The twentieth century was a time of rapid social change in Ireland: from colonial rule to independence, civil war and later the Troubles; from poverty to globalisation and the Celtic Tiger; and from the rise to the fall of the Catholic Church. Policing in Ireland has been shaped by all of these changes. This book critically evaluates the creation of the new police force, an Garda Síochána, in the 1920s and analyses how this institution was influenced by and responded to these substantial c...

On 18 September 2014, Scots will decide their future: should the country quit the United Kingdom and take control of its own destiny, or should it remain part of what advocates call the most successful political and economic union of modern times? Everyone in the country has a stake in this decision. Now, in this fascinating and insightful new book, David Torrance charts the countdown to the big day, weaving his way through a minefield of claim and counterclaim, and knocking down fictions ...

The Unfinished Revolution is the definitive story of New Labour from its genesis to its election defeat 2010 - covering over 25 years and six general elections of strategy, rebuilding and reinvention. In this extraordinary book, Philip Gould, one of the world's leading political strategists and a key adviser to Tony Blair during the period, brilliantly describes how New Labour came to dominate, falter and fall, assessing how successful it was in government, and where it should go ...

A TIMES POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEARA LONGMAN/HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEARThe award-winning history of the British Welfare State –now fully revised and updated for the 21st Century.‘A masterpiece’ Sunday TimesGiant Want. Giant Disease. Giant Ignorance. Giant Squalor. Giant Idleness.These were the Five Giants that loomed over the post-war reconstruction...

At the height of the Scottish Independence debate, After Independence offers an in-depth and varied exploration of the possibilities for Scotland, from both pro and anti-independence standpoints. Drawing together over two dozen leading minds on the subject, After Independence offers a comprehensive and balanced analysis of Scotland's current and prospective political, economic, social and cultural situation. Brought together in an inclusive, accessible and informative way, After Independen...

This year marks the centenary of Harold Wilson’s birth, the fiftieth anniversary of his most impressive general election victory and forty years since his dramatic resignation as Prime Minister. He was one of the longest-serving premiers of the twentieth century, having won a staggering four general elections, yet, despite this monumental record, his place in Labour’s history remains somewhat ambiguous.By the end of his two periods in power, both the left and right of the party were...

How Jeremy Corbyn, the radical left candidate for the Labour leadership, won twice—and won bigIn the 2017 general election, Jeremy Corbyn pulled off an historic upset, attracting the biggest increase in the Labour vote since 1945. It was another reversal of expectations for the mainstream media and his ‘soft-left’ detractors. Demolishing the Blairite opposition in 2015, Corbyn had already seen off an attempted coup. Now, he had shattered the government’s authority,...

This Text-book traces the evolution of the newspaper, documenting its changing form, style and content as well as identifying the different roles ascribed to it by audiences, government and other social institutions.Starting with the early 17th century, when the first prototype newspapers emerged, through Dr Johnson, the growth of the radical press in the early 19th century, the Lord Northcliffe revolution in the early 20th century, the newspapers wars of the 1930s and the rise of ...

This book presents a narrative of Scottish politics since devolution in 1999. It compares eight years of coalition government under Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats with four years of Scottish National Party minority government.It outlines the relative effect of each government on Scottish politics and public policy in various contexts, including: high expectations for ‘new politics’ that were never fully realised; the influence of, and reactions from, the media and publi...

This book is the first examination of the history of prison policy in Ireland. Despite sharing a legal and penal heritage with the United Kingdom, Ireland’s prison policy has taken a different path. This book examines how penal-welfarism was experienced in Ireland, shedding further light on the nature of this concept as developed by David Garland. While the book has an Irish focus, it has a theoretical resonance far beyond Ireland. This book investigates and describes prison policy in Irel...

Margaret Thatcher was one of the most controversial figures of modern times. Her governments inspired hatred and veneration in equal measure and her legacy remains fiercely contested. Yet assessments of the Thatcher era are often divorced from any larger historical perspective. This book draws together leading historians to locate Thatcher and Thatcherism within the political, social, cultural and economic history of modern Britain. It explores the social and economic crises of the 1970s; ...

In this important new work, the author analyses the contributions that our Ministers for Education made to the Irish education system between the years 1919 and 1999. Covering the social, economic and political realities of the time, and taking in the involvement of the OECD , what emerges is a picture of how Irish education was shaped and moulded over the course of the twentieth century.