wartime attitude to the small European nations and to the colonies of the British

Empire after the war. In both cases, ‘only as part of a larger entity, aligned with and

‘‘protected’’ by one of the Great Powers, could they hope to avoid falling prey to

another more ruthless still’ (p. 205).

Through a meticulous exposition of the intellectual struggles within the Labour

movement over the meaning of internationalism and social democracy’s duties towards

it, this volume makes a significant point by highlighting the role of ideas and

intellectual agency in foreign affairs policy-making. Even though the author does

not try to link his argument to the greater debate regarding the importance of ideas in

policy-making, he manages successfully to distance himself from accounts that over-

emphasise the influence of external constraints, of material interests or of conservative

circles in the British bureaucracy. Furthermore, the choice by the author to depict the

ideological debate within the totality of the Labour movement, and not to focus on a

model of Cabinet history is innovative and paints a more convincing picture of

decision-makers in their every day environments. Despite the fact that Douglas does

not always make clear what in the practice of Labour government is mere realpolitik

and national self-interest and what is part of the wider logic of internationalism

(‘muscular’ or not), he manages to present an articulate, sophisticated and original

argument, all the while writing in an attractive and very readable style. Overall, this

book, based on a wide variety of sources, demonstrates excellent scholarship and

constitutes a vital work on Labour’s history and identity.

GERASSIMOS MOSCHONAS

Panteion University, Athens

Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Myths and Memories of the Easter Rising: Cultural and

Political Nationalism in Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006. 238 pp. d19.95

(pbk), d50.00 (hbk).

In this book Jonathan Githens-Mazer applies Anthony D. Smith’s highly influential

theories of nationalism to the radicalisation of Irish nationalism which followed the

Dublin rebellion of Easter 1916. This study belongs to the short shelf of books

dedicated to applying grand historical theory to the prominent events in Irish history,

and in this respect it is most welcome.

The analysis turns on the idea that this radicalisation, though advanced by

influences often outside Irish control, was shaped by an Irish cultural heritage which

provided a fund of ideas and attitudes – religious, social, and political – which

comprised an Irish Catholic ethnicity. Of special importance were fashionable ideas of

Gaelicness, which, when mixed with an ultramontane Catholicism, constructed

Irishness and Englishness through a series of incompatible binaries. Central to this

Irish identity and its English ‘other’ was a series of historical ‘myths and memories’; in

the popular mind, Anglo-Irish history comprised a morality tale propelled by a cycle of

oppression and resistance. Githens-Mazer suggests that the rising functioned as a

‘cultural trigger point’, renewing this version of Irishness, though the significance of the

rising itself was acquired retrospectively, owing much to subsequent cycles of British

reaction and Irish resistance. Internment and mass arrests were exactly the wrong way

to deal with an Irish population that had not supported the rebellion and had

surprising reserves of goodwill for the British political system. Consequently,

r The authors 2007. Journal compilation r ASEN/Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2007

548 Book Reviews

Githens-Mazer does not imply that after 1916 Irish nationalism recovered an

authenticity previously suppressed by the proprietary of the home rule movement,

but that the Irish Catholic Anglophobia that was latent to Irish nationalism before

1916, and was rejected by the conciliatory politics of home rule, was re-legitimised by

British reactions. In other words, the British behaved according to the roles tradition-

ally assigned them by Irish nationalism and the Irish, enraged by British military

heavy-handedness, readily recast themselves as the intransigent rebels of British

prejudice.

This raises the question as to whether the rising might equally be thought a cultural

trigger point for the British, seeing them draw upon ethnic assumptions about the

Irish. Charles Townshend has demonstrated the crudity of British thinking about

Ireland, particularly within the military establishment. The home rule party MP John

Dillon criticised the government’s and the military’s heavy-handed reaction in a

famously anguished outburst in the House of Commons. His critique rested, at least

in part, on his sense that the British did not understand the people they were dealing

with. Dillon saw two generations’ conciliation, worked at by British Liberals and

British home rulers, come undone in as many months. The Liberal-Home Rule

dynamic that had shaped Irish nationalism for fifty years was shunted aside by a

Fenian-Tory reaction and a heavy dose of Irish sectarianism, Protestant and

Catholic.

This reviewer is only too aware of the pressure to publish as quickly as possible after

completing a PhD. And this urgency can only be enhanced when the matter of the PhD

is about to be subject to a major anniversary. Githens-Mazer was awarded his PhD in

2005 and his book was published in time for the 90th anniversary of 1916. A rapid

turnaround by any standards and, unfortunately, at times this shows. Irish Academic

Press, who no doubt hoped they had a strong seller on their hands, should have

invested more in the copy-editing and there are instances when the writing might have

been sharpened up, avoiding repetitive phrases and the like. It would, however, be

petty to allow this to undermine any sense of the effectiveness of the book. Though

much of the text is taken up with familiar narrative, and cannot compete with Charles

Townshend’s beautifully crafted The Irish Rebellion (London, 2006), Githens-Mazer’s

account is clear, reliable, and insightful. Though those familiar with the historiography

of the Irish revolution may not find the insights gleaned from the application of

Smithian theory revelatory, close reading will yield rewards. On the other hand,

students new to the subject will find Githens-Mazer’s working out of an analytical

framework, laced with lively detail, very helpful indeed.

MATTHEW KELLY

University of Southampton

Joanna Beata Michlic, Poland’s Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to

the Present. Lincoln, NE and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. 386 pp.

$59.95.

Over the last century, much has been written on Polish–Jewish relations. Joanna

Michlic’s achievement is a comprehensive, balanced, thoroughly researched study of

how Jews have been viewed by Poles, especially by politicians and writers. She adverts

to studies of popular attitudes toward Jews, but focuses mostly on such disparate

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Book Reviews 549