Description: This book offers a fundamental critique of conventional views of sixteenth-century Irish history that have stressed the centrality of colonization and military confrontation. It argues that reform rather than conquest was the aim of Tudor policy-makers, but shows that the immense difficulties faced by the reformers in pursuing their objectives forced them to make administrative innovations that ultimately contradicted and undermined their original policy.
Review Quotes: "...this book is exceedingly well-documented, clearly written, and purposefully executed...it must be read as an important restatement of the `pattern' of governance in mid-Tudor Ireland." American Historical Review