Land and Liberalism
Henry George and the Irish Land War

Shows how Irish land in the 1880s was a site of ideological conflict, with resonances for liberal politics far beyond Ireland itself.

Andrew Phemister (Author)

9781009202893, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 March 2023

256 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.6 kg

'Andrew Phemister has contributed a serious illustration of what he calls the “social history of ideas”, which locates the American journalist Henry George at the centre of a transition to non-violent activism, the contribution of Catholic intellectuals, and the fractionation of social movements over the relationship of state and individual. The book will be of interest to historians of labour, identity, and liberalism on both sides of the Atlantic.' Jo Guldi, Southern Methodist University

Irish land in the 1880s was a site of ideological conflict, with resonances for liberal politics far beyond Ireland itself. The Irish Land War, internationalised partly through the influence of Henry George, the American social reformer and political economist, came at a decisive juncture in Anglo-American political thought, and provided many radicals across the North Atlantic with a vision of a more just and morally coherent political economy. Looking at the discourses and practices of these agrarian radicals, alongside developments in liberal political thought, Andrew Phemister shows how they utilised the land question to articulate a natural and universal right to life that highlighted the contradictions between liberty and property. In response to this popular agrarian movement, liberal thinkers discarded many older individualistic assumptions, and their radical democratic implications, in the name of protecting social order, property, and economic progress. Land and Liberalism thus vividly demonstrates the centrality of Henry George and the Irish Land War to the transformation of liberal thought.

Introduction
1. 'Our American Aristotle'
2. Agrarianism and political thought
3. The Land War and the Land League
4. The Catholic Church and the land question
5. Transatlantic radicalism and the land question
6. Class, culture and place
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Social & cultural history [HBTB], British & Irish history [HBJD1]