Books by Kieran Allen

A critical evaluation of the politics of Irish revolutionary socialist James Connolly (1868-1916)

A critical introduction to Max Weber's sociology that offers analysis in the context of his political beliefs

An accessible and comprehensive overview of the ideas of Karl Marx that elucidates his theories and suggests crucial alternatives to capitalism

A critical introduction to the sociology and politics of Emile Durkheim

A few minutes after noon on the 24th April, 1916, Patrick Pearse stepped outside the newly occupied GPO on Sackville Street with a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Reading aloud, he declared a strike for Irish freedom against the world's greatest imperial power. *BR**BR*The Easter Rising, as the six days of intense, bloody fighting that followed came to be known, set the course for the next 100 years of Irish history; the 'Heroes of '16' becoming a national cultural and political touchstone down the generations. But today, canonised and mummified, the radical visions of Pearse and the socialist James Connolly are an awkward encumbrance on an Irish state that has its roots in the counter-revolution of the civil war, and which has emerged as a haven of economic neoliberalism.*BR**BR*In this fascinating alternative history of modern Ireland, Kieran Allen follows the thread of 1916's 'revolutionary tradition' - an uneasy marriage of Socialism and Republicanism - as it has unravelled across the century. *BR**BR*From the strikes, boycotts, occupations and land redistribution that accompanied the war of independence; to the 'carnival of reaction' that followed; all the way up to the current movement against water charges and austerity, Allen reveals the complexities, ruptures and continuities of a revolutionary tradition that continues to haunt the establishment today.

Ireland has been marketed as the poster boy of EU austerity. EU elites and neoliberal commentators claim that the country's ability to suffer economic pain will attract investors and generate a recovery.*BR**BR*In Austerity Ireland, Kieran Allen challenges this official image and argues that the Irish state's response to the crash is typical of the Eurozone countries, serving to protect the economic privilege of the powerful, to the detriment of the middle and working classes. Looking at the various ways we could consider this austerity period a failure, including transforming Ireland into a tax haven and contributing to serious levels of unemployment, Allen reveals the extent of Ireland's current socio-economic and political malaise, suggesting that it may have created furtile ground for a leftist resurgence.