The Two Unions

• The first book to examine the lengthy survival of the Union, instead of its decline
• Discusses not only the history and varied health of the United Kingdom over the past 300 years, but also its present condition and prospects
• Covers an important topic of current debate so has an urgent contemporary relevance and importance
• Provides students and general readers with key information and arguments on a vitally important theme
• Covers a broad chronological range: 300 years of key issues and themes

Readership: Academics, students, and general readers interested in Irish and Scottish history, current British politics, and modern British and Irish history

Alvin Jackson, Sir Richard Lodge Professor of History, University of Edinburgh

Alvin Jackson has been Professor of Modern Irish History at Queen's University Belfast, and Burns Visiting Professor at Boston College. He was educated at Corpus Christi College and Nuffield College, Oxford, and has held a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship as well as a British Academy Research Readership.

"In this distinguished book ... Jackson sets out to provide a rigorous comparative treatment of the Irish and Scottish experience of union, and to explain why both have endured, if only partly in the Irish case. The result is a richly textured work by a historian at the top of his game. Jackson's command of the historiographical debates pertaining to a daunting range of periods and issues in the history of the two unions, and his lucidly argued judgements and insights combine to put this book in a pole position in the area of comparative historical studies concerning these islands. It is a book that could hardly have been timelier .." - Graham Walker, Irish Historical Studies

"This superb book provides the first complete cultural and political history of the unions ... Highly recommended" - D. R. Bisson, CHOICE

"What is illuminating is Jackson's brilliantly executed comparative approach to his subject ... [the state of the Union] is made crystal clear in what is an utterly compelling book." - Christopher Whatley, BBC History Magazine

"Why was the one union a success, while the other failed? Alvin Jackson brings the tools of modern historical scholarship to answer this question in his impressive book. The Two Unions offers welcome relief from the usual polemics." - Vernon Bogdanor, Literary Review

"A superb run-through of 300 years of critical issues with lots of topical relevance and interest ... [Two Unions] comes highly recommended from Talking History." - 'Talking History' programme, Newstalk Radio

"Alvin Jackson, the author of two excellent histories of Ireland in (and not in) the United Kingdom, now broadens his canvas in a timely account of one [union's] death and the other's survival - so far." - Iain McLean, Times Literary Supplement

"There could be no better moment to produce the first scholarly history of the two unions ... tough-minded, unsentimental ... [Jackson] has performed an extraordinarily valuable service ... perfect academic detachment is preserved throughout ... a superb book" - A.B. Cooke (Lord Lexden), Parliament: The House Magazine

"[Two Unions is] enlightening and even fun - smart, wonderfully learned and witty ... [This] book would make a splendid present for anyone interested in Irish (or Scottish) history." - Jude Collins, Book Programme, BBC Radio Ulster

I The Measures and their Histories
1: Histories - Historiography, Comparability, Longevity
2: Prehistories (1290-1690, 1300-1782)
3: Contexts (1689-1703, 1782-1798): Economic, Military, R S5Parliamentary
4: Debates and Terms (1705-7, 1799-1801)
II The Survival of the Unions: Overviews
5: The Survival of the Scots Union, 1707-1997
6: The Survival of the Irish Union, 1800-1921
III The Survival of the Unions: People, Ideas, Institutions
7: Scottish Unionists: People and Parties
8: Irish Unionists: People and Parties
IV Reflections on the Unions
9: Conclusion: North Britain, West Britain
Bibliography