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Review: Dublin, the Deposed Capital: A Social and Economic History, 1860–1914

means in making this claim. If he is referring to the period between the Great Famine and the Land War, then there is a considerable element of truth in what he is saying, but it is not particularly new. Few students of the subject would argue that these years were ones of great unrest; on the contrary, what I have called the 'tranquillity' of the post-Famine period is something that many of us have tried to explain. If, on the other hand, Vaughan is referring to the Irish in a longer historical perspective, to suggest that they were a passive peasantry compared with rural populations elsewhere in Europe would be simply wrong. During the last half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries the Irish countryside was one of the most disturbed in Europe. Given the not inconsiderable level of unrest in the closing two decades of the nineteenth century, one is forced to conclude that the 18605 and '18705 were exceptional. It would certainly be erroneous to argue, on the basis of this tranquil interlude, that Irish peasants lacked a tradition of organized resistance and for this reason were difficult to mobilize. Finally, one has to treat very carefully Vaughan's contention that the Land War was largely accidental. Attacking sacred cows by dismissing great revolutions as accidental has become a popular means of attracting attention in recent years; even the English Civil War and the French Revolution have not escaped this revisionist thrust. I would agree that all revolutions are accidental ifin so saying we mean that they are not inevitable-that, for example, a particular revolution might easily not have occurred if skilled leadership had not been available, or if established political elites had not made certain errors of judgment, or if the society had been diverted by military victory, and so on. But the undeniable contribution of accident to history, and especially to revolutions does not mean that revolutions have no underlying social or economic causes. Most vehicle collisions are accidental, but the probability of one occurring is greatly affected by a whole set of underlying conditions such as the engineering of the vehicles, the quality of the roads, the conditions of the weather, the state of the drivers, and so on. If we want to understand the Irish Land War we must focus, not just on accidental factors, but on social and economic conditions as well, and especially on how these social and economic conditions were changing. Though only a short pamphlet, Landlords and Tenants in Ireland contributes enormously to the understanding of these underlying forces. Well-written, stimulating, and informative, it is the best investment of a few hours and a couple of pounds that a student of the Irish land question could make in the present market of historical writings.