About the Book
Christopher Harvie offers a new portrait of society and identity in high industrial Britain by focusing on the sea as connector, not barrier. Atlantic and 'inland sea' together, Harvie argues, created a 'floating commonwealth' of port cities and their hinterlands whose interaction, both with one another and with nationalist and imperial politics, created an intense political and cultural synergy.
At a technical level, this produced the freight steamer and the efficient types of railways which opened up the developing world, as well as the institutions of international finance and communications in the age of 'telegrams and anger'. And ultimately, the resources of the Atlantic cities, their shipyards and works, enabled Britain to win withstand the test of the First World War.
Meanwhile, as Harvie shows, the continuous attempt to make sense of an ever-changing material reality also stimulated the discourses on which social criticism and literary modernism were based, from Carlyle to James Joyce - although the ultimate outcome, of slump and emigration, would leave enduring problems in the years to come.
Table of Contents:
Prelude: Behold The Sea!
1: 'Behold The Sea!'
2: 'The Writing and Acting of History'
3: The Atlantic Moment
4: Perspectives
5: Nationalizing History
6: Basins
7: Covenants
8: Mediations
9: 'L'Invitation au Voyage'
I Places and Voices
I.1: Sacred Lambencies and Thin Crusts: Culture, Danger and Industry
1: Natura Maligna
2: A Patriot for Whom?
3: Auld Scotia - Who She?
4: 'A Thin Crust'
5: Enlightenment and Uncertainty
6: Galatea
I.2 Garron Top To Westward Ho!: The Inland Sea
1: The Irish Boat
2: A Country the Poets have Imagined
3: 'The Antechamber of Britain'
4: Money and Migrants
5: 'Traffics and Discoveries'
6: 'But Westward look!'
7: Civic Empires
I.3 McAndrew: The Engineer on the Celtic Fringe
1: 'The Forgiving of the Anchor'
2: The Uses of Rhetoric
3: Breakthrough
4: ves of the Engineers'
5: 'Work and Question not'
6: Prussians and Asiatics
II Ourselves Together
II.1 Anglo-Saxons into Celts: The Scottish Intellectuals
1: Enlightenment and Deception
2: An Infinite Religious Idea
3: Revivals
4: Geddes and Synergy
5: 'The Genius of the Gael'
II.2 The Folk and the Gwerin: Religious Democracy in Scotland and Wales
1: The Persistence of Faith
2: State, Religion, People
3: 'Godly Commonwealths'
4: Religious Rebels
5: The People's William
6: Legacies
7: Schools and Schoolmasters
II.3 Contrary Heroes: Industry, Ethnie, and Ireland
1: Measuring Distances: Ireland, Industry, and Theory
2: 'Creative Chaos', Victims and Gastarbeiter
3: Machines and Heroes
4: Carlyle and Ireland: Positivist-Protestant
5: Carlyle and Ireland: Celtic-Catholic
6: The Ultramontane Opportunity
7: Where were the Hero-Sisters?
8: Hidden Ireland or Plain People?
III In Time of the Breaking of Nations
III.1 Muscular Celticism: Sport and Nationalism
1: Sport and Statehood
2: Homo Ludens
3: Sport and Sociologists
4: The Civic Mode
5: To the Tailteann Games
6: Spieltrieb: a Diversion?
III.2 John Bull's Other Irishman: Shaw, Geddes, and the Geotechnic Movement
1: The View from Baker Street
2: The Intelligent Fabian's West Britain
3: The Road to Rosscullen
4: Earthquake
5: Passionate Dreaming
6: 'Order the guns and kill!'
III.3 Men Who Pushed and Went: West Coast Capitalism, War and Nationalism
1: Frontism and Remembrance
2: Expectations, Actualities, the Wizard: August 1914-April 1916
3: 'The Workshops are our Battlefield'
4: From Reconstruction to Victory
5: The University of Frongoch: Ireland Escapes
IV Aftermath
'Night's Candles Are Burned Out'
1: Dynamic Forces
2: Into the Doldrums
3: 'A General Unsettlement'
4: Inquests
5: After Ireland
6: American Dreams
7: Nationalism Redux
8: The Big Ship Goes Down
9: Episodes, Epiphanies, Imperium?
10: The 'O' on Olympian
Prelude: Behold The Sea!
I: 'Behold The Sea!'
II: 'The Writing and Acting of History'
III: The Atlantic Moment
IV: Perspectives
V: Nationalizing History
VI: Basins
VII: Covenants
VIII: Mediations
IX: 'L'Invitation au Voyage'
I Places and Voices
I.1 Sacred Lambencies and Thin Crusts: Culture, Danger and Industry
I: Natura Maligna
II: A Patriot for Whom?
III: Auld Scotia - Who She?
IV: 'A Thin Crust'
V: Enlightenment and Uncertainty
VI: Galatea
I.2 Garron Top To Westward Ho!: The Inland Sea
I: The Irish Boat
II: A Country the Poets have Imagined
III: 'The Antechamber of Britain'
IV: Money and Migrants
V: 'Traffics and Discoveries'
VI: 'But Westward look!'
VII: Civic Empires
I.3 McAndrew: The Engineer on the Celtic Fringe
I: 'The Forgiving of the Anchor'
II: The Uses of Rhetoric
III: Breakthrough
IV: 'Lives of the Engineers'
V: 'Work and Question not'
VI: Prussians and Asiatics
II Ourselves Together
II.1 Anglo-Saxons into Celts: The Scottish Intellectuals
I: Enlightenment and Deception
II: An Infinite Religious Idea
III: Revivals
IV: Geddes and Synergy
VII: 'The Genius of the Gael'
II.2 The Folk and the Gwerin: Religious Democracy in Scotland and Wales
I: The Persistence of Faith
II: State, Religion, People
III: 'Godly Commonwealths'
IV: Religious Rebels
V: The People's William
VI: Legacies
VII: Schools and Schoolmasters
II.3 Contrary Heroes: Industry, Ethnie, and Ireland
I: Measuring Distances: Ireland, Industry and Theory
II: 'Creative Chaos', Victims and Gastarbeiter
III: Machines and Heroes
IV: Carlyle and Ireland: Positivist-Protestant
V: Carlyle and Ireland: Celtic-Catholic
VI: The Ultramontane Opportunity
VII: Where were the Hero-Sisters?
VIII: Hidden Ireland or Plain People?
III In Time of the Breaking of Nations
III.1 Muscular Celticism: Sport and Nationalism
I: Sport and Statehood
II: Homo Ludens
III: Sport and Sociologists
IV: The Civic Mode
V: To the Tailteann Games
VI: Spieltrieb: a Diversion?
III.2 John Bull's Other Irishman: Shaw, Geddes, and the Geotechnic Movement
I: The View from Baker Street
II: The Intelligent Fabian's West Britain
III: The Road to Rosscullen
IV: Earthquake
V: Passionate Dreaming
VI: 'Order the guns and kill!'
III.3 Men Who Pushed and Went: West Coast Capitalism, War and Nationalism
I: Frontism and Remembrance
II: Expectations, Actualities, the Wizard: August 1914-April 1916
III: 'The Workshops are our Battlefield'
IV: From Reconstruction to Victory
V: The University of Frongoch: Ireland escapes
IV Aftermath
'Night's Candles Are Burned Out'
I: Dynamic Forces
II: Into the Doldrums
III: 'A General Unsettlement'
IV: Inquests
V: After Ireland
VI: American Dreams
VII: Nationalism Redux
VIII: The Big Ship Goes Down
IX: Episodes, Epiphanies, Imperium?
X: The O' on Olympian
About the Author :
Christopher Harvie was born in Motherwell, Scotland. He was Senior Lecturer in History at the Open University and is currently Professor of British Studies in the English Seminar of Tübingen University, Germany. He has been several times Director of Seminar and visiting fellow or guest professor at Merton and Nuffield Colleges, Oxford, Edinburgh and Strathclyde Universities, and St David's University College, Lampeter. He is Honorary Professor of Politics at
the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and also at Strathclyde University, Glasgow. Harvie has also lectured for the British Council in France, Finland, Hungary and Germany, and for the Anglo-German Society,
besides other lecture tours in Russia, Italy, the United States and Canada.
Review :
`Review from previous edition Harvie is especially good at selecting an economic or artistic personality, and using his furiously allusive scholarship to place them at the heart of historical change.'
Pat Kane, The Independent
`the tremendous wit and humour of Harvie's writing.... Then there is Harvie's scholarship and his seemingly limitless knowledge of all sorts of areas of historical inquiry'
Bill Knox, Times Literary Supplement
`Harvie has provided a new mental and historical map for these islands, which could have more than scholarly consequences.'
Pat Kane, Times Higher Education Supplement
`He examines the concept of Celticism in its various aspects with more accuracy and fewer histrionics than we often encounter in other works. Look at his index, and marvel at the number of creative talents identified, testimony to the painstaking and devoted energy which he brought to his researches. Then go back to the text and appreciate what fruitful use he has made of his discoveries.'
James Halliday, Scots Independent
`The book is a celebration of the Scottish technological intellect and the inland sea that linked the west coast of Britain. It was a hugely successful collaboration between English capital and Scottish brains and really made Britain great. It is intoxicating stuff.'
Iain Macwhirter, Sunday Herald
`There is at all levels, a kind of elegiac poignancy to the book which only adds to its authority and its power. I recommend you read it twice, once at speed and without pause for the footnotes or to jot down the flurries of reference, and once with pencil and notebook at hand. Impossible to fault... its an intellectual masterwork and one of the most important books of the present decade.'
Brian Morton, The Scottish Review of Books
`this is an engaging and lively book, often bold and witty.'
Robert McLain, Enterprise & Society
`intellectually ambitious, interesting ... It is the consistent demonstration of the links and synergies between parallel histories of politics, business and culture that consitutes the real strength of this book. Tjis weaving together of different worlds brings Harvies Floating Commonwealth to life'
Gordon pentland, History Scotland
