Paul Bew, Peter Gibbon, Henry Patterson Northern Ireland 1921-2001
Political Forces and Social Classes

The updated edition of this path-breaking history covers the entire period between partition in 1921 and the evolving peace process at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The authors lay bare the key issues of Northern Ireland's history, from establishment of the B Specials to the realities of Direct Rule from London in the 1990s. They take issue with the stereotypes that portray Protestants as monolithic and unchanging in their loyalism and Catholics as uniformly alienated from the political establishment. Instead, this sophisticated yet accessible history reveals the economic realities behind the civil rights movement and shows how divisions between the Orange elite and the broader Protestant population sowed the seeds of the destruction of the Unionist state and its eventual replacement by a new system of devolved government and cross-border co-operation.

'Excellent'
Fintan O'Toole

'Puts Ulster's past back into its Irish context with deep learning and few illusions'
New Statesman