Going to My Father's House

A History of My Times

Patrick Joyce

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English

Verso Books
28 September 2021

Biography; Memoirs; Prose: non-fiction; European history; British & Irish history

From Ireland to London in the 1950s, Derry in the Troubles to contemporary, de-industrialised Manchester, Joyce finds the ties of place, family and the past are difficult to break. Why do certain places continue to haunt us? What does it mean to be British after the suffering of Empire and of war? How do we make our home in a hypermobile world without remembering our pasts?

Patrick Joyce's parents moved from Ireland in the 1930s and made their home in west London. But they never really left the homeland. And so as he grew up among the streets of Paddington and Notting Hill and when he visited his family in Ireland he felt a tension between the notions of home, nation and belonging. Going to My Father's House charts the historian's attempt to make sense of these ties and to see how they manifest in a globalised world. He explores the places - the house, the street, the walls and the graves - that formed his own identity. He ask what place the ideas of history, heritage and nostalgia have in creating a sense of our selves. He concludes with a plea for a history that holds the past to account but also allows for dynamic, inclusive change.

By: Patrick Joyce
Imprint: Verso Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9781839763243
ISBN 10: 1839763248
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 28 September 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Patrick Joyce is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Manchester. He is a leading British social historian and has written and edited numerous books of social and political history, including The Rule of Freedom (2003), Material Powers (2010) and The State of Freedom (2013).

Reviews for Going to My Father's House: A History of My Times

an immensely readable, thoroighly enjoyable book .. .Hegel would have admired the way Joyce lets a sharply individualised life distil a whole socal history. -- Terry Eagleton, author of <i>Why Marx was Right</i> A haunting meditation on Ireland and England, war and migration, Derry and Manchester. I admired the originality of his observations and his tone of melancholy, calm wisdom. -- Colm Toibin * Books of the Year 2021, Guardian * Merges personal stories with large political moments. Joyce's family came to England from Mayo and Wexford. His account of his life in London, of the legacy of war and of his experiences in Ireland is written with wisdom and grace. -- Colm Toibin * Authors' and Critics' 2021 Favourites, Irish Times, 4 December 2021 *