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Ireland: Social, Political, and Religious Hardcover – March 17, 2006

by Gustave de Beaumont (Author), Tom Garvin (Introduction), Andreas Hess (Introduction)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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Paralleling his friend Alexis de Tocqueville's visit to America, Gustave de Beaumont traveled through Ireland in the mid-1830s to observe its people and society. In Ireland, he chronicles the history of the Irish and offers up a national portrait on the eve of the Great Famine. Published to acclaim in France, Ireland remained in print there until 1914. The English edition, translated by William Cooke Taylor and published in 1839, was not reprinted.

In a devastating critique of British policy in Ireland, Beaumont questioned why a government with such enlightened institutions tolerated such oppression. He was scathing in his depiction of the ruinous state of Ireland, noting the desperation of the Catholics, the misery of repeated famines, the unfair landlord system, and the faults of the aristocracy. It was not surprising the Irish were seen as loafers, drunks, and brutes when they had been reduced to living like beasts. Yet Beaumont held out hope that British liberal reforms could heal Ireland's wounds.

This rediscovered masterpiece, in a single volume for the first time, reproduces the nineteenth-century Taylor translation and includes an introduction on Beaumont and his world. This volume also presents Beaumont's impassioned preface to the 1863 French edition in which he portrays the appalling effects of the Great Famine.

A classic of nineteenth-century political and social commentary, Beaumont's singular portrait offers the compelling immediacy of an eyewitness to history.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    448 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
  4. Publication date
    March 17, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.5 x 9.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780674021655
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0674021655
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beaumont's 1839 book is the forgotten sister of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. The two liberal Catholic contemporaries were close friends for many decades. They "constituted a two-man Department of Political Sociology" and "discussed every scholarly line they wrote," argue Garvin and Hess—academics at University College Dublin—in their introduction. In order not to overlap, Tocqueville focused by mutual agreement on the constitutional and societal aspects of America, while Beaumont investigated the disadvantaged, the colonialized and the suborned. Beaumont toured Ireland for background on what would become a European bestseller. To a horrified audience, he revealed the brutality, indifference and intolerance of English rule over Ireland. He painted a picture of proselytizing Protestant nobles lording it over a native, nationalist Catholic population, yet Beaumont—a fervent believer in the virtue of British political institutions—paradoxically argued, in Garvin and Hess's words, that London had given Ireland the "constitutional tools necessary to free itself from colonial oppression." In subsequent years, the Irish would pick up those tools. Though it lacks the immortality and balance of Democracy in America, Beaumont's account makes for a worthy rediscovery and deserves wider recognition. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Beaumont's 1839 book is the forgotten sister of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. The two liberal Catholic contemporaries were close friends for many decades...In order not to overlap, Tocqueville focused by mutual agreement on the constitutional and societal aspects of America, while Beaumont investigated the disadvantaged, the colonialized and the suborned. Beaumont toured Ireland for background on what would become a European bestseller. To a horrified audience, he revealed the brutality, indifference and intolerance of English rule over Ireland. He painted a picture of proselytizing Protestant nobles lording it over a native, nationalist Catholic population, yet Beaumont--a fervent believer in the virtue of British political institutions--paradoxically argued, in Garvin and Hess's words, that London had given Ireland the 'constitutional tools necessary to free itself from colonial oppression.' In subsequent years, the Irish would pick up those tools...Beaumont's account makes for a worthy rediscovery and deserves wider recognition. (Publishers Weekly 2006-01-23)

Beaumont's Ireland deserves to be read because mid-19th-century Ireland provided the author with the inspiration to uncover the general dilemmas encountered by politicians using limited institutional means in complex social and historical contexts. This general approach is a useful antidote to the popular--and also frequently the academic--discourse of Irish history, which still tends to fixate on the "rights" and "wrongs" in the careers of particular individuals and organisations.
--Iain McMenamin (Sunday Business Post 2006-05-21)

As informative and perceptive as Tocqueville's [Democracy in America].
--Michael Kenney (Boston Globe 2006-03-16)

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0674021657
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; First Edition (March 17, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780674021655
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674021655
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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Gustave de Beaumont

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4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Chris Fogarty
5.0 out of 5 stars Truthful Irish History
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2017
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After Beaumont's 1831-2 visit, with Tocqueville, to the United States where each wrote their observations, Beaumont visited Ireland. Their observations in the States had resulted in Tocqueville's laudatory, never-out-of-print "Democracy in America,' while Beaumont's complementary "Marie; or Slavery in the United States" was widely-read in Europe but wasn't even translated into English until 1958.
Beaumont, grandson of Marquis de Lafayette of U.S. War of Independence fame, visited Ireland in the mid-1830s. His observations in this book are part of the undeniable record; corroborated by Cobbett, Kohl, Tocqueville, Balch, Nicholson, and a host of Irish writers as well as primary, official sources.
As a lead-in to this book's comprehensive detailing of the genocidal laws being enforced against the Irish, Beaumont wrote under "Historical Introduction;" "The dominion of the English in Ireland, from their invasion of the country in 1169, to the close of the last century, has been nothing but tyranny. During the first three centuries they covered Ireland with deeds of violence, the object of which was the completion of the conquest. The wars of conquest had not ended when those of religion began. England, having in the 16th century, renounced the Catholic for the Protestant faith, wished to convert Ireland to the new creed she had adopted, and finding the Irish rebels to her wishes undertook to constrain them, hence the obstinate struggles, the sanguinary collisions, and the terrible catastrophes which lasted more than a century."

This book is history that academia, especially Irish academia, largely conceals; partly for that reason I strongly recommend it. .
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JudithReader
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing revelations
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2016
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An amazing revelation of occupation of Ireland
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sharon d
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but some weird translations here and there
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2021
I understand how much the English language has changed over the decades (not to mention the centuries), and I am sure French has done the same, so it can be hazardous to find fault with a 19th –century English translation of an 1839 French work, because my dictionary may not be in step with the minds of the 19th century. But there are some really glaring discrepancies between the original writing of Beaumont and this English version by W.C. Taylor. (Garvin & Hess did the introduction, not the translation, except for the appended translation of Beaumont’s later (1863) preface to the second edition. That bit, Garvin did.)

Given that this is the only complete translation of this work in its entirety, we’re not exactly spoiled for choice here, so we can’t complain too much. Overall, it’s well done. Here are some caveats:

The conquerors mingled with the conquered, not with the conquerors.

Taylor consistently translated “misère” as “misery”, which is technically correct, but even in the 1800s, I think, it has the additional meaning of “destitution” and “extreme poverty”, which would often be more appropriate in this context.

At one point Beaumont refers to “une mer semée d’écueils” which Taylor turns into a “sea full of quicksands,” when what it actually means is “a sea strewn with reefs.” Or rocks. Or dangers. Or pitfalls. But definitely NOT quicksands, ye gods.

Beaumont, speaking of the attitude that Protestantism is a species of nobility, says that “sufficient traces of [this attitude] remain in the mutual relations between Protestants and Catholics that it cannot be disregarded (or it cannot fail to be recognized/noticed)”---“on ne puisse la méconnaître”. In other words, you can’t miss it. Taylor says that “sufficient traces … remain… to allow of its escaping notice”, which is the exact opposite of what is written in the original and makes no sense at all.

Worst of all: Beaumont speaks of famine arising from “cherté des grains”. Cherté means, literally, “dearness”—as in, “il coûte cher”; so, he is speaking of the high price, the expensiveness of grain. Taylor translates it “dearth of grain”, which does a disservice not only to the text, but the facts of Irish famines in general, not just the Great one; for these, while certainly often due to bad harvests, were also due in part to economic decisions made by the Powers that Were (the English), not solely to Acts of God.

Anyway, it’s a good book, good historical background in part one, and the parts that Taylor skips are not essential, but if something doesn’t make sense, it's the translator’s fault, not Beaumont’s. Ce qui n’est pas clair n’est pas français! (Antoine Rivarol)
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Aidan
5.0 out of 5 stars Book Order satisfaction
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2010
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The book I ordered came in good time and at the right price. A reliable, quick service and good value.
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