Brian Ireland

I am a cultural historian, with a particular interest in modern American history. I’ve written about public history and heritage, and I am also interested in representations of historical events in mediums such as movies, comic books, television programmes, music and literature.

I've authored six books of modern history, and about a dozen book chapters and journal articles on such diverse topics as war memorials, road movies, Judge Dredd (fictional character), science fiction author Harry Harrison, Supernatural (tv series), William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Dante's Inferno, Jack Kerouac's influence on British hippies, and rock and pop music in the 1960s.

I've published books on the US Military in Hawaii, the Hippie Trail (co-authored with Sharif Gemie), the Woodstock and Altamont music festivals, and the Rolling Stones in America. My last book is a biography of Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, and my latest, published by Wymer in April 2025, is a biography of former Dio and Whitesnake guitarist and current member of Def Leppard, the great Vivian Campbell.

Before becoming a freelance writer, I used to be a university history lecturer.