School of History, Classics & Archaeology

Alvin Jackson's new book

Alvin Jackson, the Head of School, has just published his new book, 'The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007', with Oxford University Press.

The book is a comparison of the two formative unions of 1707 and 1801, and uses the comparison to illuminate the longevity of the United Kingdom.

Vernon Bogdanor, one of Britain's leading constitutional authorities, writes in the current Literary Review:

why was the one union a success, and the other a failure? Alvin Jackson brings the tools of modern historical scholarship to answer this question in his impressive book. The Two Unions is refreshingly free from the usual polemics.

Vernon Bogdanor

In the current edition of the BBC History Magazine, Christopher Whatley (Vice Principal of Dundee University) praises

Jackson's brilliantly executed comparative approach to his subject [in] an utterly compelling volume.

Professor Christopher WhatleyVice Principal of Dundee