Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2020 -

O'Leary (Univ. of Pennsylvania), a political scientist, has produced a three-volume series on Northern Ireland that benefits from the precise terminology of his discipline as well as the conceptual shifts that come with historical change. He colors his work throughout with lively writing, moving past equivocation and pulling no punches in his assessments of participants or previous scholarship. O'Leary sees the disputatious state of Northern Ireland as the result of attempts to instill an Irish or British national identity among its residents. His first volume addresses the mismanaged colonial relationship between Ireland and Britain since 1600, while the second installment covers the problematic nature of state authority resulting from the artificially created (and maintained) majority rule. O'Leary's third study places its hopes for a resolution on a policy of consociation that would foster power-sharing among Irish nationalists and unionists. Although the cumulative length of this work might be daunting, the author has thoughtfully structured his books and chapters in a way that is accessible to both non-experts and specialists. Whatever the audience, this is a work of canonical importance for understanding Northern Ireland.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

The June 2016 referendum that led to Brexit--the UK's withdrawal from the EU--resulted in a narrow 52 percent victory for the "Leave" contingent, despite expectations that the "Remain" faction would carry the decision. According to this excellent account by Williamson (Royal Historical Society, UK), the unexpected result was a product of the decline of Britain's post-WW II social democracy, which had produced a period of stability and social equality for the UK from 1945 through the late 1970s. As British governments after that time grew increasingly neoliberal, social democracy lost favor with both the Right and the Left. Thatcher-style privatization, abandonment of full employment as a central aim, and crippling of the trades unions, followed by the 2008 economic debacle, not only led the Right to believe that EU membership was no longer a necessary protection against socialism but also convinced the Left that social democracy had been wrongheaded, so membership in the EU--once seen as a supporting pillar for social programs--served little purpose. Unemployment, inflation, inequality, and economic doldrums increased, along with nationalist hostility towards open borders, immigration, and membership in the EU.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.

Documentary filmmaker Fitzpatrick (Villanova Univ.) makes an important contribution to the literature on the peace process in Northern Ireland, focusing on John Hume, one of the principals in the long work to bring peace and gain support for the agreement. His interactions with US leaders, over many years and through multiple administrations, were critical to its ultimate success, and in this brief, highly readable, and well-researched book Fitzpatrick presents a brief discussion of Hume's background and a sound narrative of the Troubles, covering Hume's growing involvement and emergence as a leader. Drawing to good effect on a wide array of sources, including oral history interviews conducted by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, the author deftly navigates the complex, multinational politics of the peace process. The book accompanies the documentary In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America (2017), which Fitzpatrick wrote, directed, and produced, and offers a good introduction to the Troubles and the peace process in Northern Ireland through the role of a central proponent of peace.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

Collins (Loughborough Univ., UK) examines the British public's changing attitude toward the Beatles. When they burst onto the national scene in 1963, the four Liverpudlians captured the imagination of the young, and Beatlemania entered the popular lexicon. The media, religious leaders, and politicians laughed at the long-haired mop tops but also expressed unease at the direction the country was taking as the band's music, look, and flippant pronouncements questioned prevailing attitudes toward gender, class, and sexuality. Collins argues that the Beatles' adoption of pacifism, dabbles in Indian philosophical and religious beliefs, use of mind-altering drugs, and sexual promiscuity positioned them far outside the mainstream. They may be held up as national treasures today, but by the time they broke up in 1970, they had unsettled many of the fundamental institutions and beliefs of British society. By analyzing the Beatles through the eyes of a British audience, Collins helps readers better understand the forces that impacted Britain during the turbulent 1960s, shedding new light on the Beatles for modern audiences. This deeply researched, distinctive, and well-argued book is a much-needed addition to the field.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.

This meticulous compilation of the 15th-century English queen's letters is much more than just a collection of texts. Each letter is accompanied by extensive prosopographical research into the individuals named or involved, as well as analysis of the pertinent government offices and judicial courts during the Wars of the Roses. Editors Maurer and Cron, both independent scholars, present Margaret of Anjou as an appropriately pious and intercessory queen, called upon to protect her spouse, Henry VI, and son in extraordinary times. The first part examines the many ways the queen exercised good ladyship, protecting her servants and favoring supplicants in matters of marriage, property, positions, and finance. The second part tracks the queen's actions after the Lancastrians' loss of power in 1460 through letters written by and about her. A reluctant guest in foreign courts, Margaret prevailed upon the rulers of Europe to restore the king to his throne, eventually making common cause with a bitter enemy, only to lose her husband, son, and position as queen. The extensive research makes this a valuable resource for understanding the people and institutions of medieval England at a time of civil disturbance.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

In this book, Chernock (Boston Univ.) builds upon her previous research in Men and the Making of Modern British Feminism (2009) to demonstrate how suffragists and anti-suffragists used Queen Victoria's femaleness for their purposes. She opens with 18th-century British radicals touting female monarchy as proof of women's right to equality, an argument also made by suffragists from the 1830s to the 1870s. In response, male politicos downplayed Victoria's "'right to rule'" as a "'right to reign'" through revisionist histories of Britain's queens, whose supposed weakness relied on strong male ministers. Male anti-suffragists pushed this ceremonial monarch narrative further, attributing it to Victoria's embrace of the "separate sphere" of middle-class domesticity rather than to the constitutional shift to parliamentary power. Suffragists reversed this narrative during the Jubilee era (1880s-1890s), praising Victoria's public influence as the outgrowth of her private moral character. Chernock makes scrupulous use of myriad digital and original primary sources (periodicals, pamphlets, papers, letters, etc.) in this essential analysis of how the British women's movement, notwithstanding Victoria's silent opposition and the partisan manipulation of her name, gained the same parliamentary suffrage as men in 1918, when power politics aligned better with moral right.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.