Gallagher, Tom 1954–

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Gallagher, Tom 1954–

PERSONAL:

Born May 1, 1954, in Glasgow, Scotland.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of Bradford, Richmond Rd., Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, professor of ethnic conflict and peace, M.A. admissions tutor, chair of the research unit for South-East-European Studies, 2005—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for Democracy, 2008.

WRITINGS:

Dictatorial Portugal, 1926-1974: A Bibliography, International Conference Group on Modern Portugal (Durham, NH), 1979.

(Editor, with James O'Connell) Contemporary Irish Studies, Manchester University Press (Dover, NH), 1983.

Portugal: A Twentieth-Century Interpretation, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 1983.

Edinburgh Divided: John Cormack and No Popery in the 1930s, Polygon (Chester Springs, PA), 1987.

Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace: Religious Tension in Modern Scotland, 1819-1914, Manchester University Press (Wolfeboro, NH), 1987.

(Editor, with Allan M. Williams) Southern European Socialism: Parties, Elections, and the Challenge of Government, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1989.

(Editor, with Graham Walker) Sermons and Battle Hymns: Protestant Popular Culture in Modern Scotland, Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1990.

(Editor) Nationalism in the Nineties, Polygon (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1991.

Romania after Ceausescu: The Politics of Intolerance, Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1995.

Democracy and Nationalism in Romania, 1989-1998, All Educational (Bucharest, Romania), 1999.

(Editor, with Geoffrey Pridham) Experimenting with Democracy: Regime Change in the Balkans, Routledge (New York, NY), 2000.

Outcast Europe: The Balkans, 1789-1989, from the Ottomans to Milosevic, Routledge (New York, NY), 2001.

The Balkans after the Cold War: From Tyranny to Tragedy, Routledge (New York, NY), 2003.

Modern Romania: The End of Communism, the Failure of Democratic Reform, and the Theft of a Nation, New York University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Theft of a Nation: Romania since Communism, Hurst (London, England), 2005.

The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to various journals, including Open Democracy, European History Quarterly, Journal of Communist Politics and Transition Politics, Daedalus, and Government and Opposition. Also a longstanding board member of the political studies journal Democratization.

SIDELIGHTS:

Tom Gallagher was born May 1, 1954, in Glasgow, Scotland. He serves on the faculty at the University of Bradford in England, where his duties include professor of ethnic conflict and peace, working as an M.A. admissions tutor, and holding the chair of the research unit for South-East-European studies. His primary areas of academic and research interest include the political status of the Balkans, Romania, the European Union, and between England and Ireland, with an eye toward the potential for brokering peace between the long-feuding ethnic groups in each of these regions. He is particularly focused on the elimination of ethnic unrest before it escalates to violence. He has written for numerous journals on the subject, including Open Democracy, European History Quarterly, Journal of Communist Politics and Transition Politics, Daedalus, and Government and Opposition. He is also the author and/or editor of numerous books on various regions that have a history of ethnic turmoil, including titles such as Dictatorial Portugal, 1926-1974: A Bibliography, Portugal: A Twentieth-Century Interpretation, Edinburgh Divided: John Cormack and No Popery in the 1930s, Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace: Religious Tension in Modern Scotland, 1819-1914, Romania after Ceausescu: The Politics of Intolerance, Democracy and Nationalism in Romania, 1989-1998, The Balkans after the Cold War: From Tyranny to Tragedy, Theft of a Nation: Romania since Communism, and The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace.

Gallagher's Romania after Ceausescu was published in 1995, and in it he offers readers a survey of the history of Romania from its inception as a state to the present day. His goal is to illustrate the role of nationalism in the political outlook of the country throughout its history. Because the Romanian people had such a strong nationalistic tendency to begin with, it proved to be a useful tool that many invaders were able to use to manipulate the nation into following their lead. They simply appealed to national spirit and assured the Romanians that their actions were for the good of the country and their own continued unity. Only the influx of communism during the mid- to late-1940s proved to go against this trend, eschewing the nationalistic spirit for the equality of citizenship and the overall superiority of the state.

In the first two chapters of Romania after Ceausescu, Gallagher discusses Romanian history prior to 1989, with the remaining four chapters focusing on the period since 1989, and the ethnic differences and violence that often sprang from nationalistically charged disagreements. He adheres to the relatively common understanding that, in 1989, what began as a revolt of the people and by the people morphed into a revolt led by former Communists who made the most of the stressful situation and the ethnic issues and who pressed nationalist rivalries in an attempt to divide attention and maintain control themselves. He goes on to address how this affected conditions in the country, as well as the necessity to rebuild the national economy. Kate Hudson, in a review for Europe-Asia Studies, commented that "Gallagher perhaps makes an overly gloomy assessment of contemporary Romania because it has not developed in the way or at the pace that he would prefer, but recent information would indicate that Romania's slow but steady progress towards change is now paying off."

In Modern Romania: The End of Communism, the Failure of Democratic Reform, and the Theft of a Nation, Gallagher addresses the period of time from approximately 1989 to 2004 when Romania made strides toward a democratic form of leadership, experiments that ultimately proved to be unsuccessful. Although he agrees that the period of authoritarianism truly ended, what followed appeared to be characterized by a continued power struggle among the elitists and the individuals who previously held a mid-level rank in the state government during the Communist regime. While the nation was supposedly transitioning to democracy, it was actually under the auspices of these individuals who attempted to maintain some level of position and authority even when they held no specific office. In addition, they participated in grand scale looting over the decade and a half following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and frequently manipulated the use of various prodemocracy and nationalistic campaigns for their own ends. Ion Iliescu was the most obvious participant and leader in this strategy, and he concentrated primarily on gathering support from the political class, bribing them to gain their support by using the results of his looting as a form of payment. Katia Papagianni, in a review for the Political Science Quarterly, faulted Gallagher for his lack of in-depth analysis into the situation, but overall remarked that "this is an engaging book, rich with insightful evidence, and useful reading for scholars interested in Eastern European politics and democratic transitions. It provides ample food for thought about the obstacles to democratization in countries with little or no experience in the practice of democracy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Europe-Asia Studies, June, 1996, Kate Hudson, review of Romania after Ceausescu: The Politics of Intolerance, p. 668.

Political Science Quarterly, spring, 2006, Katia Papagianni, review of Modern Romania: The End of Communism, the Failure of Democratic Reform, and the Theft of a Nation.