The Course of Irish History

Rating:
Summary: great history book
Review: being a history major, i love history already so may have a bit of a bias. however this is a great book for anyone interested in irish history. you never get lost of confused, it is well organized, and logical to follow. unlike many history books, it is a fun read and never gets boring. before going to ireland for a month over the summer i read this book and it was great because it gave interesting history to know before i went. also does a great job of looking at the conflict that started over british rule and the politics behind it. i would reccomend this book to anyone. Slainte!

Rating:
Summary: Very good overview
Review: Having studied Irish history in grad school, I found myself coming back to this book over and over for a quick, easily readable general overview of irish history, written (well) by scholars but in a fashion accessible to all readers. It sounds trite to say, but if you only read one general book on the history of Ireland, this should be the one!

Rating:
Summary: If you know a lot about Ireland and like dull books-buy
Review: I bought this book as I'm 1/4 Irish and felt that I should learn more about my heritage. Growing up in England I learned about ireland form an (albeit fairly enlightened) English point of view. Each chapter of the book is written by a different author and there is some overlap and repition which is annoying. I studied Irish history (in relation to Britain) in some depth at high school so I do not regard myself as a complete novice but was constantly frustrated by the assumption of knowledge. For example, one intersting part of the book talks about the relationship between the UK and Ireland during World war II (Ireland remained nuetral). It talks about Devalera's powerful and restrained response to Churchill's verbal attack on Ireland after the war had been won as a great point in Irsh history without telling us what that response was.

The book takes a fascinating topic which I am genuinely interested in and makes it tedious, complicated and uninspiring. Baaah Humbug.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult book to follow
Review: I gave this book only three stars because even though it is a good scholarly work it is difficult to get through. There is a lot of historical information in here that appears without any explanation. It is really written for those with a sound background to Irish history. I found myself getting lost a few times with references to events that were not fully explained. Sometimes you come across a reference to a law or an institution and there is no further reference. Although the work and scholarship is thorough it is not a good read for those exploring Irish history for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult book to follow
Review: I gave this book only three stars because even though it is a good scholarly work it is difficult to get through. There is a lot of historical information in here that appears without any explanation. It is really written for those with a sound background to Irish history. I found myself getting lost a few times with references to events that were not fully explained. Sometimes you come across a reference to a law or an institution and there is no further reference. Although the work and scholarship is thorough it is not a good read for those exploring Irish history for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the beginner
Review: I have a lot of Irish ancestry but know nothing about Ireland or its history. This was my first attempt at understanding something of my grandparents' roots, but I came away with only a rudimentary knowledge of the course of Irish history. It is not written for anyone who has no working knowledge of Celtic, English or for that matter any European history. It was very vague in some areas (St. Patrick, the eras of the plagues and famine and England's reaction to same), far too specific in others (wars and the ever-changing alliances), and, while reading it, I felt as if I should have known what was going on. If it inspired me at all to further study, it was only because I found this book very lacking for my level of knowledge (none). However, on the upside, if you have previously studied Irish history, it is probably a good, overall review for you. The illustrations were wonderful and informative; however, they did not keep pace with the text and I found myself having to flip back and forth between pages and I, oftentimes, was still not clear what or who exactly was being described.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the beginner
Review: I have a lot of Irish ancestry but know nothing about Ireland or its history. This was my first attempt at understanding something of my grandparents' roots, but I came away with only a rudimentary knowledge of the course of Irish history. It is not written for anyone who has no working knowledge of Celtic, English or for that matter any European history. It was very vague in some areas (St. Patrick, the eras of the plagues and famine and England's reaction to same), far too specific in others (wars and the ever-changing alliances), and, while reading it, I felt as if I should have known what was going on. If it inspired me at all to further study, it was only because I found this book very lacking for my level of knowledge (none). However, on the upside, if you have previously studied Irish history, it is probably a good, overall review for you. The illustrations were wonderful and informative; however, they did not keep pace with the text and I found myself having to flip back and forth between pages and I, oftentimes, was still not clear what or who exactly was being described.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Beginning
Review: The book delivers what it's title implies, in a few hundred pages. The different perspectives of the various authors help to reinforce the truth that there are many ways of understanding and interpreting events, even when the facts are agreed upon. After having read the book, the reader knows himself not to be an expert, but has a sense of " the course of Irish history."

Rating:
Summary: A fine general overview of Irish history
Review: This book provides excellent overall coverage of Irish history from ancient times to the present. It provides a starting point for all further interest in specific Irish topics. As a future Irish historian, it is good to see a well-written general text on Irish history as most books on Irish subjects pertain to one period and/or issue. Definitely a highly recommended book for classroom purposes.

Rating:
Summary: A good but slightly flawed read
Review: This book represented something completely new when published in 1966. It was a companion to a 21-part TV documentary series, produced by Irish historians for the Irish. With that in mind, the individual essays with their references to unfamiliar place names as well as some words in the Irish language, are a bit difficult for the general American reader, even one with a background in history. The book would also benefit from a couple of good maps, though I suspect that most Irish are familiar with thier tiny country's geography.

The book is just detailed enough to provide a general survey, and the extensive bibliography provides numerous, though some dated, points of departure for more serious students.