The Irish Army in the Congo, 1960–64: the far battalions David O’Donoghue (Irish Academic Press, hb ?55.50/pb ?25) ISBN 0716528185/0716533197 The UN operation in the former Belgian Congo was a confused and sometimes chaotic affair. Some saw its role as keeping communism out of Africa, others as ending Belgian influence. The force’s mandate was to … Read more
Africa: a modern history Guy Arnold (Atlantic Books, £35 hb) ISBN 1843541750 The state of Africa Martin Meredith (The Free Press, £12.99 pb) ISBN 0743232216 Africa since independence Paul Nugent (Palgrave, ?27.70) ISBN 0333682734 Histories of the hanged David Anderson (Phoenix, £10.99 pb) ISBN 039332754X Britain’s gulag Caroline Elkins (Pimlico, £8.99 pb) ISBN 1844135489 Africa, … Read more
The 1790s have emerged, over the past fifteen years or so, as the focus of some of the most vigorous and challenging writing currently forthcoming from Irish historians. In that explosion of debate and reinterpretation, Kevin Whelan is recognised as a central figure. The appearance of The Tree of Liberty will thus attract wide and … Read more
Longmans have launched the first of a six-volume History of Ireland with a synthesis of the last twenty years of Early Christian scholarship. It is an uneven book, relying for source material primarily on Latin manuscripts, and while it is hardly a serious setback for the progress of early Irish historical studies, it is not … Read more
If you have recently completed a history thesis, book or articlerelating to such themes as the historic landscape, past settlementpatterns, place-names, the heritage industry, architectural history,town planning, demography or cultural change/continuity, then it mightmerit a mention in the British Archaeological Bibliography (BAB). The BAB is an archaeological abstracting service administered bythe Council for British Archaeology, … Read more