Ireland Books

I really enjoyed this book and I hope it will help me on my Project.

This is an excellent book by a Professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. 'International History Review' said of the first edition that it was "far superior in its factual coverage and balance to its various competitors in the field. .. He has told the story as completely and as impartially as we are liable to get." Cohen gives a brief history of Yugoslavia in the first chapter. The rest of the book gives a detailed account of Yugoslavia's breakup and the war.

Yugoslavia existed as a state from 1918 to 1991. Under Tito it had a devolved and federal constitution. This gave parity representation to each of the six republics in the Yugoslav federation, even though Serbia was by far the biggest. Tito selected people for jobs by 'ethnic arithmetic' and rotated top officials annually. But these policies signally failed to unify Yugoslavia. The constitution encouraged those who wanted to split the country. They had a two-track strategy. They aimed to move from federation to confederation as a step towards independence; at the same time they formed separate institutions designed for complete independence.

Outside forces seized on these internal failings. In January 1991 the US and German Ambassadors pressed the Yugoslav National Army not to intervene to keep Croatia in Yugoslavia. In early 1991 Germany and other countries sold arms to Croatia and Slovenia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia and Slovenia unilaterally declared their independence. The Croats were desperate for foreign intervention: "The Tudjman government believed that immediate internationalization of the Yugoslav crisis was absolutely crucial."

When the Yugoslav Government deployed the National Army to hold the country together, the EC secretly threatened to cut off all aid to Yugoslavia. On 4 October 1991, the opening day of the EC Conference, its chairman Lord Carrington presented an agenda "premised on the assumption that Yugoslavia no longer existed." The EC announced that all the Yugoslav republics "are sovereign and independent with international identity". As Cohen wrote, "the EC had apparently made a political decision to dismember the Yugoslav federation." Hurd warned in December 1991 that recognising Croatia and Slovenia would escalate the war. Carrington warned that recognition would weaken diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire and a settlement, and would also spread the war to Bosnia. Despite, or because of, all these good reasons, the EC, including Britain, recognised Croatia and Slovenia in January. The UN did too, despite its "internal divisions about the propriety of intervention in a sovereign state's domestic disputes."

The war did spread to Bosnia. In July 1991 the Moslem Bosnian Organization tried to negotiate a Moslem-Serb accord to prevent war in Bosnia and to preserve Bosnia's territorial integrity. Karadzic accepted this for the Bosnian Serbs, but Izetbegovic, the leader of the Bosnian Muslims, rejected it. Izetbegovic is a member of the fundamentalist 'Fida'iyane Islam', which wants to turn Bosnia into an Islamic Republic, although Muslims are only a third of the population. Bosnia's Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic tried to justify the composition of his government by saying "It is a fact that Moslems make up 99% of the Bosnian defense forces so it is natural that they form the government." In so doing he gave the lie to the nonsense that Bosnia is some form of multicultural democracy. These armed forces have been "strengthened with thousands of volunteers from various Islamic countries" and by illegal arms shipments, often through Slovenia, especially from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

In his 1970 Islamic Declaration, which he reprinted in 1990, Izetbegovic wrote, "The Islamic movement must and can take power not only to destroy the non-Islamic power but to build up a new Islamic one." Cohen noted "the more militant and religiously nationalistic majority in the party led by Alija Izetbegovic (who had spent eight years in jail under the communists for his Islamic fundamentalist beliefs)." Cohen analysed "the role of traditional religions in generating ethnic conflicts" in Yugoslavia.

Again, in February 1992 Izetbegovic sabotaged the Lisbon Agreement for Moslem-Serb-Croat power-sharing. He "later conceded that Bosnia might have avoided a violent war if it had stayed together with Serbia and Montenegro in a reconfigured Yugoslavia." In early 1992 his dash for Bosnian independence was "prompted by the opportunity for quick recognition by the EC." Even the US Ambassador to Yugoslavia called his decision 'disastrous'. Cohen pointed out that "the lack of a political settlement among the major ethnic groups within Bosnia-Herzegovina actually justified postponing recognition of that republic as another new state in April 1992." But the EC and the UN went ahead with recognition. In the autumn of 1993 Bosnian Moslem government forces killed "thousands of civilian Croats in central Bosnia".

The United States has throughout the war campaigned for US intervention. As Cohen pointed out, it used hyperbolic calls of genocide to try to justify intervention. It has vilified the Serbs and whitewashed the Bosnian Moslems and the Croats. To defeat the Serbs, "the United States, though not ostensibly taking sides in the war, had effectively engineered the Moslem-Croat agreement." Cohen showed how "behind the scenes, Washington was gradually expanding its military support for the Moslems and Croats". Clinton approved the initiative of a group of former US military officers to assist Croatia's armed forces.

Cohen finished by writing hopefully, "The imperatives of economic survival and reconstruction, as well as geographic proximity and other earlier interdependencies, suggested that such cooperation would eventually resume despite the recent episodes of terrible, ethnic, religious, and political violence." But there is no chance of this vital peaceful reconstruction happening with 60,000 foreign troops in the country. Their presence will prolong the war in Yugoslavia, and also runs a high risk of spreading it to other countries. It will certainly worsen the tension between the NATO powers and Russia. Bulgaria and Greece will not appreciate the presence of so many NATO troops so near to them.

i had to write a paper for a geography class and figured why not do it on yugoslavia. while researching, i came across this book, and thought it was a marvelous read. it is a fascinating look at the decline of yugoslavia from Tito, who ran the country remarkably well and who had a miraculously peaceful tenure as "Emperor." then Milosevic showed up and [messed] it all up. the thing i find very excellent about this book is that it describes very well how milosevic got that power. he used nationalism to his advantage to get the serbs behind him. this nationalism lead to the bloody split-up of croatia, slovenia, bosnia-herzegovina, macedonia, and finally kosovo. this book shows one of the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) examples of nationalism and the effects of nationalism. it is especially good to observe what happened to Milosevic in light of recent events throughout europe, with the hard-right gaining popularity, in such places as Romania, Hungary, and even in more tolerant France and the Netherlands. it is a worthwhile read to observe similarities between what milosevic said and did and what these new right-wing leaders are saying and doing.

I thoughly enjoyed this book & would highly recomend it.Its amusing & informative about life in a Sicilian family where the days seem to revolve around food.
Susan Ribeiro dos Santos

This beautiful book brings Sicily to life, with its evocations of three generations of an Italian family, combined with fascinating descriptions of its history and culture, from the Greeks to the mafia and everything in between. I would recommend this book to anyone planning to visit Sicily, or simply looking to escape into its pages and experience the warmth of this family and their villa in the sun. I loved it!

As a fellow Brit married to a Sicilian, I can attest that Ms. Seller Manzo's insights and observations of life in Sicily are as authentic as the family's homemade tomato sauce. The flavours of Sicily are all there, seasoned with hilarious and touching anecdotes about the Manzo household and the author's daunting task of fitting into such a splendidly eccentric family.

This book describes the faith journeys and struggles of 14 women who were lead by the Lord to the fullness of the Catholic Church. Reading the stories further enhanced my own appreciation for my Catholic faith. When reading this book I learned about the struggles of the authors and even more about my Catholic faith and the former faith traditions of the authors.

This is a great book containing the personal stories of fourteen women, many of whom were ministers or priests in other Christian Church's but left that behind in order to become Catholic. This meant the loss of their position!

What would lead fourteen highly educated women to leave their careers behind? This is what makes up The Catholic Mystique and makes it a page turner. I read through the whole book in one sitting!

I love to read conversion stories of all types. These are some of the best. At 10-15 pages each, they are short enough to read at one sitting, yet long enough for the author to really tell her story.

Let me assure my fellow males, you will enjoy this book. It's not just for ladies.

Aidan Meehan has a great ability to combine solid art history with the never-ending fascination of Celtic artwork without putting the reader off with excess pedantry. In this book in particular, his historic discussions surprised me on several occasions. My initial belief that Celtic art as an isolated form is that of a rank amateur, and Meehan does a fine job of disabusing me and showing how Celtic decoration and illumination started with oriental influences which then mixed with Teutonic and Viking to create a beautiful synthesis.

Of course , the history is framed with Meehan's own renditions of the artwork, each with appropriate discussion of both their unique features and the interlinked development as Irish and Viking met first in conflict and then in trade. Since Meehan's primary audience is artists, he spends the best part of the book showing not just the patterns, but how they are formed and woven into a whole.

Aidan and Oisin Meehan's illustration and calligraphy are strong and clear, with some 220 illustrations. There is a great romance to these images, that has carried forward even into far more modern art. Aidan Meehan is one of those who have dedicated his life's work to keeping these traditions alive.

I was thrilled to find this book, being of both Irish-Scots and Viking descent. Much of the art of the Gaels and the Norse is similar, due to both a common origin, proximity, raiding, and trading. I've had books on Viking art, harder to find than Celtic, and many on Celtic. But although there was great similarity in the designs, (and also resembles much of the Scythian art which brings us to anthropological discussions) I found nothing to discuss the differences until I found this book. As I discussed in 'Spiral Patterns' by Meehan, his books are delightful sources for the serious interest. He has a way of combining a historical study with the construction of the art that is simply delightful. My favorite in this book is the whimsical 'gripping beast' discussion. Otherwise, though it is hard to describe exactly how, by the end of the book I was not only exposed to a number of Viking designs that I had never seen before, but now able to tell the difference at a glance between the two art forms. The Viking form is less restrained than the Celtic art that reached its height in dreary volumes, the designs such as 'the early viking style' shown have a energetic and powerful energy then the overly tame knotwork. In addition there ARE some examples worth using as clip art, but the main point of the book is serious information as to the history and the meaning of the designs, which other books simply show.

This is an excellent book for those who are interested in Celtic art. As with all of the books by Aidan Meehan that I have read so far, this book is historically informative and provides easy to understand techniques for artists wishing to master celtic art or manuscript illumination.

I was privileged enough to take a class from Prof. Carey at Cork and we used this book. His translations are excellent and his academic style entertaining, yet rigorous enough for high caliber colleges and universities. Whenever anyone asks me about Celtic source material, I recommend this book. It's fantastic.

This is quite simply an essential volume for any enthusiast of Celtic culture. It has the greatest collection of Gaulish texts available (which are few but still important), as well as the commentary of Roman and Greek neighbors. More than that, though, it also contains countless Irish and Welsh texts, most of which have been out of print and unavailable to the public for many years, such as "The Book of Invasions".

What a gem! For those of us not able to afford the small fortune involved in buying dozens of original texts (which is still on the agenda- one day), Koch and Carey have supplied us with the translations of not only some of the most important texts in Celtic scholarship, but some of the rarest. The ancient Gaulish inscriptions which begin this book set the scene for the rest of the material in a manner quite unique in this field. Whereas usually one might find reference to Irish material in abundance, and some Welsh texts of the High Middle Ages, "The Celtic Heroic Age" provides us with a glimpse of the Golden Age of the Celtic peoples from the very beginning of their written record. Rather than painting a literary picture around these texts, the editors have provided us with a series of views of Celtic culture as seen by the Celts themselves and by their nearest contemporaries. An absolute must for any serious student of the Celts!

My husband and I bought this music to play for a garden party. We are intermediate players and I found several pieces for the flute pretty easy to sight read. Some of the harder pieces can be done with practice. There is a CD provided with all the songs from the book on it, which makes it a LOT easier to pick up the melody and rythyms.

The harder part is the guitar. My husband is not a classical player and is self-taught so he had a more difficult time with his music, so he did not play on these pieces for the garden party, but instead played along on a mountain dulcimer - which sounded very nice also. The music is delightful and a refreshing change from a lot of flute music out there.

This is the perfect collection for intermediate flute and guitar players. I found the music accessible, yet rewarding to play. The CD aids learning and is one of my favorites.

I have had this book and CD for over 2 years now and it is my favorite.IT is absolutely beautiful. The music is touching to the heart and soul. THe music has such feeling. It is so easy to play on the flute.I am impressed that music written so simple can sound so pretty. The Cd plays all 44 songs on flute and guitar in harmony.The CD is beautiful just on it's own. I listen to it almost every day. This is the best music book i have ever seen. My music teacher was impressed by the music in the book also and will be ordering one for herself. The music would be great to be played at weddings or special engagements.
I think jessica and alex did a wonderful job ! This book deserves more than 5 stars.I also want to say some of the music is hundreds of years old, and the feeling i get when i play it takes me away to another century along time ago. It is very romantic!Very easy to play,very simple music theory.

I found this book to be quite helpful to me while I was learning all about my ancestors. It tells you almost everything known about the Celts and if anyone is interested in Celtic Culture, history, or religon I recommend it to you. It is a great book to start out with and to get a clear view on who the Celts actually were, not misconceptions.

I began an interest in the Celtic way of life, and of their decendants several years ago. I've found this to be the one book that is true to life. It tells it like it is, or was. The Celts were strong, often violent...none of that seems to matter here.

This is a historical reference book, but also carries an air of open-mindedness about the actuallity of saint's miracles, druid magick, etc. It is a fantastically illustrated book and I highly reccomend it to anyone intereseted in the ancient Celts.

This amazing book focuses around the the life a woman who truly has an extraordinary life. Born into a poor family, her mother deceives her father and the village by calling Grey a boy. Grey spends her youth believing she is a boy, deformed and must keep her identity a secret. The time is during the 12th century when England is beginning to take over parts of Ireland. Poverty is rampant and the English are gobbling up villages and property and claiming them as their own.

When Grey discovers her true identity, she embarks on a strange journey trying to reconcile the years she spent as a male to the truth of her sex. She goes from being used, to being loved, to becoming a mother, and then continues to change throughout the book.

There were some sections of the book that where I thought "typical - woman is the victim". However, when I put the book down and began to think about it, Grey was a victim according to today's way of thinking. The author does an amazing job at presenting Grey as anything BUT a victim. She is more than just a woman, mother, wife, Irish, peasant, lover. Grey's character shows that there is more to a person then their sex. Someone isn't defined by their "station" in life - wife, mother, woman. Rather who they make themselves.

Great read. Fast paced and well written.

Kate Horsley has never failed to astound me with the books of hers I have read. "The Changeling", I feel, is an excellent follow up to her acclaimed novel, "Confessions of a Pagan Nun".
The setting is the 1300's in Ireland. Grey is a peasant girl who has been raised as a boy. When she realises her womanhood, it takes her on a journey of discovering an identity. As Ms. Horsley breaks it up for us, "Son", "Whore", "Warrior", and "Mother". Each of her identities and phases teaches her different lessons in life until the end when she realizes that nothing can exactly define her. The themes of the novel are the search for identity and in a stange way glory.
Through Grey's eyes, we see all the problems of the age. Including the residing of the Pope at Avignon, the corruption of the Catholic Church, and the smiting Black Death.
The characteristics Horsley gives to Grey lets us experience what is it to be a woman. I believe this is an important message for not only women all over the world, but men as well. Horsley, through Grey's various identities, gives us the complex psychology of a woman.
This is a beautiful story and just as incredible as "Confessions of a Pagan Nun". Once again, it is about discovering who you are. The smoothness of the writing carries you through the pages one by one until before you realize it, you are done.

I was awestruck by this novel. The fact that the author created such a dynamic character is amazing. Grey, born a girl and raised a boy.

A neat read, and about Ireland and the plague. There are some graphic sexual scenes, though, so beware.

This book at times seems dry because of the descriptions of bureaucracy,government,etc. and at time comes off as being like an encylopedia,although one on a specialty subject,specifically:the reign of Charlemagne.It is a thorough job on his reign and I can see the reason for the subtitle,"Father of a Continent",since Charlemagne put into motion most of the organization and ruling qualities that eventually evolved into a European nation.The first part of the book shows how closely Charlemagne was tied to the institutions inaugurated by the Roman Empire and added Frankish tribal mores into these institutions.While Charlemagne spoke Frankish(a celtic-germanic type dialect) he was also fluent in Latin although he couldn't write it.i was never able to figure out how Charlemagne managed the numerous reforms whether he "micromanaged" of just picked good legislators.At times the reforms seem like they were forces by themselves and Charlemagne was smart enough to flow with the tide.The case could also be made Charlemagne was another "petty tyrant" from which Europe would recover from and rise to the status of today. The stereotype "Dark Age" ruler is too often portrayed as a greasy bearded,wine inbibing,concubine chasing,warlord who every once in a while lets "common folk" into his prescence for an amnesty or to give out presents.Then the ruler rides off into the sunnset with a pack of hounds for the hunt all the while making ribald jest.However this book shows an intelligent,justice seeking,education minded,artistic side to the "Dark Age" ruler.As a matter of fact after reading this book,I don't see how Charlemagne could have possibly had time to squeeze in a concubine as pressed for time as he was.In regard to Charlemagne and the pope,the book says that this relationship was not as close as dramatic accounts have previously said.Instead Charlemagne and his counselours primarily looked to their own interests when it came to political issues and church doctrine,and the author suggests that Charlemagne's reverence for the pope was more due to King Charles magnaminous nature than to fear or superstition of divine wrath.Or maybe with all that barbarian cunning he was smart enough to not "upset the apple(or plum) cart.The book is fine tuned down to showing how Charlemagne's administators dealt with the "Darkage" equivalent of today's "draftdodgers" to the details of how slavery issues were treated.I found it interesting how small livestock animals were back then before steroids and that by 800 pretty much all of Europe was settled and claimed so there was little room for hunters and pillagers to operate "riskfree"without stepping on someone else's toes.This is basically still a"barter" economy,coinage not very marked.This book is not a critical bio,because of the lack of sources from this era to compare Charlemagne to so if you lived before the era of the "critical bio",you pretty much have a cakewalk on your position in history due to a lack of or complete abscence of records beyond some scribblings of monks.While the monk could no doubt do a good critique,there would considerations of keeping a good head on one's shoulders.

Mr. Barbero has produced a comprehensive and insightful work, while keeping the book relatively brief and accessible to those who have only rudimentary knowledge of the early Medieval period. The book is organized thematically, not chronologically, but the author maintains a consistent perspective on events, with the result that the reader does not feel as though he/she is wandering aimlessly in a period of time of more than forty years. Mr. Barbero occassionally references modern scholarly debate, adding to the issues his own viewpoints, which are usually quite convincing.

I have found only two caveats:

(1) The book is fairly breif; it is not an expansive guide to Charlemagne's life.

(2) The author spends a great deal of time on the social history of the period, leaving the king far behind. In this respect it is more a history of the kings reign; it is not strictly biography.

All in all this is a solid piece of scholarship.

Barbero's recent text on Charlemagne is by some called "the most important work on Charlemagne in a generation." While I don't feel qualified to make such an assertion, there can be little doubt in my own mind that Barbero's work is a solid, scholarly, and ultimately, successful addition to the collection of works available on Charlemagne.

I ran across this book in Paris in 2004, right after the book had come out in print. A brief perusal of the pages told me that this would be a book in which I would be interested. This was not only because I was interested in Charlemagne per se, but because I was wishing to study more about the educational reforms and policies Charlemagne initiated during his reign, and the effect those movements had on subsequent history. I was delighted to discover that Barbero's book had much of its text dedicated to Charlemagne's educational reforms, and the volume has served well in learning about this important aspect of Charlemagne's reign.

The book is scholarly in its approach, and there can be little doubt that it will serve as a foundation work for subsequent scholarly investigations on Charlemagne. In addition, the work is translated from the original Italian. These two facts - a scholarly orientation and a work translated from one language into another - tend to make the text a slightly more difficult read than a truly popular history. This is in no way to denigrate either: Barbero's scholarship and authority on the subject is easily established, and the translation is first rate, nearly flawless. Nevertheless, there is a somewhat "elevated" (for lack of a better word) style at work here that can make moving through the volume a bit slower than one would expect. Perhaps this is not bad, because there is so much content present here that reducing the speed can bring about greater rewards. But it is indeed something that the reader should be aware of before diving in.

Ultimately an excellent addition to any medievalist's library (or anyone else wishing to learn more about "The King of the Franks"), Barbero's Charlemagne is worth every penny spent and every minute invested.

What makes this page turner so remarkable is that it recounts actual events. If this were fiction, I would have dismissed the book as way too "out there" to merit a willing suspension of disbelief. Simply put, I would not have bothered to read such an outrageous "story" as Leonhard describes. But, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. If you enjoy gripping drama, history, psychology, biography, suspense, and/or all of the above, this book is for you!

A german child growing up inside USSR in the dark age of stalin. Growing up as a young stalinist through the scholar sistem and with his mother prisoner in the gulag. His experience sufering the repression of 1937 - 1938, the WWII and finally the build of the DDR (GDR). This is the vision from an experience and high training soviet scholar, and his progressive discover of the hard and inhuman reality of the soviet system.
Leonhard is one of the most important experts in marxism.

The son of a German communist decides into to seek refuge in the USSR insteadof England,hoping for his dreams of a working class state coming true.After happy years at a school for German communist emmigrants,he is winess of Stalin's turn towards Hitler.The Germen communists,no longer privileged,are sent to Kasakhstan or - shot or sent to the GULAGs.Leonhardt is hapy enough to be trained as a communist functionary at a Komintern school.he is one of the Communist delegation,led by Stalin's messenger ULBRICHT,to fly to Germany.He realises in 1948 at the latest the secret intrigue ULBRICHTS against everyone who wants
a new,democratic Germany and wants his socialist ideals come true.But Ulbricht's policy is a Stalinist system - cynically disguised as a democratic state. In 1948 Leonhardt seeks asylum in the then socialist Yugoslavia.