This book analyzes County Mayo in Ireland from the Elizabethan pacification of the county to the first stage of the Land War of the late nineteenth century. During those three centuries the county was transformed from being a remote, isolated, impoverished and hostile region of the country to being at the center of Irish politics and integrated into an agrarian capitalist economy.

The book is divided into two sections. The first contains an analysis of the county prior to the Great Famine, and provides the foundation for a core/periphery analysis of Mayo's economic development and its impact upon popular politics in the county. The second, employing a core/periphery analysis of the post-Famine economic and political transformation of the county, demonstrates that the structural changes that gave rise to the Land War occurred more rapidly in central Mayo than along its western coastline or eastern boundaries. This uneven development helps account for both the initial strength and rapid disintegration of the land movement in the county.