Books by Conor Cruise O’Brien
“Conor Cruise O’Brien was a very powerful intellectual presence in southern Ireland when I was a teenager.” Read more...
The best books on Modern Irish History
Richard Bourke, Historian
The Siege
by Conor Cruise O’Brien
I think it’s very important, in order to understand how anti-Semitism morphs into the political arena, that one understands the establishment of the state of Israel. Of all the books on Israel and the Middle East, for me, Conor Cruise O’Brien’s book is a classic.
The Great Melody
by Conor Cruise O’Brien
Every Conservative has to read Edmund Burke, and, in particular, the Reflections on the French Revolution, a timeless and brilliant statement of Conservative ideas. Conor Cruise O’Brien has produced a book that is simultaneously an anthology of Burke and a biography. It was a simply brilliant idea. I think Burke is unmissable and particularly in this form.
Interviews where books by Conor Cruise O’Brien were recommended
The best books on British Conservatism, recommended by Daniel Finkelstein
Conservatism is different around the world because what it’s trying to preserve, the ‘essence of a nation,’ inevitably varies by country, says British journalist and politician Daniel Finkelstein. And yet, the UK’s Tory party has always been quick to adapt to whatever would get it into power.
The best books on Anti-Semitism, recommended by Abraham Foxman
Why has anti-Semitism been such a problem down the ages, and why does it persist today? The emeritus director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, recommends the best books to better understand anti-Semitism.
The best books on Modern Irish History, recommended by Richard Bourke
A “powerful and aggravating absence of consensus” came to define the Irish political experience, says the historian Richard Bourke. Here he picks the best books for gaining a range of perspectives on Irish history, singling out James Joyce as offering insight into the divergence of nationalist opinion.
