Boston College History Department faculty member Robert Savage, who also teaches in the University’s Irish Studies Program, was recently awarded the 2010 James S. Donnelly, Sr. Prize for Best Book in History and Social Sciences for his book A Loss of Innocence?: Television and Irish Society, 1960-72 (Manchester, 2010). The award was presented by the American Conference for Irish Studies during its international meeting held March 30-April 2.

A Loss of Innocence? explores how television helped facilitate a process of modernization that slowly transformed Irish society during the 1960s. Television introduced into Irish homes an unrelenting popular culture that helped undermine the conservative political, cultural and social consensus that dominated Ireland. Read more about the award and the author.