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Boston College, 300 Hammond Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA

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Alvin Jackson examines the United Kingdom, the union of Ireland and Britain, in the light of the experience of similar states elsewhere. The UK was not in fact the only self-styled 'united kingdom' of the time: Jackson argues that British and Irish elites exported the idea of union through the advocacy or encouragement of other united kingdoms at the beginning of the 19th century.

Jackson draws together the histories of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales and explores the links between them and Sweden-Norway, the united Netherlands, Austria-Hungary, and Canada—and other polities across the 19th century world. His lecture looks too at the institutions and agencies affecting the strength of multinational union—from monarchy and religion through to class, money, and violence. Jackson offers overarching arguments about the origins and survival of different multinational union states; and, in doing so, he sheds new light on the particular history and condition of both Britain and Ireland.

Alvin Jackson is Sir Richard Lodge Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh. He was educated at Corpus Christi College and Nuffield College Oxford. He has taught at University College Dublin, and - as Professor of Modern Irish History - at Queen's University Belfast. He has been John Burns Visiting Professor at Boston College.  He is the author of eight books, including United kingdoms: multinational union states in Europe and beyond (OUP: 2023), and has edited The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History (OUP: 2014). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Member of the Academia Europaea, and an honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He also holds an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin.