Books published by Manchester University Press

This is the first complete study of English deists as a group in several decades and it argues for a new interpretation of deism in the English Enlightenment. While there have been many recent studies of the deist John Toland, the writings of other contemporary deists have been forgotten. With extensive analysis of lesser known figures such as Anthony Collins, Matthew Tindal, Thomas Chub, and Thomas Morgan, in addition to unique insights into Toland, Deism in Enlightenment England offers a much broader assessment of what deism entailed in the eighteenth century. Readers will see how previous interpretations of English deists, which place these figures on an irreligious trajectory leading towards modernity, need to be revised. This book uses deists to address a number of topics and themes and theme in English history and will be of particular interest to scholars of Enlightenment history, history of science, theology and politics, and the early modern era.

This book reconstructs American consular activity in Ireland from 1790 to 1913 and elucidates the interconnectedness of America's foreign interests, Irish nationalism and British imperialism

This is the first text to focus solely on the writing of British writers of South Asian descent born or raised in Britain. Written in accessible prose, it offers original new readings of works, among others by Salman Rushie, V. S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi, Ravinder Randhawa, Atima Srivastava, Monica Ali and Meera Syal.

On Anachronism argues that anachronism is basic to all literature and all history and further explores it in film and in music, and that it changes perceptions of time.

Focussing on professional politicians Klaus Stolz investigates the interrelationship between political career patterns and political institutions in two of the most widely discussed cases of regionalism: Catalonia and Scotland. The study deals with two different yet closely related sets of questions: Firstly, how do professional politicians pursue their careers in the regional context. And secondly, how do they shape and reshape the political institutions in which they pursue these careers. The monograph is based on extensive empirical research including a comprehensive data set on the careers of Catalan and Scottish parliamentarians, systematic surveys of regional representatives as well as in-depth interviews of a wide range of politicians and experts in both regions. Exploring the effects of political professionalisation on regional democracy, Stolz goes way beyond traditional studies of regionalism and decentralization, while his focus on the regional career arena introduces a much needed territorial dimension to the study of political careers. Rich original data, innovative theoretical concepts and a strictly comparative approach are the basis for a study that considerably deepens and enhances our understanding of the tremendous political changes both Catalonia and Scotland are undergoing. Thus, the book is of interest to the still growing number of scholars concerned with devolution in the UK, the Spanish autonomous communities as well as to those interested in regional politics and regionalisation in general. Furthermore, its theoretical focus makes it highly relevant for scholars working on political careers, political professionalisation and democratic theory.

This book provides a detailed analysis of the aims, character and trajectory of the ideology of liberal internationalism in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. The book has a genuinely interdisciplinary appeal and is relevant to students of International Relations, British history and international law.

This book provided the first comprehensive account of the Booker Prize-winning poet and novellist, Michael Ondaatje. It also offers a guide to key issues in postcolonial writing and theory.

The first comprehensive treatment of Louise Erdrich's writing in all its diversity. This book offers searching analysis of the common themes and contexts across Erdrich's poetry, prose, memoirs, and children's fiction.

The ghost story 1840-1920: A cultural history examines the British ghost story within the political contexts of the long nineteenth century. By relating the ghost story to economic, national, colonial and gendered contexts' it provides a critical re-evaluation of the period. The conjuring of a political discourse of spectrality during the nineteenth century enables a culturally sensitive reconsideration of the work of writers including Dickens, Collins, Charlotte Riddell, Vernon Lee, May Sinclair, Kipling, Le Fanu, Henry James and M.R. James. Additionally, a chapter on the interpretation of spirit messages reveals how issues relating to textual analysis were implicated within a language of the spectral. This book is the first full-length study of the British ghost story in over 30 years and it will be of interest to academics, graduate students and advanced undergraduates working on the Gothic, literary studies, historical studies, critical theory and cultural studies.

This investigation of women's part in civic life provides a fresh approach to the 'public sphere', illuminates women as agents of a middle-class identity and develops the notion of a 'feminine public sphere', or the web of associations, institutions and discourses used by disenfranchised middle-class women to express their citizenship.

Most accounts of the peace process are 'top-down', relying upon the views of political elites. This book is 'bottom-up', analysing the voices of those who actually 'fought the war'. What made them fight, why did they stop and what are the lessons for other conflict zones?

Negotiating sovereignty and human rights takes the transatlantic conflict over the International Criminal Court as a lens for an enquiry into the normative foundations of international society. The author shows how the way in which actors refer to core norms of the international society such as sovereignty and human rights affect the process and outcome of international negotiations. The book offers an innovative take on the long-standing debate over sovereignty and human rights in international relations. It goes beyond the simple and sometimes ideological duality of sovereignty versus human rights by showing that sovereignty and human rights are not competing principles in international relations, as is often argued, but complement each other. The way in which the two norms and their relationship are understood lies at the core of actors' broader visions of world order. The author shows how competing interpretations of sovereignty and human rights and the different visions of world order that they imply fed into the transatlantic debate over the ICC and transformed this debate into a conflict over the normative foundations of international society.

In formulating a notion of filmic reality, The Reality of Film offers a novel way of understanding our relationship to cinema. It argues that cinema need not be understood in terms of its capacities to refer to, reproduce or represent reality, but should be understood in terms of the kinds of realities it has the ability to create.

This study of British shipbuilding in its heyday brings together original discussions of the organization of production, the relationship between leaders and members of the industry's key trade union, and the involvement of that union in wider labour politics.

The Subject of Love: Helene Cixous and the Feminine Divine is about abundant, generous, other-regarding love. In the history of Western ideas of love, such a configuration has been inseparable from our ideas about divinity and the sacred; often reserved only for God; and rarely thought of as a human achievement. This book is a substantial engagement with her philosophies of love, inviting the reader to reflect on the conditions of subjectivity that just might open us to something like a divine love of the other. Renshaw follows this thread in this genealogy of abundant love: the thread that connects the subject of love from 5th century B.C.E. Greece and Plato, to the 20th century protestant theology of agapic love of Anders Nygren, to the late 20th century poetico-philosophy of Helene Cixous. This study will be of particular interest to academics and students of the history of gender, cultural studies, criticism and gender studies

Provides a critical investigation of the 'global justice movement'. Drawing upon three case studies - a peasant farmers' network, a trade union network, and the social forum process - the authors argue that the role of key geographical concepts of space, place and scale are crucial to an understanding of the operational dynamics of these networks.

This book provides an utterly original analysis of the social and political origins of the war on terror in liberal regimes of disciplinary and biopolitical forms of power.

This book examines the impact of Europeanisation on Ireland and questions the validity of the common assumption that Europeanisation was the cause of Ireland's dramatic political and economical transformation.

This book is about the risk politics of food safety. It offers a lively and exceptionally readable account of food safety and risk that examines media treatment of the issue and makes the case for a fully open public debate.

Michael Logue and the Catholic Church in Ireland, 1879-1925 provides a review and consideration of the role of the Catholic Church in Ireland during the intense political and social changes after 1879 through a major figure in Irish history, Michael Logue. Despite being a figure of pivotal historical importance in Ireland, no substantial study of Michael Logue (1840-1924) has previously been undertaken. Through the medium of Logue, Privilege examines the role of the Catholic Church in the intense political and social changes in Ireland after 1879. Exploring previously under-researched areas, like the clash between science and faith, university education and state-building, the book significantly contributes to our understanding of the relationship between the Church and the state in modern Ireland. This book also sets out to redress any historical misunderstanding of Michael Logue and provides a fresh perspective on existing interpretations of the role of the Church and on areas of historical debate in this period.

An accessible and critically illuminating guide to the social, political and cultural history of alcohol in England. Covering areas including law, public policy, medical thought, media representations and political philosophy, The politics of Alcohol will provide essential reading for anyone interested in either the history of alcohol consumption

This book shows how environmentalists have shaped the world's largest multilateral development lender, investment financier and political risk insurer to take up sustainable development.

The book unravels the story of the insurgencies in Kosovo and Chechnya, shedding new light on the social networks and narratives, the rifts, tensions and movements involved in the road to war in 1999.

The first major academic investigation of Irish national security policy as it has operated since 9/11. It draws on unprecedented access to Ireland's security and intelligence agencies; over twenty senior personnel were interviewed.

This is a groundbreaking examination of the attempts to regulate female sexuality in twentieth-century Northern Ireland, which opens up new and exciting areas of a previously neglected history. A wide-ranging study, it explores the sexual experiences of women in the context of the distinctive religious, political and social circumstances of Northern Ireland during the twentieth century. The commonality of attitudes of the Catholic Churches toward the control of female sexuality is revealed, along with the similarity of views concerning female behaviour. While the ways in which various authorities tried to control female behaviour are explored, it is also argued that women were not simply victims, but employed a variety of survival strategies and active agency, no matter how difficult their circumstances were. This work will appeal not only to an academic audience but also to non-academic readers interested in a new and exciting view of Northern Ireland's past.

This book describes and explains the evolution of devolution. Using previously unpublished primary, as well as a wealth of secondary material, the book offers a comprehensive account of the territorial constitution of the UK from the early twentieth century through to the operation of the new devolved system of government.

A response to the prominent Methodist historian David Hempton's call to analyse women's experience within Methodism, this book is the first to deal with British Methodist women preachers over the entire nineteenth century. The author covers women preachers in Wesley's lifetime, the reason why some Methodist sects allowed women to preach and others did not, and the experience of Bible Christian and Primitive Methodist female evangelists before 1850. She also describes the many other ways in which women supported their chapel communities. The book also includes discussion of the careers of mid-century women revivalists, the opportunities home and foreign missions offered for female evangelism, the emergence of deaconess evangelists and Sisters of the People in late century, and the brief revival of female itinerancy among the Bible Christians.

This book reveals the desperate plight of the poor, neglected, illegitimate, and abused children in an Irish society that claimed to "e;cherish"e; and hold them sacred, but in fact marginalized and ignored them.

Explores the construction of collective memory in Israeli society in relation to the Palestinian Nakba.

This book is the first to examine life in the leading province of Elizabeth I's nascent empire, an Ireland of colonizing English farmers and an imported Protestant elite living in fortified manors and medieval castles