Bryan Fanning is Professor and Head of the School of Applied Social Studies at University College Dublin. His books include Racism and Social Change in the Republic of Ireland (2012), New Guests of the Irish Nation (2009), The Quest for Modern Ireland (2008) and, as co-author, The Books that Define Ireland (2014).

• 1. Modest Proposals and Irish Futures2. William Petty's Final Solution3. William Molyneux and the Case for Ireland4. Edmund Burke and the Case for Union5. Thomas Malthus and Catholic Emancipation6. Richard Whately and End of Ascendancy7. Friedrich Engels and the Crisis of Irish Character8. John Mitchel and the Last Conquest of Ireland9. James Connolly and the Triumph of Catholic Nationalism10. Hannah Sheehy Skeffington versus the Free State11. Jeremiah Newman and Catholic Decline12. The Lonely Passion of Conor Cruise O'Brien13. Fintan O'Toole's Second Republic14. Ghosts of Futures Past

[Histories of the Irish Future] is lively and provocative, its assured and admirably concise explication of key texts and propositions punctuated by the author’s own judgments and asides, which are witty, insightful and frequently challenging. The approach in each essay deftly combines the contextual with the interpretative