Ireland Books

This is by far the best book on Kenmare and its surrounding county Kerry i have had the pleasure of reading!
It is truely a magnificent read and will have you booking a holiday to kenmare in no time.
Finally a book that doesn't just give detail and fact but a heartfelt account of a very special place indeed written by somebody who has quite obviously fallen in love with the quaint town and it's surroundings.
I would reccomend this book to literally anybody who has stayed in kenmare at some point or even just past through while possibly travelling the ring of kerry.
Theres just so much to this part of Ireland that is not known or has been forgotten as the generations get older and time passes, What Stanley Goddard has compiled is a result of years of relentless exploring and researching whether he attained this valuable and compelling information from local towns folk (much of which, like Stanley, are no longer with us!) or from age old history books.
Also an avid photographer, Stanley documented much of what is written about in this book apparently and we can only hope to see an accompanying book of photographs released in the comming months!
This book will appeal as much to the people of Kenmare as it will to the many tourist's passing through each year!
I thoroughly recomend this to anyone who has ever been lucky enough to visit Kenmare and its surrounding beautiful country.

If you love Ireland, history and travel, you will love this book!!! Imagine touring Kenmare with a guide to tell you the history of the people and places you encounter along the way. Beautifully written, it makes you want to jump on a plane and fly to Kenmare to see everything described in the book.

This book is an excellent addition to the literature on the Vietnam war, providing us with a new perspective. It is full of novel information but still easy to read, which is quite an achievement. It is particularly interesting -- given the current political situation -- to learn how eager the British government was to support Kennedy's Vietnam policy. This is a real revelation.
The book's approach is truly international, and the research is more than impressive. Among the archives the author used are the national archive of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, and of course Britain.

In this brilliantly-researched study, Peter Busch examines the Conservative government's policy towards the US war against Vietnam for the years 1961 to 1963. The author, who formerly worked at the Public Record Office at Kew, has thoroughly mined newly available records from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. He also shows how British policy towards Vietnam related to wider policy towards South-East Asia, especially towards Indonesia. In both cases, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan ruled out negotiated settlements and preferred to use force.

Busch shows how Macmillan fully backed President Kennedy's aggressive military build-up in Vietnam, `a clear breach' of the Geneva agreements, while advising him to conceal it. Macmillan pretended to be a peacemaker, while actually supporting the US war. He aimed to keep Britain's `great power' status and prove its value as a US ally.

As co-chairman of the International Control Commission set up by the 1954 Geneva Conference, the British state abused its role in order to support the illegal, dictatorial Diem regime in the south. It backed up Diem's unwarranted claims that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was responsible, `whether there was evidence or not', for starting the civil war in the south. It used these claims to rule out the DRV's call for reconvening the Conference to negotiate the peaceful reunification of Vietnam.

Macmillan helped the US counter-insurgency effort, setting up the British Advisory Mission in 1961. British forces also trained Diem's troops in Malaysia. In 1962, the British Ambassador to Saigon urged the USA to `crush and eradicate the Viet Cong'.

The British government only dropped Diem when it discovered that his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, was willing to discuss peace with the DRV. It then backed the US coup against Diem that sabotaged the chances of peacefully reunifying Vietnam.

Busch concludes that the British government did not pursue peace. "Britain supported the American policy in Vietnam wholeheartedly. The British only wanted to `sell' this policy in a different, less confrontational way." Plus ca change! This superb book vindicates all those who opposed the US aggression against Vietnam.

Amma was an amazing woman - this book deals with the timeless struggles of single missionary women in a way that is both inspiring and genuine. She speaks with honesty, but focuses constantly on God. A great book that shows all sides of the missionary life - the day to day struggles, and also the spectacular triumphs that come from years of seeking the Lord.

Some disconnected thoughts about this book (forgive my scatteredness):
It takes a fairly literary modern mind to enjoy Amy's original books. She was a Victorian-era Irishwoman, after all, and-- well, how many Victorian religious writings do we read with ease? She's an amazing woman, but her writing's a little dense for most of us today. This book is still pretty dense-- but it does a great job of relating her writings to modern life (via the author's own reflections) while still presenting a very large amount of Amy's own original thoughts and poems. The result is an easier-to-read Amy Carmichael sourcebook that works both as a cover-to-cover and as a reference read.

Skoglund groups Amy's writing topically by chapter rather than chronologically; this is not exactly a biographical book. If you open it looking for a strong plot, you'll be disappointed. However, if you open it looking for a fresh treatment of Amy's writing that enables you to access her wisdom on an array of subjects (and return to applicable chapters as you need her bracing words of encouragement), you will be delighted.

I've read Eliot's biography and enjoyed it, but this is the one I pull out when I'm looking for something I remembered Amy saying. It's much more full of Amy's own words.

Soviet Russia, under the faith of Marxism, tried to stamp religiosity out of the country. Rather than compete in the marketplace of ideas, as should have been done (but which always results in great variance in beliefs), the approach that was taken was more akin to stubborn parents trying to tell their teenage daughter that they do not approve of her boyfriend. This, of course, does nothing to lessen the girl's interest in the boy. Much of what followed in the attempt to replace old Christian faith with the new Marxist faith entailed atrocities every bit as bad as those found during Christianity's darkest hours, and really wasn't all that different than the inquisition itself.

For fans of history, this is a look at a fascinating time after the Russian revolution. The time this book covers happens within twenty years of the two world wars and the great depression. Obviously, the first wide scale attempt to force atheism on a population would get overshadowed. A lot of good stories in here, written in an easy to read fashion. Stamping out faith wasn't the first concern of the communists, but government barbarities were set up to deal with the issue creating some interesting interactions with the uneducated populace. The most ambitious of plans had to be scrapped due to resistance.

Save your money and buy some comic books, you'll get more realistic plot development and characters. The writer has evidently never been inside a real police department or embassy or has any knowledge of how the real world works outside of Dublin pubs.

If you like accuracy and reasonable plots -- forget this. If you wander into mystery to totally escape from the real world, then you might enjoy it.

I will also admit that I did not finish it. After the third or fourth female character was introduced, every one of which was a contender for Miss World, I decided to just trash it.

Cheers,

In a crowded Dublin street, a bomb goes off, killing several innocent people. The police investigation is headed up by detective superintendent Blade Macken, whose personal life is as tattered as the bomb area. Blade quickly learns that the deadly blast was detonated beneath the street, making its trail ice cold because the bomb had to have been planted when the street was dug up several months ago.

However, Blade is soon contacted by the deranged Angel, who tells him more bombs have been planted beneath the city's streets. They will all go off to coincide with the American president's visit if he does not receive $25 million very soon. Blade begins to investigate the case from the one clue the killer did leave in his phone call -- he knew Blade. Looking into his past to try an uncover the identify of a crazed murderer, Blade does not particularly like what he sees about himself and his dysfunctional family. Still, he has a bomber to catch with little time remaining so he must stop his nightly drinking and his introspective outlook to seek out the killer.

ANGEL TAPE is a well written, extremely exciting novel, starring a new anti-hero, performing a heroic task. The story line is action packed and, for the most part, moves forward rapidly. However, Blade's personal life, though needed for a motive, tends to drag the tale a bit. Readers, who enjoy thrillers, should skim through those passages, because overall David Keily has written a remarkably exhilarating police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

"In Valerio's hand, Anita Garibaldi emerges as the courageous but vulnerable woman from southern Brazil, whose singular and precious spirit was caught in the times. 'Anita Garibaldi' is a romance discovered in history's embrace. Valerio creates the Brazilian ethos in its emerald presence as the brillian nerve in Garibaldi's brave but short time. This biography has a texture like a Renoir film, broad and expansive, swimming alog in voluble seas."

--A. Weaver, Simmons College

"Anthony Valerio's genre-crossing biography provides unique insight into Anita Garibaldi's short, glorious life. Valerio writes with a novelist's dedication to character and an historian's dedication to the past."

Janet R. Jacobson, Director, Center for Research on Women, Barnard College

I haven't had time for more than a brief review of both volumes, but since our family from Derrylehan, Donegal, is descended from the O'Daughertaighs of Inshowen, this work is a treasure of infomation of which I have long known but now for the first time have had access to in an excellent translation. I have traced all references to the O'Dohertys in both volumes, but have not yet had time to trace the grandmother's McMahans of Fermanaugh. These books are a big help to anyone wanting to understand the culture of Ireland from the 11th to the 17th century.

A very impressive work, in 2 volumes, hardbound, with four color frontis and the almost forgotten original map of Irish Family locations. The fold out map is about 20 x 25 and is the best of the genre. The Annals by the Four Masters are perhaps the most noted source in Irish history and this was the first translation into English (1846). The formal text is complete from the 12th to the 17th century. In addition, the annotations cover Irish history from the earliest times. We have been waiting for this edition to be published ! (note that Connellans translation preceeded that of O'Donovan.) Helpful index to the old map has been added for the first time. These Annals are in the English language. A few pages have some age markings on them from the original, and it remains a magnificent set of books. All in all, this is one of a kind, with a distinctive color frontis, some celtic lettering, and a map that has been out of print for over 150 years . If you have been waiting for the Annals as we have,
this is a real treat. Connellan, was a leading gaelic scholar, and this first ever translation laid the groundwork for all that would follow in the field.

From 1347 to 1354, a Roman notary and budding antiquarian, Cola di Rienzo, led a revolution in Rome that riveted the attention of papal Avignon imperial Prague, and royal Naples, and for a short time restored the city to the center of what Giuseppe Toffanin once called "the century without Rome." Musto's rich and detailed treatment of Roman society, the fabric of the city, the frustrations of its absent popes, and its thuggish barons wonderfully illuminates 14th-century Rome, much as the late Robert Brentano's "Rome before Avignon" (CH, Oct. '74) illuminated 13th-century Rome. But the center is Cola - the antiquarian, Christian moralist of the buono stato, and apocalyptic visionary strongly influenced by spiritual Franciscan apocalypticism. Musto (co-director, History E-Book Project) deftly handles his often-elusive sources, wringing from them a far more reliable, but no less exciting, picture of the notary and his world than those of writers and artists from Petrarch to Richard Wagner. This splendid study of Cola's life and the forces he encountered, manipulated, and was destroyed by is as definitive, learned, and eloquent as one could hope for, and will long remain the master study of this complex figure and his times. Summing Up: Essential. All levels and collections. - E. Peters, University of Pennsylvania

[A] pleasure to read, for Musto has compiled a comprehensive history of the life of an intriguing man who with his words and deeds captivated the imagination not only of the Romans in his day, but also of popes and kings, a Holy Roman emperor, and above all one of Italy's finest poets. As an orator and statesman, Cola di Rienzo embodied the spirit of an age--a "new age" of politics, pursuing justice and peace, shot-through with aspirations and limitations; and his story truly makes for "an endlessly fascinating tale" Apocalypse in Rome constitutes the best new full-length manuscript (in English) in almost a century devoted to a serious historical study of the life and times of Cola di Rienzo. It is?based on "all the available sources" associated with "Rienzo, his Rome and its dealings with [the papacy in] Avignon." In addition, this book draws heavily upon recent studies of the spiritual and intellectual currents, social hopes and turmoil, and factious politics of medieval Rome and the Italian principalities in the mid-1300s. Its aim is, "to understand Cola di Rienzo in his own time and place and in the terms that he and his contemporaries saw him and his work for the revival of Rome.? Future scholars and students of Cola di Rienzo, Trecento Rome, and the Avignon Papacy in the time of Pope Clement VI will surely be indebted to Musto for his work.

I stumbled upon this book by chance in a library, opened it, skimmed through the first paragraph, and immediately set myself to the task of reading it in entirety. The writing is clear and concise - Panossian's intelligent prose illuminates the past, without pages and pages of elaboration that one might expect to find in a book that covers roughly 2500 years of history.

It is heavily researched, containing quotes from at least one hundred total sources. Moreover, towards the end of the book, which covers the period from the 1965 commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Soviet Armenia to the 1988 Nagorno-Kharabagh movement, there are good number of quotes from personal interviews that the author conducted, including several Catholicoses, politicians, and various Armenian ideologues.

The notes to the main text make up roughly one-third of the book and contain some interesting facts. For example, the title "King of Armenia," from the Cilician Kingdom that fell in 1375, eventually passed to the House of Savoy in Italy. That title was proclaimed by the Savoys until 1946, when Italians voted to abolish the monarchy and replace it with a rupublic.

This is an excellent book on Armenian history, with an emphasis on nationalism and what exactly makes a nation a nation.

The book is very well written, but clearly the value of this book lies beyond its readability this is an original piece of work that is complete in the sense that it covers more of the evolution of the "Armenian identity" than meets the eye. For instance the historic fact driven discussions on the Armenian identity goes to the core of the current political issues of modern day Armenia. The book builds a useful bridge between Armenian history, politics and sociology.
If you have ever asked yourself what is an Armenian then you should read this book. I read it twice and it hit me at some point that I was in the process of discovering what it is to be an Armenian.
IMHO the author is fairly balanced and unbiased about Armenian issues.