Professor Alvin Jackson (FRSE, HonMRIA, MAE, FRHistS, DArts (hc), MA, DPhil)

Richard Lodge Professor of History

Biography

Background

I have lived and worked in Edinburgh as Sir Richard Lodge Professor of History since 2005.  Before arriving here, I studied Modern History at Corpus Christi College and Nuffield College, Oxford, where I completed a D.Phil. in 1986. I was a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow between 1986 and 1988, and was Lecturer in Modern History at University College Dublin between 1988 and 1991:  in 1991 I  moved to Queen’s University Belfast, where I was Professor of Modern Irish History.  In 1996-7 I began a close and ongoing connection with several US universities when I spent an academic year as John Burns Visiting Professor at Boston College, Massachusetts.   

I was Head of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Edinburgh for nearly four years (2010-13) and more recently served as Dean of Research and Depute Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science.

My research has been supported by three major national awards – a British Academy Research Readership in the Humanities (2000), a British Academy-Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship (2009) and a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2014).  I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Member of the Academia Europaea.  In 2022 I was awarded an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin.

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy
  • Member of the Academia Europaea
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Undergraduate teaching

Honours teaching:

  • The Making of Modern Ireland, c.1798-1940 (Option)
  • Armed Struggle: The Troubles in Northern Ireland and their Origins (Option)
  • Home Rule in Ireland and Britain, 1800-2000 (Option)
  • Disunited Kingdoms:  why do union states fail? (Option/Special Subject)

Current PhD students supervised

Name - Degree - Thesis topic - Supervision type

  • Dolan, Thomas - History and the Good Friday Agreement - Primary
  • Mcinnes, Ian - PhD - “A separatist tendency?”: a political history of Bill Craig and the Vanguard Unionist movement - Primary  

Past PhD students supervised

Name - Degree - Thesis topic - Supervision type - Completion year

  • McHugh, Devon - PhD - Family, Leisure, and the Arts: Aspects of the Culture of the Aristocracy of Ulster, 1870-1925 - Primary - 2013
  • Flewelling, Lindsey - PhD - Ulster Unionism and America, 1880-1920 - Primary - 2012
  • O'shea, Helen -      - Ireland and the Cyprus Insurgency - Primary -
  • Sayers, Melanie -      - Philip Kerr, Lord Lothian, and Ireland - Primary -

Research summary

Places: 

  • Britain & Ireland

Themes: 

  • Ideas
  • Politics
  • Society

Periods: 

  • Eighteenth Century
  • Nineteenth Century
  • Twentieth Century & After

Research interests

My research interests lie in the field of modern Irish, Scottish and British history, and particularly in the political relationship between Britain and Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries.

I have written extensively on the Union, and on Irish Unionism. I have published over forty articles and essays and six books, including The Ulster Party, 1884-1911 (Oxford Historical Monographs: 1989), which won the ACIS Prize for Best First Book, and Ireland 1798-1998: Politics and War (Blackwell: 1999), which is now in its second edition and which was short-listed for the Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize (2000).

My The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007 (OUP: 2011) was shortlisted in Scotland for the Saltire Society’s Scottish History Book of the Year (2012) and for the Ewart-Biggs Irish Literary Prize (2013).

Amongst my recent work is The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History (OUP: 2014), which brings together 36 scholars across a range of disciplines, and which charts some directions within historical studies on modern Ireland.  In 2018 I published Judging Redmond & Carson: comparative Irish lives (Royal Irish Academy):  this was launched by the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD at the Royal Irish Academy.

In 2014 I was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to allow me to develop my work on comparative Union states.

The list below is a subset of the information held on the University of Edinburgh PURE system, and includes Books, Chapters, Articles and Conference contributions. For a full list, including details of other publication types (e.g. reviews), please see the Edinburgh Research Explorer page for Professor Alvin Jackson.

Books - Authored

Jackson, A. (2018) Judging Redmond and Carson. Dublin: Royal Irish AcademyDOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt21c4t7j

Jackson, A. (2012) The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007. Oxford University Press

Jackson, A. (2010) Ireland, 1798-1998: war, peace and beyond. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell

Jackson, A. (2003) Home rule: an Irish history, 1800-2000. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Jackson, A. (1999) Ireland, 1798-1998: Politics and war. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd

Jackson, A. (1995) Colonel Edward Saunderson: Land and loyalty in Victorian Ireland. Oxford [England]: Clarendon Press

Jackson, A. (1989) The Ulster Party: Irish unionists in the House of Commons, 1884-1911. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Books - Edited

Jackson, A. (ed.) (2014) The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Articles

Jackson, A. (2020) Union states, civil society and national symbols in the nineteenth century: Comparing united kingdoms. Scandinavica - An International Journal of Scandinavian Studies, 58(2)

Jackson, A. (2018) Mrs Foster and the rebels: Irish unionist approaches to the Easter Rising, 1916-2016. Irish Historical Studies, 42(161), pp. 143-160DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ihs.2018.10

Jackson, A. (2014) Ireland’s Long Nineteenth Century of Union. Journal of Modern European History, 86(1), pp. 124-141DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/674343

Jackson, A. (2011) Tame Tory Hacks’? The Ulster Party at Westminster, 1922-72. Historical Journal, 54(2), pp. 453-475DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X11000094

Jackson, A. and Foster, R. (2009) Men for All Seasons? Carson, Parnell, and the Limits of Heroism in Modern Ireland. European History Quarterly, 39(3), pp. 414-438DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0265691409105060

Jackson, A. (2005) Unveiling Irish History. Journal of Contemporary History, 40, pp. 783-792DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009405056131

Jackson, A. (2002) J.C. Beckett: Faith, Politics and Scholarship. Irish Historical Studies, 34 (129), pp. 145-160

Jackson, A. (2001) The Irish Act of Union. History Today, 51, pp. 19-25

Jackson, A. (2000) Irish Act of Union, 1801-2001', History Today (Jan. 2001). 'Twentieth Century Foxes: Historians and Late Modern Ireland. Irish Historical Studies, 126, pp. 272-77

Jackson, A. (1999) Insiders and Frontiers: Paul Seawright, Documentary Photographer. Eire-Ireland

Jackson, A. (1992) Unionist Myths, 1912-1985. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies

Jackson, A. (1990) Unionist Politics and Protestant Society in Edwardian Ireland. Historical Journal, 33(4), pp. 839-886DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X00013789

Jackson, A. (1989) The Failure of Unionism in Dublin, 1900. Irish Historical Studies, 104

Jackson, A. (1987) Irish Unionism and the Russellite Threat, 1894 - 1906. Irish Historical Studies, 100

Chapters

Jackson, A. (forthcoming) The ‘Celtic nations’, Britishness and the United Kingdom, 1800‒1925. In: Hemstad, R. and Stadius, P. (eds.) Nordic Experiences in Pan-Nationalisms: A Reappraisal and Comparison, 1840-1940. Routledge

Jackson, A. (2023) "Prison of the nations?" Union and nationality in the United Kingdom, 1870-1925. In: Dalle Mulle, E., Rodogna, D. and Bieling, M. (eds.) Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Quest for Homogeneity in Interwar Europe. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 39-60DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350263413.ch-3

Jackson, A. (2022) Why did Wales stay in the union in the early 20th century?. In: Kinzer, B., Kramer, M. and Trainor, R. (eds.) Reform and its complexities in modern Britain: Essays inspired by Sir Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 248-279DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192863423.003.0012

Jackson, A. (2018) The failure of British and Irish federalism, circa 1800–1950. In: Schütze, R. and Tierney, S. (eds.) The United Kingdom and the Federal Idea. Hart Publishing, pp. 29-48DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509907182.ch-001

Jackson, A. (2018) The origins, politics and culture of Irish Unionism, c.1880–1916. In: Bartlett, T. (ed.) The Cambridge History of Ireland Volume 4: 1880 to the Present. Cambridge University Press, pp. 89-116DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316286470

Jackson, A. (2016) Shamrock and saltire: Irish home rule, independence and the Scottish referendum, 1914-2014. In: Paseta, S. (ed.) Uncertain Futures: Essays About the Irish Past for Roy Foster. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 257-269

Jackson, A. (2013) Irish History in the 20th and 21st Centuries. In: Jackson, A. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook to Modern Irish History. Oxford University Press, pp. 3-26

Jackson, A. (2013) Loyalists and Unionists. In: Jackson, A. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook to Modern Irish History. Oxford University Press, pp. 45-64

Jackson, A. (2011) Gladstone, Ireland, Scotland and the 'Union of heart and spirit'. In: Daly, M. and Hoppen, K. (eds.) Gladstone: Ireland and Beyond. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 23-44

Jackson, A. (2007) Inter-War Ireland. In: Gerwarth, R. (ed.) Twisted Paths: Europe 1914-1945. Oxford University Press

Jackson, A. (2007) The Two Irelands. In: Gerwarth, R. (ed.) Inter-War Europe. Oxford University Press

Jackson, A. (2005) Ireland, the Union, and the British Empire, 1800-1960. In: Kenny, K. (ed.) Ireland and the British Empire. Oxford University Press, pp. 123-153

Jackson, A. (2005) The Survival of the Union, 1800-1920. In: Joseph Cleary, C. (ed.) Cambridge Companion to Modern Irish Culture. Cambridge University Press, pp. 25-42

Jackson, A. (2004) Charles, 6th Marques of Londonderry. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) Charles, 7th Marques of Londonderry. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) Edward Gibson, 1st Lord Ashbourne. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) Edward Saunderson. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) George Wyndham. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) James, 2nd Duke of Abercorn. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) T. W. Russell. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) Walter Long. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2004) William Johnston. In: Harrison, H. (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford

Jackson, A. (2003) Unionism and the Future of the Union. In: Jr, R. (ed.) Ireland and the new century: politics, culture & identity. Irish Academic Press, pp. 256

Jackson, A. (2002) Local Government in Northern Ireland, 1921-72. In: Daly, M. (ed.) Local Government in Ireland, 1898-1998. Institute of Public Administration, Dublin

Jackson, A. (2001) Local Government in Northern Ireland, 1921-72. In: County and Town: Local Government in Ireland, 1898-1998. Institute of Public Administration, Dublin

Jackson, A. (2000) British Ireland: What if Home Rule has been enacted in 1912?. In: Ferguson, N. (ed.) Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals.

Jackson, A. (2000) Irish Unionism, 1880-1920. In: D George Boyce, A. (ed.) Defenders of the Union. Routledge

Jackson, A. (1996) Irish Unionism. In: D George Boyce, A. (ed.) The Making of Modern Irish History: Revisionism and the Revisionist Controversy. Routledge

Jackson, A. (1996) Irish Unionists and the Empire, 1880-1920: Classes and Masses. In: Jeffery, K. (ed.) An Irish Empire?: Aspects of Ireland and the British Empire. Manchester University Press

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