Dublin: The Making of a Capital City
David Dickson
(Author)
Description
Dublin has experienced great--and often astonishing--change in its 1,400 year history. It has been the largest urban center on a deeply contested island since towns first appeared west of the Irish Sea. There have been other contested cities in the European and Mediterranean world, but almost no European capital city, David Dickson maintains, has seen sharper discontinuities and reversals in its history--and these have left their mark on Dublin and its inhabitants. Dublin occupies a unique place in Irish history and the Irish imagination. To chronicle its vast and varied history is to tell the story of Ireland.
David Dickson's magisterial history brings Dublin vividly to life beginning with its medieval incarnation and progressing through the neoclassical eighteenth century, when for some it was the "Naples of the North," to the Easter Rising that convulsed a war-weary city in 1916, to the bloody civil war that followed the handover of power by Britain, to the urban renewal efforts at the end of the millennium. He illuminates the fate of Dubliners through the centuries--clergymen and officials, merchants and land speculators, publishers and writers, and countless others--who have been shaped by, and who have helped to shape, their city. He reassesses 120 years of Anglo-Irish Union, during which Dublin remained a place where rival creeds and politics struggled for supremacy. A book as rich and diverse as its subject, Dublin reveals the intriguing story behind the making of a capital city.Product Details
Price
$35.00
$32.55
Publisher
Belknap Press
Publish Date
November 17, 2014
Pages
736
Dimensions
6.6 X 2.1 X 10.0 inches | 2.75 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780674744448
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
David Dickson is Professor in Modern History at Trinity College Dublin.
Reviews
This history of Dublin is an insightful, deeply researched, witty volume, which anyone interested in Ireland, England, Georgian architecture, or the misadventures of nation-building will find fascinating.--Edward Short"Weekly Standard" (02/23/2015)
In Dublin, Dickson has woven together the city's social, economic, cultural, demographic and architectural histories; the story he tells will intrigue natives, enlighten newcomers and stand as a monument to this great city's place in an ever-changing Ireland.--John Gallagher "The Telegraph "
[Dickson] distils a mountain of scholarship to illuminate the whole of Dublin's history. He is strongest on political and social change, informative too on the city's marvellous architecture... This is the fullest overview of the many transformations of one of the world's most enchanting cities.--Eamon Duffy "The Times "
I thought I knew the history of my hometown, Dublin, and then I read David Dickson's wise and stylish book...[An] eloquent book...Dickson's book was teaching me things about my hometown until almost the very last page.--Robert Cremins"Los Angeles Review of Books" (04/07/2015)
In Dublin, Dickson has woven together the city's social, economic, cultural, demographic and architectural histories; the story he tells will intrigue natives, enlighten newcomers and stand as a monument to this great city's place in an ever-changing Ireland.--John Gallagher "The Telegraph "
[Dickson] distils a mountain of scholarship to illuminate the whole of Dublin's history. He is strongest on political and social change, informative too on the city's marvellous architecture... This is the fullest overview of the many transformations of one of the world's most enchanting cities.--Eamon Duffy "The Times "
I thought I knew the history of my hometown, Dublin, and then I read David Dickson's wise and stylish book...[An] eloquent book...Dickson's book was teaching me things about my hometown until almost the very last page.--Robert Cremins"Los Angeles Review of Books" (04/07/2015)
