One of the earliest sorts of books that a reader might encounter were the popular stories which circulated in early modern Ireland and which were aimed at all social levels. Printers, with an eye to the market, reproduced what was familiar and what they thought would sell. Stories were both popular and profitable. The efforts of booksellers and others ensured that contemporaries had a range of books to which they could to turn for profit and pleasure according to their needs. By the end of the seventeenth century printed books and more ephemeral printed items for both business and pleasure had become commonplace in Ireland. Some books, such as historical or legal works were certainly more common in the great house than in the countryside, and wealth meant that a larger library could be afforded by the upper social classes.

This chapter introduces edited extracts from Eliza's Babes: Or the Virgins-Offering (1652), a collection of poems and prose meditations, whose author can be recognised only by the name ‘Eliza’. Eliza's work expands the metaphor that the writing process mirrors the process of giving birth, exploring images of the mystical marriage, conception, labour, and birth in order to explain her authorship of devotional verse. Her work was clearly influenced by other writers of devotional verse, but particularly George Herbert.

People plan strategies to enable them to get what they want. Obviously, luck plays a part in achieving their desires. The question becomes: can one plan for that luck? As luck is normally defined and understood, the answer would be no. However, if luck is defined on the basis of obtaining what one wants without trying, as suggested by Brian Barry, then it is possible to consider a strategy of planning for luck. Indeed, one may plan only for luck and, with foresight in developing one’s future luck, this may be more efficient than other strategies. This chapter explains how this may be so through an examination of power based on cooperative game theory.

This chapter shows how a materialist reformulation of idealist philosophy provides the broad outlines of a theory of critical idealism that bears directly upon the organisation of the labour process and the first condition of legitimate law concerning humanity and external nature. It argues that the theorisation of a feasible reconciliation between humanity and external nature turns on the possibility of formulating a revised form of idealism. The chapter establishes the links between idealism, legality and the institutional bases of reconciliation. In accordance with the critique of metaphysics, rational thought is thinking that liberates humanity from the dependence on faith and the darkness of superstition, but only on condition that the mind is able to recognise and apprehend the products of thought as its own productions.

In traditional Unionist accounts of the Third Home Rule crisis, militancy was a measured and controlled response by Ulster Unionists to the actions of the Liberal government. Many of the early manifestations of Ulster Unionist militancy occurred outside the formal structures of the Orange Order and Unionist Clubs. Many members of Unionist Clubs highlighted the importance of the movement for propaganda work in Great Britain. Some of the Southern Unionists who formed clubs in places like Kingston and Cork presumably saw the movement as an all-Ireland one, which would serve the interests of Southern not just Ulster Unionists. The period 1885-1912 was an important one in discussing the development of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) proper in 1913-1914. By the end of 1912, the attitude of a number of army officers towards Ulster's planned resistance was therefore becoming obvious and they were making their views known to various Unionist groups.

This chapter looks at Vicki Feaver's 'Ironing', Charlotte Smith's 'Middleton Church' sonnet and Roy Fisher's 'Sign Illuminated', trying to say something specific about poetic meaning. The success of the poem as a whole depends upon the complementary fusion of the 'showing' part in the main body and the 'telling' part towards the end. The extent of the reader's enjoyment and grasp of the poem will have a lot to do with appreciating the means and skillfulness of that fusion. The two aspects (telling and showing) are equally important to the construction of the overall poetic effect, even though they are not of equal length. The poetic effect as a whole is tightly shaped and crafted by the poet, and it is natural for poetry readers to be curious about how that process works.

Few directors are as ambiguously placed in the French popular imaginary as Jacques Demy. Le Sabotier du Val de Loire marks a shift from fiction to documentary filmmaking. Demy's affinity with his home city of Nantes is evident throughout his cinema. The sophisticated decors in the reconstituted version combine recognisable Nantes locations, including the quai de la Fosse and the transporter bridge, with roofs inspired by stills from Sous les toits de Paris. Scholar Gerald L. Bruns argues that Orpheus and poets in general do not imitate or reflect the environment around them, but build the world up through their poems. Hollywood staple is a commonplace of writings on Demy to highlight his 'monde en-/ enchanté', meaning both 'expressed through song' and 'enchanted'. At the end of Demy's second year Demy presented his first non-animated short Les Horizons morts.

In 1551 the first book printed in Ireland using movable type was produced on a printing press in Dublin. The history of the Irish printing press in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is, in the main, a story of inactivity. One of the main characteristics of the world of books in sixteenth-century Ireland was that demand was fed not by the Dublin press but by imports, a fact which served to shape the nature of the Irish book trade in the early modern period. Outside the commercial world of trade, books moved along other routes. The scale of the libraries assembled in early seventeenth-century Ireland depended a great deal on social pretensions and wealth. In particular overseas trade with London through Chester allowed large quantities of print to be brought to Ireland with relative ease, accompanying migrants or following more general trade routes.

This chapter presents a description of a Conservative Party shocked by Labour's landslide election victory in 1945, thereafter adapting to the new paradigm, and also examines the Conservative Party's varied reaction to those right-wing groups that emerged in opposition to this new paradigm from 1945–51. It shows how the Conservative Party explicitly charged one of the departments within Central Office to investigate these outside organisations. The Conservative Party was Britain's right-wing party, and it had clear connections with the extreme right and even fascism before the Second World War. Its perception of an organisation's exact nature was not always immediately apparent. Central Office took a more subtle approach to minimise the impact of outside organisations. There was a clear difference in the Conservative Party's attitudes towards specific external extreme-right groups. A determining factor was Central Office's perception of the extreme-right group as fascist or not.

This book explores the different aspects of Edward Palmer Thompson's life and work. It uses Thompson's 1978 book, The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays to focus the enquiries. The first part of this chapter investigates Thompson's family and social background, and it looks at the early experiences that helped determine the path his life would follow. Part II evaluates the turbulent years Thompson spent in Britain's New Left, to see how his political frustrations were converted into academic triumphs. The next part follows Thompson through the crucial decade of the 1970s, and sees how the crisis of his political thought drove him close to despair, but also stimulated him to think in highly innovative ways. The last part discusses Thompson's last years, which were marked by both unprecedented public fame and intellectual decline. Thompson's interest in marginal people and societies was motivated by more than sympathy.