Hopkinson, Michael (Michael A. Hopkinson)

PERSONAL:

Education: Earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Scotland. Office—Department of History, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland. E-mail—m.a.hopkinson@stir.ac.uk.

CAREER:

University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, England, former faculty member; Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, faculty member, 1971-74; University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, lecturer in history, 1974—. Murdoch University, visiting fellow, 1991-92; Queen's University, Belfast, senior visiting research fellow, 1998-99.

WRITINGS:

Green against Green: The Irish Civil War, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor) Frank Henderson's Easter Rising: Recollections of a Dublin Volunteer, Cork University Press (Cork, Ireland), 1998.

(Editor and author of introduction) The Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Mark Sturgis Diaries, Irish Academic Press (Portland, OR), 1999.

The Irish War of Independence, Gill & Macmillan (Dublin, Ireland),2002.

Contributor to history journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and historian Michael Hopkinson has served on the history faculties of several universities, including the University of Kent at Canterbury, the University of Belfast, and the University of Stirling in Scotland. Hopkinson's primary areas of research include Irish and Irish-American history of the twentieth century, and he has written several volumes on the subject, including Green against Green: The Irish Civil War, which was a best seller in Ireland. In The Irish War of Independence, Hopkinson offers a detailed account of the war, including issues of military, diplomatic, and political importance. He carefully analyzes the effects of the war on each region of the country, noting that violence was far more prevalent in certain areas than in others. In addition, Hopkinson illustrates the British and American involvement and reactions to the war, noting that the United States provided funding for the Irish and that the British were ultimately responsible for the escalation of the war, which started mostly as a skirmish between the IRA and local police. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly opined that "the book's strongest point is its exploration of the behind-the-scenes shifts in British policy." Paul A. Townsend, writing for Albion, called the book an "informative and well-researched narrative," and "a very useful overview of the conflict in Ireland."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, spring, 2004, Paul A. Townsend, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 192.

Booklist, December, 1988, Brad Hooper, review of Green against Green: The Irish Civil War, p. 614.

Canadian Journal of History, December, 2005, Peter Hart, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 551.

Choice, May, 1989, J.W. Auld, review of Green against Green, p. 1576; November, 2003, D.M. Cregier, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 611.

Contemporary Review, July, 2003, John McGruk, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 53.

History: Reviews of New Books, summer, 1989, John Kendle, review of Green against Green, p. 175.

History Today, July, 2003, Charles Townshend, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 56.

International History Review, December, 2003, David Harkness, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 931.

Irish Literary Supplement, fall, 1989, Tom Garvin, review of Green against Green, p. 41.

New Statesman, January 17, 2000, "Hating the Irish," review of The Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Mark Sturgis Diaries, p. 55; January 27, 2003, Maurice Walsh, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 48.

Past and Present, February, 1990, review of Green against Green, p. 203.

Publishers Weekly, October 14, 2002, review of The Irish War of Independence, p. 74.

Sunday Business Post (Cork, Ireland), January 19, 2003, David O'Donoghue, review of The Irish War of Independence.

ONLINE

Socialist Review Online,http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/ (April 25, 2007) Chris Bambery, review of The Irish War of Independence.

University of Stirling Web site,http://www.history.stir.ac.uk/ (October 2, 2004), biography of Hopkinson.