Product Description
Bringing readers to the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells, a historical examination of Ireland's role in the rise of medieval Europe cites the work of countless monks and scribes in the preservation of the West's written treasury. Reprint. Tour. K. AB. Amazon.com Review
In this delightful and illuminating look into a crucial butlittle-known "hinge" of history, Thomas Cahill takes us to the "islandof saints and scholars," the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book ofKells.Here, far from the barbarian despoliation of the continent,monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly, even playfully preserved theWest's written treasury.When stability returned in Europe, theseIrish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning, becoming notonly the conservators of civilization, but also the shapers of themedieval mind, putting their unique stamp on Western culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (291)

Good first half, but in the end, didn't defend the title of his book
I was very interested in learning the exact contribution of the Irish.I know that Western Civilization was in shambles and that the monks saved civilization at that time (see Dr. Warren Carroll's five volume series on Christendom, available from Amazon).I also know that the Irish Church, just getting started and not being in the middle of the chaos on the continent, was in a very good position to be a leader in collecting volumes and redistributing them to save the culture, really, of the early Romans and Greeks, who could barely survive at the time.So, I agreed with the title, not taking it as an exclusive claim--How the Irish were the Only Ones who Saved Civilization--is not the title and i am quite aware of that.However, this book did not deliver on its promised theme.

It did a spectacular job with St Augustine and the Early Roman culture and its demise.It would have been very nice if Mr. Cahill had given footnotes to work--in all places--b/c taking someone's word in the intellectual world is taboo. His explanation of early Irish culture and its need for conversion, his bio. on St Patrick was very beautiful.You do have to wonder about his need to linger on the sexual perversions of the Irish. . . but let's move on.Eventually, he gets to his thesis topic: how the Irish saved civilization--through the redistribution of volumes, education, and monasteries in Europe--and he digresses.

St Columba was a big one, not only does he not portray him as very saintly, but he just stops after two pages on St Columba, right when St Columba leaves and turns to other people.Just when it was getting good; I even started reading it aloud to my husband, b/c i was so enthralled, but it was an unfinished bio.Why give so much attn to Augustine and Patrick and glaze over Columba, who is essential to the thesis?How can you do such a good foundation, and not build a house?Well, Mr. Cahill does just that.He moves on to tell what he thinks is true of the early Irish Church, such as Bishopesses, even though he admits in one place that there is scant evidence of such a fact (so it can be easily misinterpreted), he then says it is a certain truth.Interesting.Then he goes into his opinion of the current state of the Catholic Church and where he thinks it should be headed, and should have been headed.If he wanted to do a book on such a topic, he should have given it a different name.All in all, if you can't defend your thesis, what is the point of writing this book? And that is the reason for my rating of this item.

How A Clever Writer Makes Money
Since its publication in 1995, Thomas Cahill's "How The Irish Saved Civilization" has become the page-turning equivalent of a green tie or "I Brake For Leprechauns" bumper sticker: An easy impulse buy for St. Patrick's Day. I think Cahill mostly had this in mind when he gave the book its magnificently over-the-top title.

Cahill's thesis for his title is this: During the last days of the Western Roman Empire and the centuries immediately following, while barbarians laid waste to troves of accumulated wisdom on the European mainland, a doughty group of Irish monks set about transcribing and sometimes re-contextualizing treasured ancient texts. This learning would in time be brought back and absorbed by generations across the European continent to whom it would otherwise have been lost.

"These scribes then served as conduits through which the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultures were transmitted to the tribes of Europe, newly settled amid the rubble and ruined vineyards of the civilization they had overwhelmed," he writes.

Except as it turns out he doesn't really mean this. Later he backtracks about the Jewish and Greek part of his argument. He's more definite about Latin learning, though not precise at all about what exactly was saved even there. Precision is not a strong point with this book, as many other reviewers point out here. Since the book does have a way of engaging you enough to care about these matters if you weren't of a mind to before, one might argue that Cahill writes not as a historian but polemicist, and a darn good one given the tempers he ignites.

For me, the annoying weakness of "How The Irish" rests more on two points. One is how shabbily the book deals with its title subject on its own admittedly subjective grounds. At its core, "How The Irish" is a loosely-sketched essay on the title subject, preceded by 150 pages of punditry on the debased state of the late Roman empire; an Irish fable about a stolen bull Cahill breezily treats as fact; and the fuzzy history of St. Patrick, to whom Cahill applies much warmth but little light. Only the last 50 pages cover the question of how the Irish saved civilization, and since copying books isn't scintillating reading matter, their overall impact is anticlimactic.

The second, much worse problem for me is how the book focuses our attention not on the Irish or St. Patrick but the busy intellect of Thomas Cahill. He wanders from the thesis in many places, understandable since he's pushing some thin factual points, to force himself and his ideas forward at every turn. This gets annoying. Does Cahill really need to give us his opinions on Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Will Durant, Act Up, Norman Vincent Peale, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Marcus Aurelius in a book on medieval Ireland? "How these people would have loved the Batmobile!" he says of the ancient Irish at one point, summing up their love of stories. Now if only Gibbon had DC Comics to draw upon!

Cahill even uses his bibliography as an excuse for more opining rather than source referral, averring that "some of the most deeply held things are sourceless." I doubt that's the kind of argument a college professor would accept, or even Will Durant.

Give the guy credit, he's a dazzling show-off. Matthew P. Cochrane earlier wrote a review here on the book that's too kind, but he does say something that I think sums up the case for Cahill rather well: "[H]is writing resonates with the reader and the book reads much more like a page-turning novel than an obscure history lesson."

Of course, novels have the advantage over history lessons of making up their own facts as they go along. Cahill's not a wholesale reinventor, just an indelicate reinterpreter of worthwhile territory who needs to be read in the same careful spirit of those ancient maps he references at one point in the text: "Here Do Be Monsters".

remarkable
I read this book at least 10 years ago and still can recall some interesting passages.

Makes you THINK
I was in a reading group assigned to read two chapters a week, think about the reading, and discuss...At first, I thought that Cahill was skimming to much over Roman history and using exaggerating too much,didn't see any Irish history,and what there was...was very critical; BUT as the chapters rolled on, I saw his purpose.This book lends itself to discussion, and is NOT a casual read.I liked it!

starts poorly, doesn't recover
In the first two chapters, I kept wondering, "so where are the Irish?", as the author chatted about the Romans, the barbarians, and some Latin poetry, among other off-topic matters. The Irish finally appeared in the third chapter (after maybe a third of the audio book), with some nuggets of historical interest, such as the arrival of the Celts. Even so, the informal style again concentrated on extended excerpts from Irish tales of marginal interest. By the time St. Patrick joined the book, I'd lost interest and had enough.

The narrator's presentation was sluggish and not especially appealing, which didn't help a book that certainly wasn't what I expected.
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Product Description
Publisher: London : E. StockPublication date: 1904Subjects: Castles -- IrelandLegends -- IrelandNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
With the tragedy of Easter 1916 behind them and spurred on by the euphoria born of England's willingness to confer after months of bitter warfare, Irish republicans sense they are finally on the verge of triumph over their centuries-old foe. Ireland's freedom is just around the corner, or so it seems. But almost overnight the green hills of Ireland turn red again--blood red--as the bitter residue of Anglo-Irish politics unexpectedly erupts into unholy civil war, the repercussions of which are destined to sully the dream of Irish unity for years to come.

This work of historical fiction continues the chronicle of Aran Roe O'Neill, a fictional Irishman, and his tenacious comrades, both real and imagined. Together they reluctantly renew their struggle for Ireland's long-denied independence from England. Their action is triggered by the divisive treaty Dublin's fledging government negotiates with members of London's parliamentary leadership. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

"Shure an' it's a winner!
A very well written historic novel about the Irish Civil War! Must read both books in this "series" to get full impact. Congratulations Mr. Liam!!

Blood On The Shamrock by Cathal Liam
"The follow-up to his critically acclaimed novel, Consumed In Freedom's Flame, protagonist and factional Irishman, Aran Roe O'Neill returns in this historically accurate factional tale of Ireland's Civil War. The book opens with a military entourage carrying Irish rebel leader Michael Collins to a mysterious meeting aimed at putting an end to the savage conflict gripping the country. As a passenger in the car with Collins, O'Neill is caught in the midst of the ambush that would eventually leave his beloved leader - and perhaps even the hopes of a generation - dying on a country road. The novel then shifts back to the end of the Irish War of Independence as the British government awaits the arrival of an Irish delegation charged with attaining their country's sovereignty after hundreds of years of supplication. As [Eamon] de Valera jostles for an outcome that appears motivated by personal rather than stately reasons, Collins is reluctantly press-ganged into joining the Irish deputation. With the threat of total war imminent, the Irish delegation are forced to return to the country with a less than desirable treaty for those who sought a full 32-county republic, a position that the author pointedly claims: 'once a means to achieving a broad ends, had become a narrow end in itself.' With the factions split, the country becomes embroiled in a bitter, insidious conflict that turns comrade and households upon themselves. There are possibly those that would charge the author with being too far in the Collins camp, but with the dispassionate eye of history now finally beginning to fall on Ireland's most depressing dispute, it is hard to escape Liam's presentation of Ireland's most dominant political figure as an egotistical, arrogant man armed only with his own selfish, myopic vision. As one of Collin's inner circle, the newly married protagonist sees his own life unravel along with those around him as Liam's superbly researched book brings alive one of Ireland's darkest hours. Armed with murderous subplots, along with romance, heroism and betrayal galore, this is certainly one of the most dynamic and enjoyable retellings of the Irish Civil War that I have ever read." Reviewed by Joe Kavanagh, Irish Connections magazine, (New York, NY), Autumn, 2006

A historical novel about Ireland's Civil War in the 1920's
"Blood on the Shamrock" is the sequel to "Consumed in Freedom's Flame," Cathal Liam's historical novel about Ireland's Civil War in the 1920's. Fictional hero Aran Roe O'Neill continues in the struggle for Irish self-governance and independence. In this complex network of loyalties and treachery, he faces foes both from within and outside the ranks of Irish patriots. For those who may have missed the first novel, "Blood on the Shamrock" stands very nicely on its own as a great historical novel. It is greatly enhanced by an introductory list of cast of characters, in order of appearance by chapter, the prologue, which quotes the Declaration of Arbroath and the Proclamation of POBLACHT NA H EIREANN, and the glossary. Frequent quotations from poems and songs also help to place the novel's tone and action core. The reader will quickly become caught up in the life and cause of Aran, which is 'at one with the cause of Pearse, Connolly and Collins.' Twentieth century Irish political reality evolves through the pages, with many references to its cultural and historical heritage. "Blood on the Shamrock" is immediate and personal; it will serve to enlighten many readers about the latter days of the Irish Civil War. Ending in the 1960's, "Blood on the Shamrock" is a complete read in and of itself. But one wonders (and hopes!) if there will be another novel to the present day?
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Product Description
A New History of Ireland is the largest scholarly project in modern Irish history. In 9 volumes, it provides a comprehensive new synthesis of modern scholarship on every aspect of Irish history and prehistory, from the earliest geological and archaeological evidence, through the Middle Ages, down to the present day.

The fourth volume of A New History of Ireland opens with an introductory survey of Ireland in the eighteenth century, followed by chapters that examine the Protestant ascendancy, social and political life, religion, the economy, and the arts. ... Read more

Product Description
Few countries can boast as compelling a history as Ireland. This volume captures all the varied legacies of the Emerald Isle, from the earliest prehistoric communities and the first Christian settlements, through centuries of turbulent change and creativity, right up to the present day. Written by a team of scholars--all of whom are native to Ireland--this book offers the most authoritative account of Irish history yet published for the general reader.

Emphasizing the paradoxes and ambiguities of Irish history, this book presents a more realistic picture than other histories. It explores, for example, the reasons behind the intense regional variations in agriculture, prosperity, and political affiliation in so small a land, and shows why Victorian norms prevail in certain areas of twentieth-century life. It also examines more familiar themes--such as the recurrent religious strife and the shaping of new political entities--and offers a special section on the interaction between Irish history and its rich literary tradition. Wide-ranging and highly readable, this vivid view of Ireland will entertain and inform anyone interested in this fascinating and colorful island nation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Ireland's troubled past
This is a wonderful book for the novice in Irish history.It's brevity invites the reader to research further on specific items of interest, and includes a list for further reading at the book's conclusion.The information presented is well written and thoroughly presented by six different scholars. Although biases of each scholar are obvious, they do not detract from the historical content.

A collection of essays
This is a book that doesn't have to be read from cover to cover.It is a collection of essays written by different authors on various aspects of Irish history.As such it is a excellent read but it can be a bit confusing for someone getting into Irish history for the first time.For those well into the subject - I recommand this.

This should probably not be the first history of Ireland that you read...
But after you've read a couple of surveys that might not've agreed with each other entirely in tone or overview, this is a great survey for making sense of the broadview disagreements between historians.

Good collection of essays surveying Irish history
For the past few decades, Oxford University Press has published a series of surveys of various topics of history.Consisting of a collection of essays by leading scholars, they possess both the strengths and deficiencies of this approach - while authoritative introductions to their topics, the quality of the writing and the focus can often vary widely.A good editor can mitigate these weaknesses while preserving their strengths, and it is a testament to the efforts of Roy Foster that this volume on the history of Ireland is as good as it is.

This book presents the history of Ireland in six chapters - five covering Ireland's past from the prehistoric period to the 1980s, and a sixth that addresses the topic of "Irish Literature and Irish History," a focus unique in the series.Each of these chapters provides a good overview to their respective eras, addressing political, economic, and social developments over the centuries.Some of the essays are inevitably stronger than others - I thought that Donnchadh O'Corrain's account of prehistoric and early Christian Ireland was especially clear and illuminating, while Katharine Simms's chapter on the island in the Middle Ages suffered from its excessive focus on the politics of the period - the book overall provides a reliable and insightful account of the span of Irish history.My only wish would be for a more thoroughly revised edition, one that would take into account both the recent developments in Irish history (David Fitzpatrick's comment that Ireland was "likely to remain" among "the poorest parts of western Europe" is particularly glaring in light of the island's economic emergence as the "Celtic tiger") and the titles that have since been published reflecting Ireland's maturing study of its past.

Great information, terrible read
This book has loads of great information.The problem is that it's scattered all over and an extremely difficult read.The readibility level is very low.
If you are patient and have a lot of time, this book's for you.If neither applies, look for The Course of Irish History, by Moody and Martin.It has loads of great info AND is a great read.
I gave it three stars simply for the information it contains.My personal rating is one star. ... Read more

Product Description
A rip-roaring ride through the history of the Emerald Isle

Ireland’s story is an amazingly dramatic and intense one – and today the influence of Irish culture can be felt around the globe. This book helps you find out why, taking you on a rollercoaster journey through the highs and lows of Ireland’s past including invasions, battles, executions, religious divide, uprisings, emigration – and Riverdance!

Mike Cronin is a lecturer at the Centre for Irish Programmes, Boston College, Dublin. He has written 5 books on Irish history.

Discover:

• When and how Ireland became Celtic
• Ireland and Britain’s complex relationship
• The evolution of Irish culture
• How Irish emigration has affected the world
• Northern Ireland’s rocky road to peace

Customer Reviews (6)

Ghastly mash up of anecdotal history
This was a subtext used in an anthropology class, and it is incredibly useless.There is no cohesive theme or element in the text:it jumps around in a flippant, jokey, childish tone (even cartoons) that minimizes the importance and relevance of what should be socially urgent information.

Time periods jumble around, the jargon is dumbed down to elementary school level, and too much attention is paid to small events rather than the pattern of the whole history.

Additionally, something is said by what is left out: only one obscure reference to the IRA?No discussion of "official" vs. "provisional" IRA?Minimal info on Ian Paisley, Michael Collins, the abstention policy,and the Ballymurphy Riots?

Incredibly disappointing and potentially dangerous...

Good history book.
Everybody who read this thought it was a great book.Interesting content and well written.

A good introduction
This book made it easier for me to understand the period in Irish history immediately prior to the Great War through the 1930s, through the Easter Uprising and the Civil War. Other accounts I have read made the period thoroughly confusing, assuming that the reader already has a sophisticated understanding of the politics and demographics involved.

Taken for what it is, an introduction, the book seems to do a good job.

Very bad history
I skimmed through a few pages of this book and it was enough....there are historic mistakes in just about every section.For example, there was no "Celtic" invasion of peoples to Ireland - no Irish scholar has believed this for about 40 years.The serious stress between the English and Irish was NOT based on religion - the problems started hundreds of years prior to the reformation.The issues were land ownership, the Irish Brehon law system, the ancient Irish inheritance system, taxes to the crown etc. The section on the Famine is pathetic and Parnell and Home Rule are soft peddled so at not to offend anyone.

This book is bad history and Political Correctness gone wild but worse yet - it is revisionism at its worst.

Absolutely would not recommend it at all for anyone who is even close to being serious about the history of Ireland.

The problem with books like this - "easy to read intros" -is that they are written for those who have no background on the subject and are gullible enough to not understand that they are reading misinformation. Stay clear of this.

Great education
This book is a tremendous way to get quickly educated on Irish history.It is thorough and well-written. ... Read more

Product Description
Written by an international team of leading scholars, The Oxford History of Modern Europe traces Europe's turbulent history, from the beginnings of the Revolution in France to the dawn of two World Wars, to the breakup of the Soviet Union, to today's kaleidoscope of nation-states. The achievements and failures of key figures from many arenas--politics, technology, warfare, religion, and the arts among them--are drawn vividly, and social, cultural, and economic insights are included alongside the record of geopolitical strife. We read of the personality cult as exemplified by the Soviet portraits glorifying Lenin; the importance of the nylon stocking in the post-World War II economic boom; the influence of religion as five new nations (Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania) emerged between 1871 and 1914--an influence that continues to be both vigorous and deadly; and the confrontation between traditional and modern cultures captured as the railway age began in Russia.
Beautifully illustrated with over 200 pictures in color and black and white, this insightful book offers an unparalleled, informed perspective on the history of an ever-changing continent.Amazon.com Review
In the introduction to the Oxford Illustrated History ofModern Europe, T.C.W. Blanning argues that, in many ways, theessence of modern man is that he is self-consciously dynamic. We areattracted to change--it captures the eye much more thanstability. This excellent book reveals much about the things that havechanged in Europe since 1789--and, just as importantly, the thingsthat have remained constant. The eleven essays in this collection(written by some of the biggest names in the field of Europeanhistory, such as Princeton's Harold James, U.C. Berkeley's Martin Jay,and Richard Overy of King's College, London) focus on various aspectsof European society, from politics and economics to high culture andsocial structures, and analyze both the changes and the engines ofthose changes. In his standout essay on the changing nature ofwarfare, 1789-1918, Hew Strachan argues that this militarymodernization cannot simply be explained by new technology and thatmore emphasis must be placed on changing ideas. Strachan and the otherauthors for the most part eschew jargon and present an authoritativeset of essays complemented by over 240 arresting color andblack-and-white illustrations. Many of the chapters would be suitablereadings for upper-division history courses, and the thorough index,detailed chronology, and suggestions for further reading would be agreat help to students. This book is accessible to the general readerwhile remaining valuable to the scholar--and is immensely readable toboot.--C.B. Delaney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The path to us...
Blanning's text on the history of modern Europe starts in the last eighteenth century, with the beginning of the French Revolution, often acknowledged by scholars today as a watershed event in the formation of modern Europe.The ramifications of this event led not only to political and military change throughout the continent of Europe (and, by extension of influence, the rest of the world), but also had profound impact on art, literature, music, philosophy, church and all else that comprises European society.

Blanning, a professor of history at Cambridge, provided editorial direction for the text, and also contributed one of the chapters of the book.The topics and chapters are overlapping, sometimes focused upon a particular theme (Warfare in Europe since 1918, by Richard Overy, is one such example) or along broad topical lines (Industrialisation of Modern Europe, 1750-1914, by Clive Trebilcock is representative here).

The first chapter is devoted to politics from the French Revolution to the First World War.John Roberts examines in this chapter politics internal to various nations as well as the foreign relations among the European states, culminating first in the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic era, to its final breakdown in the First World War.The changing face of politics across the European continent in terms of increasingly democratic structures and a lessening of royal and aristocratic government is a common theme.These themes are carried forward in essays on the reordering of European society (Pamela Pilbeam), the upheavals during the interwar period (Paul Preston), changes in recent European society (Richard Bessel) and the final, up-to-date analysis by David Reynolds.

Industrialisation and commercialisation are common themes across the history of modern Europe, discussed in different chapters by Clive Trebilcock, T.C.W. Blanning, and Harold James.Their topics are not neatly compartmentalised, and complement each others' texts, as well as the other chapters in the book, quite well.Military themes are also constant across the period, and are addressed in chapters on military modernisation (Hew Strachan), and post-World War I warfare hot and cold (Richard Overy).

Martin Jay contributed a chapter entitled `From Modernism to Post-Modernism'.This chapter looks at issues in art, literature, media and philosophy as well as the impact of the general changes in intellectual history have had on general European society and sensibilities.This chapter more than any other examines the role of artistic and aesthetic disciplines on general society.

Blanning provides a good list for further reading, divided by the chapter headings, and further subdivided by major topics within the chapters.There is a 12-page chronology, beginning with the Estates-General convention in Versailles during the French Revolutionary period, proceeding through major events up to the 1995 inclusion of Austria, Sweden and Finland into the European Union.There are six maps of Europe in the appendix, which show the progression of national boundaries over time.It is often remarkable to look at the maps of Europe over time to see stability in some areas and massive change in others, particularly in the middle of the continent.The index is useful and comprehensive, keyed to all the different chapters.
There are dozens of colour plates scattered throughout the text, and hundreds of black and white photographs and line-art drawings - hardly any page is without an illustration.

This is a good reference book, well written and interesting in a narrative format, not too many dates and details for the general reader. ... Read more

Product Description
The story of 50,000 Irish who were transported as slaves to Barbados and Virginia in the 17th century is chronicled for the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A Little Known History
O'Callaghan, Sean. To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland. Dingle, County Kerry: Brandon Books, Mount Eagle Publications, 2000.

Sean O'Callaghan, a former member of the Irish Republican Army, gives an unblinking historical account of the vicious brutality of Cromwell's invasion of Ireland. He also shines a bright light on the British abhorrence of Irish Catholics, citing English pamphlets during the civil war that portrayed Irish Catholics as intellectually and morally inferior. O'Callaghan goes on to detail the systematic, decimation of Irish defenders and the relentless persecution of the innocent others who were transported to Barbados to face forced labor on sugar plantations as slaves. In his description of Irish transport to Barbados, O'Callaghan includes an account that is no less hellish than the horror of the African middle passage. O'Callaghan provides stark accounts of the misery of Irish life on Barbados, describing white slavery and forced labor on sugar plantations. He also gives us a look into the several Irish uprisings in Barbados and the brutality of how the British countered them, employing court-sanctioned torture and executions. O'Callaghan expands his account to include the Irish in Jamaica and America and progresses through emancipation and restoration. He concludes with The Red Legs of Barbados, Irish and Scottish slave descendants and their present-day heirs.

Great book
this is a wonderful book on the little know occurrence of the British shipping the Irish people as slaves to the west indies.

A book of urgent importance


As the Irish finally threaten to allow themselves become assimilated, this book - by an Irishjournalist who workedon Fleet Street, and cannot be accused of blind anti-Britishness-stresses how vitally important it is that our anti-colonial impetus be maintained


I review this book at much greater length in my forthcoming "Ireland: A colony once again?".

Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 4u Meitheamh (san tSin 35 Bealtaine)2009

Good book
A side of Barbadian history I needed to learn more about. O'Callaghan brings some of the dark to light.

Thoroughly Engrossed
I read Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl a few months ago where I was introduced to the history of Irish Slavery on Barbados.I'm not a history buff and generally do not read non-fiction.Nonetheless, I bought this book because of the reviews and I found myself interested in the subject matter.

After I got through the first chapter I became thoroughly engrossed in the book and was not able to stop reading it.

The author did noticeably repeat a few of his facts throughout the book, but the items were generally repeated because they were relevant in more than one place.His arguments were sometimes made in a manner that made me wonder if he was creating his own history, or if I was getting a picture of what really happened.I would have prefered him to have made his arguments more convincingly and as if they were fact.But, I suppose it is also great to know that there is limited information and he is interpreting the information.

I may just give up reading fiction and switch to history if it is all this interesting.It was a hard book to read.I can not believe people could do this to one another.I suppose that is why is was so gripping. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Another great Sister Fidelma mystery!
This was another fine mystery and solution--a page turner that I read in one sitting.Anyone who likes a good mystery story will enjoy reading this book.

Helen Kraack

Dancing with Demons
This book is a very good read. I love the midieval setting. I have read most of Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma series. He is a consumate writer. I enjoy the use of the old language. He has great suprise endings.

Meet Fidelma of Cashel--WAY ahead of many modern feminists!
Sister Fidelma is for you if you enjoy historical mysteries, and if you might enjoy reading Irish history.These folks have a long, fascinating history, and Peter Tremayne presents it effectively, while also creating a splendid detective.She's a "dalaigh"--a type of legal figure we need to today.She can be annoying at times (needs to lighten up!), but she never disappoints.I just finished rereading the series and can barely wait for the next installment.Fidelma grows some as she passes through the installments, but doesn't lose her passion for the law. The back story of the Church in Ireland versus the Church of Rome adds much to the stories.I want to be Fidelma!

Wonderful again!
Peter Tremayne knows how to write a story, and the world he has created with the Sister Fidelma series is quite magnificent.The story is set in Ireland in 669 AD.Things were quite different then, and Sister Fidelmas world has been enlightening me for some years now since this is something like the 17 or 18 book.Tremayne builds his stories on true historical happenings, and he quite captures the feeling of the times.In this book the High King of the Five Kingdoms is found dead in his locked bedroom, and the assassin has put a knife through his own heart in order to avoid being caught for this treasonous act.Sister Fidelma and the faithful Eadulf are called in to determine what happened, and they uncover political and personal plots that put their lives in danger.I recommend this series highly, but it should be read in order, starting with Absolution by Murder.It would be difficult to get into the era without the background that is built up in each book.

Doing Crime In An Unusual Time
Like your crime in a different time? You ought to like this one. The "Dark Ages" are not usually a setting for historical mysteries but here we have seventh century Ireland. According to the book's portrayal of Irish culture, it was not so "Dark" in Ireland.

The High King of Ireland's Five Kingdoms has been assassinated in his bed, and his murderer commits suicide as guards burst into the room. The question is thus not who did it but how and why it was done. Ordinarily court officials would investigate the matter, but the dead king's heir (his brother) wants to avoid any imputation of a cover up, so he excludes both senior court officials (who might be seen as too close to him) and any member of the large and important Ui Neill clan. The dead King, an Ui Neill, was distantly related to his killer, chieftain of an Ui Neill subclan. Fidelma of Cashel, a brilliant court advocate and sister of the king of one of the Five Kingdoms, will investigate.

And there are questions aplenty, beginning with how the killer penetrated the high security of Tara, seat of the High Kings, to the very bed chamber of the King. Yet the "why" of the investigation soon proves more troublesome and difficult than the "how," and Fidelma soon suspects a conspiracy that threatens the Five Kingdoms with civil war and involves her in personal danger.

The book is smoothly written and evokes the life of the times (at least life among the ruling elites) wonderfully. The characters are well drawn and fully believable. Author Tremayne has written fifteen previous novels and two story collections featuring Fidelma. Under his real name (Peter Berresford Ellis) Tremayne is a scholar of the ancient Irish and seems to know the culture well.
... Read more

Product Description
Volume: 1Publisher: London Longmans, GreenSubjects: Ireland -- History 18th centuryNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
First published over thirty years ago, War in European History is a brilliantly written survey of the changing ways that war has been waged in Europe, from the Norse invasions to the present day. Far more than a simple military history, the book serves as a succinct and enlightening overview of the development of European society as a whole over the last millennium. From the Norsemen and the world of the medieval knights, through to the industrialized mass warfare of the twentieth century, Michael Howard illuminates the way in which warfare has shaped the history of the Continent, its effect on social and political institutions, and the ways in which technological and social change have in turn shaped the way in which wars are fought. This new edition includes a fully updated further reading and a new final chapter bringing the story into the twenty-first century, including the invasion of Iraq and the so-called "War against Terror." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Accessible Overview of the Development of War in Europe
Sir Michael Howard has produced an accessible and enlightening overview of the development of war and war fighting in Early Modern European history to today.Howard's review begins briefly at the fall of the Roman Empire before moving quickly to the Renaissance and the beginnings of development of systematic war fighting.Howard's focus for the next seven hundred years or so is the role of central government and the professionalization of armies, conscription (or lack thereof), specialization, and the interaction of economics and the decision of states to go to war.

His strongest chapters are on the role politics and ideology from the end of the 18th century and the intensity of fighting and killing.This is an excellent, short overview of an incredibly complicated subject matter.I recommend this book as a great place for those interested in the subject to start.

no go
I had to read this one for a required War in Society class in college and I did.It's bad.

An Introduction to the Wars of Europe...
In "War in European History", distinguished British military historian Michael Howard provides a concise and fascinating survey of European conflict from roughly the Fall of Rome to the end of the Second World War.This book was first published in 1976 and has been provided with a new afterword for the 2009 edition.

In brisk, well-written chapters, Howard explores the contributions to European warfare of the Knights, the Mercenaries, the Merchants, the Professionals, the Revolution, the Nations, and the Technologists.Along the way, he examines the ways in which political movements, growing economic wealth, more effective governments, and more lethal technology interacted to change the nature of European wars.

In a sense, Howard's book has two endings.In the first, the devastation of the world wars and the rise of the Soviet Union and United States by 1945 seemingly ended the role of Europe as the military and political center of the global system.After 1945, the lethality of nuclear weapons seemed to make another major European war all but unthinkable.However, in his updated epilogue, Howard acknowledges that conflict within the global system, of which Europe is a part, will almost inevitably require European participation in future wars.

At a brief 144 pages, "War in European History" can be no more than a survey, even if brillantly written.Details have inevitably been slighted in favor of larger trends.Howard is admittedly a specialist in European military history; others may reasonably disagree with, for example, his estimate of the adaptibility of the American military.However, as an introduction to a major theme of military history, "War in European History" is hard to beat and very highly recommended.

Brilliant synthesis, well-thought-out and well-written
Sir Michael Howard is one of the leading military historians in the world today.His work is outstanding because he sets war in its various contexts -- political, social, geographic, technological, ideological, and so forth.He has written a series of short, distilled works of historical synthesis, and this is one of his best.The current edition includes an extensive new foreword and epilogue.Anyone interested in military history broadly conceived should read this book.

A plethora of highlights
This book is a wonderful overview (much like a grand essay), with insight in abundance. It is for works like this that the Kindle highlight button has great utility. It is a book to be savored, read again, and ruminated on. The "Further Reading" is a trove.

I've always doubted the wisdom of WWII's Casablanca edict: "unconditional surrender", and, after this reading experience, even more so. Perhaps, we are all knights errant.

Aren't we readers lucky that Michael Howard knows his way around a library? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Chieftains, Part 1
I bought this book in Dublin back in 1972, but never got around to reading it till now.I say "reading" with a certain hesitancy because except for Chapter 3 which provide brief insights into actual life in Ireland in the period 400-800 A.D., IRELAND BEFORE THE VIKINGS is a compendium of the comings and goings and the rise and fall of numerous kinglets, princes, chiefs, and warriors, their geneology and their deaths in battle.As part of the much larger Gill History of Ireland, no doubt all this has an important part.For Irish people, it may be necessary reading to grasp more fully their country's long history.For those overseas, like me, the huge number of names----of people and places---is too overwhelming to be digested.While there are several maps, they don't provide a guide to rivers, just to take one category of names, and so we are left clueless.I would have to say that this is most certainly an insider's history or a history for experts.It may be, for all I know, a classic work on the political history of early Ireland.For expert readers, my comments will seem unfair, and I apologize, but for the average reader, this fare will prove far too rough going.You should search elsewhere.
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Product Description
The Irish Famine of 1846-50 was one of the great disasters of the nineteenth century. Cormac Ó Gráda's concise survey puts the Famine in the context of the Irish economy, assesses the Famine itself, and discusses its many consequences. Despite a devastating food shortage, the huge death toll of one million was hardly inevitable; a less doctrinaire attitude to famine relief could perhaps have saved many lives. This book provides an up-to-date introduction to an event of major importance in the history of nineteenth-century Ireland and Britain. ... Read more

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