A blockbuster new book on the UDA. The Sunday World Ian Wood's book Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA, fully captures, from a Protestant perspective, the final deterioration of Irish politics and its slide towards full-blown ethnic hatred from 1969 onwards. -- Neil Mackay Scottish Review of Books The book makes an outstanding contribution to one of the greatest challenges currently faced by the United Kingdom: the bringing of peace to Northern Ireland!Wood is a historian who looks profoundly into motivation of all kinds, avoiding the mindless cliche of so much outside comment, knowing the force of moral judgment lies in the scarcity with which it is used. -- Owen Dudley Edwards, Honorary Fellow, Edinburgh University I would judge this book to be the best scholarly treatment of the subject to date, a study which blends revealing research (particularly in respect of interviews conducted with key figures) and dispassionate and illuminating analysis. -- Graham Walker, School of Politics, Queen's University of Belfast The most substantial study yet made of the attitudes of those whose (in their own favoured phrase) 'only crime was loyalty'... this book provides a mass of original material on which other analysts will gratefully draw. -- Charles Townshend, Keele University American Historical Review A blockbuster new book on the UDA. Ian Wood's book Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA, fully captures, from a Protestant perspective, the final deterioration of Irish politics and its slide towards full-blown ethnic hatred from 1969 onwards. The book makes an outstanding contribution to one of the greatest challenges currently faced by the United Kingdom: the bringing of peace to Northern Ireland!Wood is a historian who looks profoundly into motivation of all kinds, avoiding the mindless cliche of so much outside comment, knowing the force of moral judgment lies in the scarcity with which it is used. I would judge this book to be the best scholarly treatment of the subject to date, a study which blends revealing research (particularly in respect of interviews conducted with key figures) and dispassionate and illuminating analysis. The most substantial study yet made of the attitudes of those whose (in their own favoured phrase) 'only crime was loyalty'... this book provides a mass of original material on which other analysts will gratefully draw.
