This pioneering study is the first to examine all the English settlements attempted in Ireland during the years 1580-1650. The author looks at the arguments in favour of a 'plantation' policy and Irish responses to it in practice. He places what happened in Ireland in the context of events in England, Scotland, Continental Europe, and England's Atlantic colonies.

1. Spenser Sets the Agenda ; 2. The English Presence in Spenser's Ireland ; 3. The Munster Plantation: Theory and Practice ; 4. Plantation in Ireland 1603-1622: Theory and Practice ; 5. The Politics of Plantation 1622-1641 ; 6. The British Presence in Wentworth's Ireland ; 7. Plantation and Politics: The Irish Response ; 8. The Irish Insurrection of 1641

`Review from previous edition His comprehensive research on the extremely difficult and highly contentious 1641 depositions is especially noteworthy.' History Ireland `It is especially to be commended for its innovative use of a wide range of sources, both literary and documentary.' History Ireland, vol. 9, no. 4 `With Prof Canny, an expert captain, at the helm, the journey, if long, is smooth, enjoyable, enlightening and crowded with memorable incidents ... No one interested in being guided through the choppy waters of 17th-century Ireland can do without this craft.' Toby Barnard, Irish Times (Dublin), 16 June 2001 `a substantial achievement. It extends Nicholas Canny's particular contribution to Irish history, providing a whole series of new evidence and readings of familiar events, as well as stimulating fresh controversy and debate.' Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary Supplement

Challenges preconceptions about the relationship between Britain and Ireland Sheds new light on European colonization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries By the editor of The Origins of Empire, the first volume in The Oxford History of the British Empire

Challenges preconceptions about the relationship between Britain and Ireland Sheds new light on European colonization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries By the editor of The Origins of Empire, the first volume in The Oxford History of the British Empire