HIST-144 History of Ireland

HIST-144 History of Ireland

Faculty:

Hill, Brendan

Paxton, Jennifer

In the popular imagination of many Americans -- fed largely by media sources unwilling to scratch beneath the surface -- modern Ireland has been forced into a conceptual dichotomy. It is either the scorched earth of bitter religious strife or the quaint home of Riverdance, where no one is ever more than five feet from their next creamy pint of Guinness. In this class we will examine the cultural, social, economic and political development of modern Ireland from the establishment of a Protestant ascendancy in the 17th century to the introduction of the Euro in 2002. Along the way, we will encounter a diversity of Irish experiences. We’ll sift through the documentary evidence of a potato blight transformed into a brutal famine through a combination of indifference and calculation. We’ll examine the struggle of a world-renown author trying to free himself from the intellectual constraints of an increasingly uncompromising Irish nationalism. We’ll witness the transformation of a disinterested medical student into a violent revolutionary by Britain’s brutal response to the Easter Rising. By the end of this course, we will see that neither of the aforementioned stereotypes really applies to the polychromatic reality of modern Ireland.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

Course syllabi
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Spring '10: Paxton, J (file download)

Additional syllabi may be available in prior academic years.

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2004-2005
• 2005-2006

More information
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