18th–19th – Century History

Edmund Burke: scorned loyalty and rejected allegiance

An eighteenth-century Whig dressed in ill-fitting nineteenth-century Tory clothing? Seán Patrick Donlan assesses the hotly contested legacy of Edmund Burke For two centuries the legacy of Edmund Burke has been hotly contested and arguably distorted by apologists and opponents alike. In his day, the London press caricatured him as a whiskey-toting Jesuit, managing to combine … Read more

Mars and Johann Hieronymus Schroeter

Sir, —The article on Charles Edward Burton (HI 14.1, Jan./Feb. 2006) wasvery interesting and widened my knowledge of the history of astronomy.Although the Italian Giovanni Schiaparelli claimed in 1880 to havediscovered the network of ‘canals’, he was not the first. Thisphenomenon had been discovered by the German astronomer JohannHieronymus Schroeter (1745–1816), senior civil servant at … Read more

The Scotch-Irish: from the north of Ireland to the making of America

The Scotch-Irish: from the north of Ireland to the making of America Ron Chepesiuk (McFarland & Co., North Carolina, £17.95) 0786422734 To buy or not to buy? This is the constant dilemma we all face when we pick up a book that has just been published. With a long-standing and particular interest in the Scotch-Irish, … Read more

Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: a political soldier

Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: a political soldier Keith Jeffrey (Oxford University Press, £40, €57) ISBN 9780198203582Sir Henry Wilson has not been treated well by historians. As a soldier, he rose to the top of his profession and played a significant role in formulating Allied policy after 1917, which contributed to victory over the Central … Read more