States of Mind: Two Centuries of Anglo-Irish Conflict, 1780-1980

Originally published in 1983 and slightly revised in 1985, joint winner of the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, States of Mind is an exploration of the ideas underlying Anglo-Irish conflict over the past two centuries. This is a book about nationalism and colonialism and above all about political ideology. The ideology is popular, to be inferred from behaviour rather than found in treatises. Often it was, and is, expressed in images and slogans. The resultant cross-purposes and double meanings, ambiguity and dualism are characteristic of cultural collision and accommodation generally. This book throws light upon a very wide range of modern history, and not just upon the relations of one particular metropolitan power and its dependency. The definition and treatment of the subject, as well as the conclusions, are strikingly novel.

Oliver MacDonagh (1924-2002) was renowned as a scholar in modern British and Irish history. He became Foundation Professor and Chairman at the newly founded Flinders University in Australia. Atter a return to Ireland as Professor of Modern History at Cork, he was appointed W.K. Hancock Professor of History at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University. He wrote books on Irish emigration, Irish political history, 18th century administration and government in Victorian Britain.