Hugh Kearney

Hugh Kearney (born Liverpool, United Kingdom) is a British historian, and Amundson Professor Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh. He is perhaps best known for the book "British Isles: A History of Four Nations", written in 1989 and extended in 2006, which is acclaimed for adopting a multi-nation 'Britannic approach' to both British and Irish history, and consciously broadening the 'Anglocentric' approach that has traditionally dominated British or British Isles-based histories.cite book
url = http://www.cup.es/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521846004
title = British Isles: A History of Four Nations (CUP catalogue)] cite book
title = British Isles: A History of Four Nations (Cambridge University Press, all editions)

..it is only by adopting a 'Britannic' approach that historians can make sense of the particular segment in which they may be primarily interested, whether it be 'England', 'Ireland', 'Scotland', 'Wales', Cornwall or the Isle of Man. (Introduction, page 1)

My own efforts to deal with problems raised by 'national' histories have lead me to see what I call the 'Britannic melting pot' in terms of a complex of interacting cultures, an approach which carries with it the danger of emphasising the importance of ethnicity at the expense of 'class'. (Introduction, page 5)] His daughter is the Newsnight presenter Martha Kearney.

Career

After a period teaching at University College Dublin,cite web
url = http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:CDzzJeqcTvEJ:www.phil.muni.cz/angl/englishdigit/lidia/new_reader/identities.rtf+%22hugh+kearney%22+%22born+in%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=38&gl=uk
title = British Studies, A Reader] in 1962 Kearney became one of the first academics (a lecturer of history) at the still-under-construction 'plate glass university', University of Sussex, where he taught at a temporary Nissen hut before the arts faculty buildings were completed.cite web
url = http://www.sussex.ac.uk/press_office/media/media569.shtml
title = Press Release - When Sussex was Martha Kearney's playground
date = 30 August 2006 ] cite web
url = http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:mdheWO5yPucJ:www.sussex.ac.uk/history/documents/professor_hugh_kearney.doc+%22Hugh+Kearney%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk
title = Professor Hugh Kearney - Sussex University Press Release] Kearney went on to teach courses on contemporary Britain; poetry, science and religion in seventeenth century England; religion and literature in the age of Pascal, and the politics and literature of Yeats and Joyce. Kearney made modern Irish history his major research interest, especially focusing on Ireland's relationship with the United Kingdom, and the British nations.

While at Sussex Kearney spent three months at the Folger Library in Washington D.C., where he wrote an article "Puritanism, Capitalism and the Scientific Revolution" (published in Past and Present, 1964). During his time at Sussex, also took a sabbatical in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.cite news
url = http://www.independent.co.uk/student/career-planning/getting-job/passedfailed-an-education-in-the-life-of-martha-kearney-broadcaster-436359.html
title = Passed/Failed: An education in the life of Martha Kearney, broadcaster] In 1970 Kearney left Sussex to become Richard Pares Professor of history at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1975 moved on to the University of Pittsburgh, where he was Amundson Professor of British History until 1999. His is now Amundson Professor Emeritus.

While at Sussex, Kearney edited "Problems and Perspectives in History" (a series published by Longmans) in which he contributed the volume "Origins of the Scientific Revolution". As result of this, he came to contribute a volume in the new World University Library ("Science and Change 1500-1700", Weidenfeld, 1970) that was translated into German, Spanish and Japanese.

In 1969 Kearney contributed three chapters on the 17th century in John Cruikshank's Sussex-based series "French Literature and its Background". Kearney further published his work on 17th century universities in "Scholars and Gentlemen: Universities and Society in Pre-Industrial Britain" (Faber 1970).

A gap of almost 20 years followed before the publication of his later works, "The British Isles: A History of Four Nations" (1989, 2006) and the collection of essays, "Ireland: Contested Ideas of Nationalism and History" (2007).

Works

The British Isles: A History of Four Nations

In 1989 Kearney published "The British Isles: A History of Four Nations", to strong reviews in the Times Literary Supplement, History Today, The Spectator and the New York Review of Books. It was printed by the Cambridge University Press as a general reader book with plate sections in hardback and paperback, and the Canto edition of 1995, which had an extended bibliography, was reprinted twice. A second edition was published by Cambridge in 2006, which incuded a new chapter on the ninetees and post-devolution Britain.

Ireland: Contested Ideas of Nationalism and History

In 2007 Kearney cast his 'Britannic' perspective on Irelandcite web
url = http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0814748007/ref=sib_dp_pop_ex?ie=UTF8&p=S01Y#reader-link
title = British Isles: A history of Four Nations, Table of Contents] in a collection of essays published by the New York University Press currently only available in the USA, in its first hardback edition. According to the NYUP;

"The insightful essays collected here all circle around Ireland, with the first section attending to questions of nationalism and the second addressing pivotal moments in the history and historiography of the isle. Kearney contends that Ireland represents a striking example of the power of nationalism, which, while unique in many ways, provides an illuminating case study for students of the modern world. He goes on to elaborate his revisionist "four nations" approach to Irish history."

"In the book, Kearney recounts his own development in the field and the key personalities, departments, and movements he encountered along the way. It is a unique portrait not only of a humane and sensitive historian, but of the historical profession (and the practice of history) in Britain, Ireland, and the United States from the 1940s to the late 20th century-at once public intellectual history and fascinating personal memoir."cite web
url = http://www.nyupress.org/books/Ireland-products_id-5009.html
title = NYU Press]

In the media

In 2006, Kearney reminisced with his daughter about life amongst the development of Sussex University, in a BBC Radio Four series charting the post-war history of higher education.

Publications

*Strafford in Ireland: a Study in Absolutism - 1959, 2nd edition 1989, Cambridge University Press

*Origins of the Scientific Revolution - 1967, Longmans

*Science and Change 1500-1700 - World University Library - 1970, Weidenfeld

*Scholars and Gentlemen: Universities and Society in pre-industrial Britain - 1970, Faber, Cornell University Press

*The British Isles: A History of Four Nations - 1989, 2nd edition 2006, Cambridge University Press

*Ireland: Contested Ideas of Nationalism and History - 2007, New York University Press (forthcoming in UK)

References