Books, Arts & Manners: A Selective Realist

Passion and Cunning: Essays on Nationalism, Terrorism, and Revolution (Simon & Schuster, 304 pp., $18.95)

Conor Cruise O’Brien has had a varied career: as writer, diplomat, academic, member of the Irish parliament, Cabinet minister, and editor (of the London Observer), in turn. In Who’s Who he lists traveling as his recreation. As this new collection of essays demonstrates, his writing has benefited from these varied experiences: it is acute, astringent, witty, well-informed, and scholarly.

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Elie Kedourie

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Passion and Cunning: Essays on Nationalism, Terrorism, and Revolution (Simon & Schuster, 304 pp., $18.95)

Conor Cruise O’Brien has had a varied career: as writer, diplomat, academic, member of the Irish parliament, Cabinet minister, and editor (of the London Observer), in turn. In Who’s Who he lists traveling as his recreation. As this new collection of essays demonstrates, his writing has benefited from these varied experiences: it is acute, astringent, witty, well-informed, and scholarly.