Jay R. Roszman's Outrage in the Age of Reform: Irish Agrarian Violence, Imperial Insecurity, and British Governing Policy, 1830–1845 places Ireland, particularly “Irish ‘problems’” (3), at the center of British politics in the 1830s and 1840s. By focusing on Irish agrarian violence, referred to as “outrages,” this work demonstrates the influence such acts had on British politicians and reformist policies. As Roszman argues, the “Irish dimension” (3) of the British political narrative has largely been ignored in most scholarship, yet it provides greater insight into the age of reform. What follows in Outrage in the Age of Reform is a masterful approach to the pre-Famine political landscape, which draws on underutilized source material and incorporates a rich interpretation of existing scholarship.

Roszman achieves this by weaving together a three-pronged argument, which he traces over the course of the book. His first line of argumentation considers the British government's approach to Ireland, simultaneously building on and complicating narratives as addressed in K. T. Hoppen's Governing Hibernia: British Politicians and Ireland 1800–1921. The first chapter details successive British governments and their interpretations of justice, with the third chapter pointing to 1835 as a point of demarcation for the importance of the Irish office for the British government. In terms of justice, the Tory government viewed their role as the “‘sword of justice’” (36) that sought to counter Irish agrarian violence with policing and force. By contrast, the Whig government sought reforms, such as Catholic Emancipation, believing efforts such as religious tolerance were an aspect of progressive society (50). Despite reforms, these did not solve the so-called “Irish problems.” Roszman further builds on this by emphasizing the two-way political relationship between Britain and Ireland. As much as British policies attempted to influence Ireland, so too did Ireland influence British politics. By including Daniel O'Connell alongside discourse on Tory and Whig governments, Roszman further complicates the use of justice in the age of reform. Not least of which, this encourages a reconsideration of this period of O'Connell's political career, particularly his relationship with the Whig Party.

In his second argument, Roszman considers the Protestant reaction to Catholic Emancipation and active inclusion. Despite the Whig government's association of religious tolerance with a progressive society, Roszman states, “Catholic Emancipation did not dampen religious animosity; rather, it acted as an accelerant” (279). As increasing numbers of middle-class Catholics sought to gain seats in the government and propaganda connected Irish agrarian violence with other instances of imperial violence, Roszman also argues “how the perceived rise of Catholic power was more broadly tied to fears about the Protestant nature of the British Empire” (188). This emphasis on anti-Catholicism and sectarianism contributed to the conservative strategy, which aimed to challenge the Whig government by focusing on Ireland (195). Roszman argues that the conservatives achieved some success in associating the Whig Party with Ireland and particularly Irish agrarian crime (227).

Roszman's third argument approaches Irish agrarian violence as a means for the Irish people to maintain sovereignty from British rule and British impositions of justice. This argument is closely tied to Roszman's keen application of underutilized source material. In contrast to previous historical research on pre-Famine agrarian violence, which relies on government correspondence and Outrage Papers, Outrage in the Age of Reform is supported by Reports of Outrage. This form of daily correspondence between Dublin Castle and Whitehall provide Roszman with both greater detail on specific incidents of Irish agrarian violence as well as insight into correspondence among various government officials. His methodological approach to the source material through the creation of a database, which he visualizes through the inclusion of tables and figures, helps distill the information and further his argument. By drawing on the Reports of Outrage and supplementing it with additional sources such as newspapers and correspondences, Roszman argues that acts deemed by the British government as “outrages” were a means for some Irish poor “to resist the imposition of British sovereignty and to assert their own local conceptions of justice” (80). In other words, “outrages” were an alternative system of justice recognized by both the British state and Irish peasants. Another intervention this work achieves is the decision to look at instances of everyday violence as opposed to the majority of existing historiography on Irish agrarian violence, which prioritizes times of unrest. Roszman contests that this historiographical emphasis has left instances of everyday violence under-researched. He maintains that understanding everyday agrarian violence as opposed to periods of unrest can help us to better understand the lived experience of pre-Famine society.

Through Outrage in the Age of Reform, Roszman argues for viewing Ireland's agrarian violence as integral to influencing the British political narrative in this pre-Famine period. His multi-faceted argument is a rich and important contribution to existing scholarship. In focusing on this period, he demonstrates how “Ireland was not simply John Bull's other island, adrift across the Irish Sea” (285), and how Ireland played a prominent role in the age of reform. Ireland shaped Britain's reformist policies, influenced definitions and actions of justice, and exposed British imperial concerns.