Throughout the nineteenth century in Ireland, landownership was the preserve of a privileged minority. In 1804, there were an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 landed proprietors in a population of around 5.4 million people. This minority was almost exclusively protestant with only about 5 per cent of land in catholic hands. This was as a direct result of the confiscations of catholic owned property wh...

RICHARD DEACON, Matthew Hopkins; Witch Finder General, London, Frederick Muller, 1976, 8vo, pp. 223, illus., £6.50. The current interest in witchcraft and the occult continues unabated, and no doubt this book is intended for this insatiable appetite. In addition, however, the author, who is a professional writer, claims the relevance of historical witchcraft to similar practices today, which is...

This article examines how the experience and critique of their country's decline led Spaniards to craft a distinct discourse of masculinity in the seventeenth century. As they self-consciously examined Spain's crisis and offered political and economic solutions, these same writers also offered a scathing critique of standards of masculinity. Using the figure of the ideal nobleman as a case stud...