are primarily attributable to centuries of exploitation as the first British colony. Howe has read a veritable library of works on both sides of the debate, by historians, political scientists, culture theorists, journalists, and propagandists. Several of his chapters are lucid, perceptive critiques of the immense Irish historiographical output since the early 1970s, and are invaluable to academics and students. Others, however, attempt at great length to deconstruct the abstractions of assorted neo-Marxist postcolonial discourse and subaltern studies theorists whose works, frequently couched in impenetrable jargon, generally have little foundation in serious historical or social science research. Howe refutes and vigorously denounces the more absurd postcolonial rhetoric, but this reviewer wishes he had taken fewer pages to do so. For its "good" parts, this book belongs in Irish studies collections. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. M. Cregier; University of Prince Edward Island