What We Are Reading Today: The Border by Diarmaid Ferriter

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Updated 07 September 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Border by Diarmaid Ferriter

This book will help you understand why the Brexit issue is so intractable, saying that it has always been the ordinary people of Northern Ireland who have paid the price. They deserve better.

The border has been a topic of dispute for over a century, first in Dublin, Belfast and Westminster and, post Brexit referendum, in Brussels.  Yet, despite the passions of Nationalists and Unionists in the North, neither found deep wells of support in the countries they identified with politically. 

The writer reveals the political, economic, social and cultural consequences of the border in Ireland. The book is a timely intervention by a renowned historian into one of the most misunderstood issues of our time, according to a review on goodreads.com.


What We Are Reading Today: Freedom from Fear by Alan Kahan

Updated 27 February 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Freedom from Fear by Alan Kahan

“Freedom from Fear” offers a striking new account of the dominant political and social theory of our time: liberalism. In a pathbreaking reframing of the historical debate, Alan Kahan charts the development of Western liberalism from the late eighteenth century to the present. 

Examining key liberal thinkers and issues, Kahan shows how liberalism is both a response to fear and a source of hope: the search for a world in which no one need be afraid.

“Freedom from Fear” reveals how liberal arguments typically rely on three pillars: freedom, markets, and morals. 

But when liberals ignore one or more of these pillars, their arguments generally fail to persuade.