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UWG Professor writes first book
September 1, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - Dr. Michael de Nie, professor of history at the University of West Georgia has written his first book, The Eternal Paddy: Irish Identity and the British Press, 1792-1882. Drawing on more than 90 newspapers published in England, Scotland and Wales, this is the first major detailed analysis of British press coverage of Ireland over the course of the nineteenth century.
This book traces the evolution of popular understandings and proposed solutions to the “Irish question,” focusing on the interrelationships between the press, the public and the politicians. The book also engages with ongoing studies of imperialism and British identity, exploring the role of Catholic Ireland in British perceptions of their own identity and their empire.
de Nie has a special interest in the way that stereotypes and preconceptions influence both press reporting and government policy.
“I am fascinated by the way in which newspapers both reflected and reinforced certain prejudices and how these prejudices then contributed to popular understandings of the ‘Irish question’ and how it should be addressed by the government,” he states. “I look at how the press and its readers constructed their vision of Ireland and the Irish as well as how these popular perceptions were then reflected in government policy.”
de Nie taught history courses at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Lakeland College in Madison, WI and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At UWG, he teaches courses on world history, Britain, Ireland and Europe in the nineteenth century. He has written a number of articles on the British Press and Ireland, for American and British journals. Other publications include “A Medley Mob of Irish-American Plotters and Irish Dupes” (2001) and “The Famine, Irish Identity, and the British Press” (1998). His current research project is a comparative study of British newspaper reporting on India and Ireland.
de Nie’s book is now available on Amazon.com. For more publicity information, contact the Publicity Department of the University of Wisconsin Press at 608-263-0734 or by email at uwiscpress@uwpress.wisc.edu.
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