Atlantic Isles

From remote islands to sunken lands, Gareth Roddy traces how travel writing and tourism shaped the cultural and political imagination of the British and Irish West between 1880 and 1940. At the turn of the twentieth century, the British and Irish West emerged as a region of deep political and cultural significance, bound by shared histories and languages. Atlantic Isles depicts how this transnational space was imagined through travel writing and myth, showing how journeys westward reflected broader anxieties about modernity and national identity. Through case studies from remote islands, sunken lands, and evolving infrastructure, Gareth Roddy finds a vibrant literary culture that framed the West as a nostalgic retreat. Analyzing narratives of exploration and belonging, Atlantic Isles illuminates the contested meanings of Britishness and Irishness in an era of political transformation.