David Wilson

With a background in modern North Atlantic history, David A. Wilson specializes in Modern Irish History and the Irish in North America. His books include Paine and Cobbett: The Transatlantic Connection; Ireland, a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle; United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic; and The History of the Future. He has edited or co-edited books on Peter Porcupine in America: Pamphlets on Republicanism and Revolution; Ulster Presbyterians in the Atlantic World; The Orange Order in Canada; Irish Nationalism in Canada; and Irish and Scottish Encounters with Indigenous Peoples.  Prof. Wilson’s Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Volume 1: Passion, Reason, and Politics 1825-57 received the Raymond Klibansky Prize (the Canada Prize in the Humanities), and was co-winner of the James S. Donnelly prize given by the American Conference for Irish Studies. His Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Volume 2:  The Extreme Moderate won the Canadian Historical Association Political History prize.  Prof. Wilson is a recipient of the Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is the General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, and is currently writing a book on the Fenian underground in Canada.

  • Areas of Interest

    Modern Irish history

    Irish in North America

  • Publications

    Irish and Scottish Encounters with Indigenous Peoples (Montreal and Kingston:  McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013).  Edited with Graeme Morton; introduction by David A. Wilson. 389 pages.

    Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Volume 2:  The Extreme Moderate  (Montreal and Kingston:  McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011).  512 pages.

    Irish Nationalism in Canada (Montreal and Kingston:  McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009).  Edited, with an introduction; 232 pages.

    Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Volume 1:  Passion, Reason and Politics (Montreal and Kingston:  McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008).  432 pages.

    The Orange Order in Canada (Dublin:  Four Courts Press, 2007).  Edited, with introduction; 213 pages

    Ulster Presbyterians in the Atlantic World (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006).  Edited with Mark G. Spencer; introduction by David A. Wilson; 175 pages

    The History of the Future (Toronto: McArthur & Company, 2000); translated into Portuguese, 2002; translated into Chinese, 2004; translated into Russian, 2008; 280 pages

    United Irishmen, United States:  Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic (Ithaca:  Cornell University Press, and Dublin:  Four Courts Press, 1998); 221 pages.  Alternate title for the American History Book of the Month Club.

    Ireland, a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, and Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1995); translated into Japanese, 1998; 175 pages

    Peter Porcupine in America: Pamphlets on Republicanism and Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994); 288 pages, with 50-page introduction and 18 pages of endnotes

    The Irish in Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association, 1989); translated into French, 1989; 23 pages

    Paine and Cobbett: The Transatlantic Connection (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1988); 218 pages