{"title":"Books by Liam Kennedy","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780228011989","title":"Who Was Responsible for the Troubles?","description":"The Troubles claimed the lives of almost four thousand people in Northern Ireland, most of them civilians; forty-five thousand were injured in bombings and shootings. Relative to population size this was the most intense conflict experienced in Western Europe since the end of the Second World War. The central question posed in this book is fundamental, yet it is one that has rarely been asked: Who was primarily responsible for the prosecution of the Troubles and their attendant toll of the dead, the injured, and the emotionally traumatized? Liam Kennedy, who lived in Belfast throughout most of the conflict, was long afraid to raise the question and its implications. After years of reflection and research on the matter he has brought together elements of history, politics, sociology, and social psychology to identify the collective actors who drove the conflict onwards for more than three decades, from the days of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The Troubles in Northern Ireland are a world-class problem in miniature. The combustible mix of national, ethnic, and sectarian passions that went into the making of the conflict has its parallels today in other parts of the world. Who Was Responsible for the Troubles? is an original and controversial work that captures the terror and the pain but also the hope of life and the pursuit of happiness in a deeply divided society.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227623108981,"sku":"9780228011989","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780228011989_22b649aa-12b0-4f25-b6f1-3ee7c73249c5.jpg?v=1786012725"},{"product_id":"cops-and-robbers-1","title":"Cops and Robbers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow children's books, tv shows, cartoons, and films often reproduce stereotypes about \"good guys\" and \"bad guys\" in terms of crime, policing, and the role of the criminal justice system in society\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eCops and Robbers\u003c\/i\u003e, Liam Kennedy examines children's popular culture to provide an understanding of how ideas about crime and the criminal justice system are produced and challenged. Based on an analysis of over 220 books, 12 films, and hundreds of television episodes\/short videos geared toward children, \u003ci\u003eCops and Robbers\u003c\/i\u003e considers the ideological impacts of children's crime media messaging about what counts as a crime, the causes of crime, the roles and responsibilities of cops and other crime-fighters, as well as the nature and boundaries of justice. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKennedy demonstrates how kids' pop culture works to sustain the status quo and inhibits our ability to imagine alternatives to policing and prisons. He argues that children's crime media teaches them that it is correct to criminalize behaviors designated as threats to the capitalist social order, that the perpetrators of these acts are bad or even evil, unworthy of our sympathy, and usually incapable of change. Further, police and crime-fighters are shown to solve a wide array of community problems, produce peace and happiness, and require endless resources to preserve the social order and quell dissent. Finally, he finds that forced labor and incarceration are routinely framed as inevitable consequences – rather than policy decisions – for bad people who have made supposedly bad choices. Ultimately, \u003ci\u003eCops and Robbers\u003c\/i\u003e will encourage social scientists, educators, and parents\/guardians to think more critically about how children's crime media shapes ideas about crime, cops, and justice.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504856539509,"sku":"9781479841615","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781479841615.jpg?v=1788187193"},{"product_id":"the-death-census-of-black-47-eyewitness-accounts-of-ireland-s-great-famine","title":"The Death Census of Black ’47: Eyewitness Accounts of Ireland’s Great Famine","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Great Irish Famine claimed the lives of one million people, mainly from the lower classes. More than a million others fled the stricken land between 1845 and 1851. In recent decades, its history has become the focus of considerable scholarly and popular attention, but much remains to be retrieved and reconstructed, particularly at the level of the rural poor. This book fills that gap. It is based on a large volume of reports on social conditions in the Irish localities, emanating from \u003cem\u003ewithin\u003c\/em\u003e those localities, that has never been used systematically by historians. It bears the compelling title of the ‘Death Census’. Most historians are simply unaware of its existence. The outstanding feature of the Death Census is that it was authored by local clergymen who lived among the people they served and were intimately involved with their lives. This book brings the Death Census together in composite form for the first time and provides a detailed examination of its contents. The result is new understanding of the Great Famine as it was experienced on the ground.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57507925950837,"sku":"9781801360548","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781801360548.jpg?v=1787043086"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-liam-kennedy.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}