Bernard Shaw, W. T. Stead, and the New Journalism

Nelson O’Ceallaigh Ritschel is Professor and Chair of Humanities at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, USA. He has published four previous scholarly books, including Shaw, Synge, Connolly, and Socialist Provocation (2011). He holds a Ph.D. from Brown University, USA.

"Shaw is presented to the reader as a voice of reason and rationalism, a man who fights bravely against the tide of his sensationalizing, sex-obsessed contemporaries. … The controversy surrounding Shaw’s article ‘Common Sense about the War’—and his other war journalism—is examined in detail, successfully conveying to the reader a sense of the shockwaves Shaw created with his anti-war stance.” (Helena Goodwyn, Victorian Periodicals Review, Vol. 51 (1), 2018)“Beautifully written and carefully researched; and display a rare and welcome commitment to social progress. … focus primarily on the non-fictional prose writings of Bernard Shaw, the articles, lengthy letters, public speeches and criticism that form a large and important part of his extraordinary textual production.” (Anthony Roche, Irish Studies Review, Vol. 25, 2017)“This is an extremely important, meticulously researched, and truly entertaining book on an underexplored topic, and it isan absolute must-read for those interested in Shaw’s journalism, his Irishness, or the intersection between his political crusading and his drama.” (David Clare, SHAW The Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies, Vol. 37 (2), 2017)

• 1. Introduction.- 2. Stead and the Whitechapel Frenzy.- 3. Parnell, Disarmament, and the Morality Frenzy.- 4.Stead, Russia, and Titanic.- 5. War.- 6. Epilogue.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.