A shortened version of Jonathan Bardon’s definitive tome, A History of Ulster, this book provides a comprehensive account of the province from the earliest settlements nine thousand years ago to the turmoil of the Troubles, and the fragile peace period that followed. A preface from the author includes the peace process that saw the region emerge from thirty years of brutal conflict.

Covering social, political and economic life in the province, the book explores the Viking and Norman invasions, the plantations and the Penal Laws, the rise of the United Irishmen and Orangeism, the Act of Union, emigration and the Great Famine, the linen industry and shipbuilding, and the Home Rule Crisis and partition, right through to civil rights, the turmoil of the Troubles and the period of peace that has followed.

Lavishly illustrated throughout, this accessible edition takes its place alongside Jonathan Bardon’s hugely popular A History of Ireland in 100 Episodes.

Dr Jonathan Bardon, a former lecturer at Queens University, Belfast, was the author of numerous works of Irish historiography. In 2002, he was awarded an OBE for his ‘services to community life’ in Northern Ireland. Jonathan died in 2020.