Ireland

Rating:
Summary: An Engaging History
Review: As a teacher and writer whose work is primarily limited to literary studies, I found this text exceptionally helpful in its integration of accessible historical scholarship and incisive commentary on cultural and social contexts. Coohill successfully enables his reader to understand the complexity and instability of political and cultural identities, particularly as they reveal themselves in twentieth century Ireland. And while the expansive history has exceptional breadth, Coohill skillfully explicates the intricacy and depth of historical and cultural interpretations of critical historical moments. I recommend this text to anyone interested in learning more about the fascinating interplay between Irish culture and history.

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: Great book. Easy to read and understand. Explains Irish history pretty good. But it's not boring because he talks about ways that people see Irish history. Taught me a lot about Ireland and Northern Ireland. Highly recommended. Good gift too (that's how I got it). - Johnny Fitz!

Rating:
Summary: History and Historians
Review: This book was very good. I have read a few books on Ireland and this is now one of my favorites. It is not only a good read (how could interesting history not be?!?!), but is also a good reference book to look up facts about Irish history. Particularly interesting were the sections on the various interpretations of Irish history. I didn't realize that people's different ideas about Irish history influenced their political and social opinions so much. At times, though, I thought that maybe historians are too interested in the work of each other. Each chapter has three or four pages on interpretations. This is a good thing, but, if I wasn't interested in the particular topic, I found that I wasn't interested in the interpretations either. But, overall, this is really good history, it seems to me.