Humbert Summer

Poetry. Young Adult. HUMBERT SUMMER is a book about the febrile matter of fantasy in its rawest form alternately subversive, awkward, romantic, and unsettling. Written between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three, the poems in A.K. Blakemore's debut full-length collection navigate the challenging space between adolescence and adulthood in a culture quick to dismiss, commodify, or fetishise the female body and imagination."

Remembering the Year of the French is a model of historical achievement, moving deftly between the study of historical events—the failed French invasion of the West of Ireland in 1798—and folkloric representationsof those events. Delving into the folk history found in Ireland’s rich oral traditions, Guy Beiner reveals alternate visions of the Irish past and brings into focus the vernacular histories, folk commemorative practices, and negotiations of memory that have gone largely unnoticed by historians. Beiner analyzes hundreds of hitherto unstudied historical, literary, and ethnographic sources. Though his focus is on 1798, his work is also a comprehensive study of Irish folk history and grass-roots social memory in Ireland. Investigating how communities in the West of Ireland remembered, well into the mid-twentieth century, an episode in the late eighteenth century, this is a “history from below” that gives serious attention to the perspectives of those who have been previously ignored or discounted. Beiner brilliantly captures the stories, ceremonies, and other popular traditions through which local communities narrated, remembered, and commemorated the past. Demonstrating the unique value of folklore as a historical source, Remembering the Year of the French offers a fresh perspective on collective memory and modern Irish history. Winner, Wayland Hand Competition for outstanding publication in folklore and history, American Folklore Society Finalist, award for the best book published about or growing out of public history, National Council on Public History Winner, Michaelis-Jena Ratcliff Prize for the best study of folklore or folk life in Great Britain and Ireland “An important and beautifully produced work. Guy Beiner here shows himself to be a historian of unusual talent.”—Marianne Elliott, Times Literary Supplement “Thoroughly researched and scholarly. . . . Beiner’s work is full of empathy and sympathy for the human remains, memorials, and commemorations of past lives and the multiple ways in which they actually continue to live.”—Stiofán Ó Cadhla, Journal of British Studies “A major contribution to Irish historiography.”—Maureen Murphy, Irish Literary Supplement "A remarkable piece of scholarship . . . . Accessible, full of intriguing detail, and eminently teachable.”?—Ray Casman, New Hibernia Review “The most important monograph on Irish history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to be published in recent years.”—Matthew Kelly, English Historical Review “A strikingly ambitious work . . . . Elegantly constructed, lucidly written and inspired, and displaying an inexhaustible capacity for research”—Ciarán Brady, History IRELAND “A closely argued, meticulously detailed and rich analysis . . . . providing such innovative treatment of a wide array of sources, his work will resonate with the concerns of many cultural and historical geographers working on social memory in quite different geographical settings and historical contexts.”—Yvonne Whelan, Journal of Historical Geography

No one has better covered the momentous events of 2001--2005 more intently than syndicated columnist Llewellyn King. As White House correspondent, broadcaster, and leading journalist for more than three decades, King has delighted and informed millions in America and world-wide. This enlightening and entertaining collection of his columns and commentaries is a detailed, shrewd, and informed account of the times we have so recently lived through. With King's distinctive voice and delightful eye for the absurd, Washington and the World is a fascinating, insightful, and informative read.

Field Day Review, the best Irish Studies essays and international contexts

The Election of February 2011 will be remembered for the defeat and virtual annihilation of Fianna Fáil. Stripped of power in humiliating circumstances, the party was disgraced, possibly to the point of no return. The story of how this happened is a mixture of farce and tragedy. The collective leadership of the party lost touch with reality and watched, as though mesmerised, while Brian Cowen led them from one catastrophic mistake to another. He was aided in this by Brian Lenihan, Minister for Finance, whose mistakes were among the worst ever made by the holder of this crucial office. Fianna Fáil demolished itself in the eyes of the electorate due to its entanglement with property and banking scandals, inept decisions and gross mismanagement of the most profitable time ever enjoyed by the Irish people. Two journalists with inside knowledge of the events and extensive experience of politics over many years have joined their talents to write this gripping story.

The Rebellion of 1798 was one of the most crucial events in modern Irish history, and the bicentenary commemorations throughout Ireland in 1998 provided much new understanding of an issue that has, down the years, been as divisive as it has been formative. Peter Collins provides here an absorbing and sensitively handled account of the changing nature of how the rebellion has been commemorated over the last 200 years. A particularly helpful feature of this book is the detailed almanac it provides of the commemorative bicentary events held throughout the island of Ireland in 1998. They were notable not only for quality of their output but also, encouragingly, for their inclusivity. For the most part, this time commemoration of '98 was an activity in which people found a common purpose rather than the source of divisiveness it had tended to be in years gone by.