An interesting look at a historically conveluted issue in Ireland. The timeline at the beginning of the book was a helpful addition.

No other issue has a larger impact on Irish life, culture and politics than land. It holds such importance that title of this book is not exaggeration, it's a fair description. For rural Ireland in the 19th and early 20th century, land was all that mattered. Despite this, this is the first Irish history book I've come across that focuses specifically on the land question, most other history books pay greater attention to the political struggle for Home Rule.

The Land War itself could fill a book, but the author went beyond this to cover a wide range of agrarian struggles from the late 17th century to the early 20th. The book bursts any illusions you might have of a peaceful Irish countryside, as it shows there was a long history of often brutal rural violence. It covers a wide range of secret societies such as the Ribbonmen, Oakboys and Steelboys who are not well known to the public.

The book avoids simplistic stereotypes such as the noble peasant fighting the greedy landlord. Instead it shows how hard it was to distinguish between ideological rural activists and criminal banditry. It's clear that in times of unrest, opportunists will seize the chance to serve their own interest. The book does not romantacise or glorify the violence, which was often vicious and petty. One shocking detail I learned about was the use of rape as a tactic in land disputes.

The book also highlights how we cannot lump all peasants together as if they all had the same interests. There were significant divisions between farm labourers, small farmers and large farmers, and between tillage and livestock farmers, that were as great if not greater than those between landlord and tenant. The book confronts the fact that political change is rarely sweeping or revolutionary, the various land agreements were compromises that took effect over decades and failed to fully achieve all their goals.

The reader certainly gets their money worth with this book as it covers a huge amount of information, yet maintains a readable and engaging style. The one exception is the chapter on ordinance surveys, which felt irrelevant and unnecessary. Otherwise, I found it a highly interesting read that taught me a lot I didn't know about an important topic that deserves more attention.