Staff profile

Dr Philip Bull

Honorary Associate

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Historical and European Studies

DMB E114, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA (Adelaide), PhD (Cambridge).

Area of study

European Studies
History

Brief profile

Philip Bull joined the then Department of History at La Trobe University in January 1975, having previously held a position in the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, where he was responsible for collections of nineteenth and twentieth century British political papers. His principal research interest is in the political history of Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly in the period from the 1860s to the 1920s. Within that field his work has focused especially on the relationship of the land tenure issue to the development of nationalism and more generally on how this affected the relationship between Ireland and Britain. Between 2006 and 2009 he was Director of the Innovative Universities European Union Centre, a project funded by the European Union through La Trobe University. He is also co-editor of the Australasian Journal of Irish Studies.  

Research interests

European History

- Irish and British history

- Land and nationalism

Political Theory and Political Philosophy

- Contemporary political issues relating to Ireland or Britain

Teaching units

  • HIS2/3EUU - The European Union.
  • HIS2/3TCE - Twentieth Century Europe.

Recent publications

  • Bull, P (forthcoming) Butt, I, 'British Liberalism and an alternative Nationalist tradition’, in Essays in Modern Irish History: A Festshrift for Patrick Buckland, ed. D. George Boyce and Roger Swift. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 
  • Bull, P 2009, ‘William O’Brien, MP: The Metropolitan and International Dimensions of Irish Nationalism’. Immigrants & Minorities. 32 (2/3): 212–225.
  • Bull, P 2010, ‘Irish Land and British Politics’, in The Land Question in Britain, 1750–1950, ed. Paul Readman and Matthew Cragoe.  London: Palgrave. 126-45.
  • Bull, P 2005, ‘Sacrifice, Liberalism and the Great War: The case of Ireland’. War and Society. 23: 13–21.
  • Bull, P 2004, ‘Isaac Butt, British Liberalism and an Alternative Nationalist Tradition’, in Problems and Perspectives in Irish history since 1800: Essays in honour of Patrick Buckland, eds D. George Boyce and Roger Swift, Dublin: Four Courts Press. 147–163.
  • Bull, P 2003, ‘The Formation of the United Irish League, 1898-1900: The dynamics of Irish agrarian agitation’. Irish Historical Studies. 33 (132): 404-423.
  • Bull, P 2001, ‘Isaac Butt and the politics of accommodation’. Australian Journal of Irish Studies, 1: 158-66.
  • Bull, P 2001 ‘Gladstone, the Fenian prisoners and the failure of his first Irish mission’, in The Gladstone Umbrella: Papers delivered at the Gladstone Centenary Conference, ed. Peter Francis, Hawarden: Monad Press. 98–114.
  • Bull, P, Devlin-Glass, F and Doyle, H, eds. 2000, Ireland and Australia, 1798–1998: Studies in Culture, Identity and Migration. Sydney: Crossing Press.
  • Bull, P 1996, Land, Politics and Nationalism: A study of the Irish Land Question. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
  • Bull, P 1993, ‘The significance of the nationalist response to the Irish land act of 1903. Irish Historical Studies, 33 (111): 283-305.
  • Bull, P 1991, ‘The fall of Parnell: the political context of his intransigence. In Parnell in Perspective, ed. D.G. Boyce and Alan O’Day. London: Routledge.

Research projects

  • A political history of Ireland from 1865 to 1925 with a focus on the politics of accommodation as distinct from a more usual preoccupation with conflict and crisis.
  • A biography of William O’Brien, Irish nationalist politician and land agitator, 1852–1928.