Vivid Faces
The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890-1923
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR and OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014
WINNER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'S MORRIS D. FORKOSCH PRIZE 2016
'The most complete and plausible exploration of the roots of the 1916 Rebellion... essential reading' Colm Tóibín
Vivid Faces surveys the lives and beliefs of the people who made the Irish Revolution: linked together by youth, radicalism, subversive activities, enthusiasm and love. Determined to reconstruct the world and defining themselves against their parents, they were in several senses a revolutionary generation.
The Ireland that eventually emerged bore little relation to the brave new world they had conjured up in student societies, agit-prop theatre groups, vegetarian restaurants, feminist collectives, volunteer militias, Irish-language summer schools, and radical newspaper offices. Roy Foster's book investigates that world, and the extraordinary people who occupied it.
Looking back from old age, one of the most magnetic members of the revolutionary generation reflected that 'the phoenix of our youth has fluttered to earth a miserable old hen', but he also wondered 'how many people nowadays get so much fun as we did'. Working from a rich trawl of contemporary diaries, letters and reflections, Vivid Faces re-creates the argumentative, exciting, subversive and original lives of people who made a revolution, as well as the disillusionment in which it ended.
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In 1916, Irish rebels took their desire for self-government to the next level, engaging in the open insurrection that became known as the Easter Uprising. Foster (Modern Ireland), the professor of Irish History at Hertford College, Oxford, constructs a deep, intricate portrait of the generation leading up to the Easter Uprising, as examined through all aspects of their daily lives and surrounding culture. He covers the building blocks education and recreation, arts and literature, preparation for armed conflict and so on into and throughout the course of the uprising and its aftermath, declaring it almost inevitable: "During this era enough people especially young people changed their minds about political possibilities to bring about a revolution against the old order, which included not only government by Britain but the constitutional nationalism of the previous government." Foster's thorough, widely-sourced work focuses on "students, actors, writers, teachers, civil servants; often from comfortable middle-class backgrounds, and often spending part of their lives working in Britain." It's an authoritative account of a volatile period, but it's written by a historian for serious scholars; the prose is dense and challenging, the material fascinating yet intimidating. For those willing to slog through the text, it will prove an invaluable resource. Illus.
