Ireland Books

In this exquisitely written book, you get the history of thirteen generations of a family who brought Western Europe out of the cultural darkness of their time, the city of Florence to the pinnacle of its glory, and the art of masters like Michelangelo and Botticelli to the world.
Young starts his Prologue with: "In the 5th century storm upon storm out of the dark North swept away in a great deluge of barbarism all the civilization of the western half of the Roman Empire", and lays the foundation for how the Medici came to power in the 15th century, a power that lasted nearly 350 years.

There are chapters on the palaces, the art, and biographies of the most prominent members of the family, starting with Giovanni di Ricci (1360-1428), and ending with Anna Maria Ludovica (1667-1743). The longest of the histories is on Catherine de Medici, with all its fascinating intrigue, and my favorite is the chapter on Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), which also includes the short life of his brother Giuliano (1453-1478).

This has been a cherished book since childhood, when I loved it for its black and white illustrations; most of them are sublime portraits by artists like Bronzino and Raphael, and I fell in love with Botticelli's rendition of the above-mentioned Giuliano, mesmerized by the beauty of this painting (Plate VI). Michelangelo sculpted Giuliano for his tomb (Plate XXV), posed gracefully seated, wearing a breastplate, and also used his likeness for the famous statue of David. There is a difference in how Giuliano is represented by these two masters, but historians have noted that Michelangelo's interpretation is most like its subject.
It has copious notes, a wonderful fold-out Genealogical Tree, and a list of Authorities Consulted. For anyone interested in this era of history and the extraordinary Medici family, this book, though written many decades ago, tells its story in a fluid and riveting style, and is great reading.

What Young has written is two dozen interesting and relavent biographies that takes place in some of the more interesting times and places in history, remarkably tied together through a single family. He does not delve deeply into anything but art, and yet he has not writen one of those history books of everything at everytime that teach you nothing. Now note that this book is very long and has chapters that might be worth skipping (his descriptions of paintings that you can't see), but if you want to at least be introduced to the dissolution of the catholic church, the growth of objective thinking, the reformation, the rise of monarchies and standing armies, the birth of scientific thought, some really interesting characters, and, more importantly, how they all tie together, than I can not recommend this book highly enough.

The book is a brief history of medieval Ireland. It covers the times from the prehistoric times to the fifteenth century. However, brief does not mean superficial. The author chooses some subjects he is interested in and discusses them trying to be impartial - from many different points of view. He does not try to describe the past in detail, but rather to point out the most important moments, problems and aspects in Irish history. Richter also poses some questions significant from the point of view of a contemporary person some of which remain open.
The book is suitable for beginners as it is quite short and written in a comprehensible way as well as for people truly interested in the matter thanks to reliable bibliography record and references. It helps to understand the unusual political organization and the complicated and quite uncommon social structure of the Island in the middle ages. Obviously, history of medieval Ireland was greatly determined by the history of church, that is why the book deals mainly with the church's history, which was not less interesting in Ireland than political history. It is a very good book for a great start.

The book is a brief history of medieval Ireland. It covers the times from the prehistoric times to the fifteenth century. However, brief does not mean superficial. The author chooses some subjects he is interested in and discusses them trying to be impartial - from many different points of view. He does not try to describe the past in detail, but rather to point out the most important moments, problems and aspects in Irish history. Richter also poses some questions significant from the point of view of a contemporary person some of which remain open.
The book is suitable for beginners as it is quite short and written in a comprehensible way as well as for people truly interested in the matter thanks to reliable bibliography record and references. It helps to understand the unusual political organization and the complicated and quite uncommon social structure of the Island in the middle ages. Obviously, history of medieval Ireland was greatly determined by the history of church, that is why the book deals mainly with the church's history, which was not less interesting in Ireland than political history. It is a very good book for a great start.

Norman Cantor's book is a fascinating collection of a very diverse and pivotal period in history. The Middle Ages, for Cantor, extend from the year 312 (the advent of the first Christian Roman Emperor, signaling in many respects the end of the Classical Age) to the year 1517, the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation, another key paradigm shift in the world. This is reader largely of pieces contemporary for the Middle Ages - there is some commentary provided, but the bulk of the task of presenting the Middle Ages rests upon the texts themselves, most translated anew into English by Cantor and other scholars.

This is also a Western civilisation reader - the Middle Ages is of a time as a well as of a place. The geography is Western Europe, from Ireland to Germany, from Scotland and Scandanavia to Italy and Spain. This was the land of Latin Catholicism, pollinated occasionally by Islamic culture from the south and Byzantine Christianity from the east, but largely undisturbed in its development. This culture represents a system of ideas political, religious and otherwise that formed much of the basis for modern Western culture, whose dominance in the world today is, for better or worse, unmistakable.

Cantor's anthology of 100 key texts is meant to simply the task of determining what is worthwhile reading from this period. Primary texts from the Middle Ages, so defined as comprising more than a thousand years, would include literally thousands of volumes - the output of writers such as Augustine alone could take a lifetime to read. Cantor arranges key texts topically, according to certain classifications - Nobility (including the primary families of the period, a sort of Social Register of royal and landed persons who controlled most of what would be considered state power), Church (the hierarchy and the overall institution), and the Middle Class (yes, there was a Middle Class, both urban and rural, that included knights, gentry, artisans and the like). Taking these classifications, Cantor arranges first texts that show them in as isolated a form as possible, then looks at the ways they interact with each other. The final portions of the text include works that look at problems and crises, and ends with documents of resolution, pacification and incorporation.

This is no mere chronology of texts - the emphasis here is on developing the patterns of society over time in the different strata. Literary works utilised include Beowulf, the Song of Roland, El Cid, the works of Dante, Chaucer, and Malory. Church writers from Augustine, Anselm, Bernard and Aquinas are combined with political writings from those such as Petrarch, Erasmus, and various anonymous documents and letters.

There are some real stunning pieces here - Bernard Gui's Inquisitor's Manual, Maimonides' reflections on Christianity (and one of his radical followers trying to explain why Jewish sex is preferable to Christian sex - something that must be read to be believed!), an account of the murder of Thomas Becket, and more.

Take and read!

When I first purchased this book through a mail order book club I was very dubious about ever reading it. It looked very uninteresting. But like the saying goes you can't judge a book by it's cover! And it's true this book has introduced me to so many other medieval authors that it's impossible to count them all. If it had not been for Norman Cantor I would have lost out on a lot of good Medeival reading! Thanks Mr. Cantor.

Matt Matsuda's uncanny historical imagination has achieved something no modern historian, French or foreign has been able to do: an analysis not only of the key moments of France's modern history, but also their hold on the popular imagination. He seems to realise that there can't be peace this year

From the outset, the reader of Matt Matsuda's The Memory of the Modern notes a departure from traditional historical texts. Matsuda begins his study of memory with a powerful set of images which serve to illicit historical memories, and set the stage for his foray into the cultural manifestations of memory in France at the fin de siecle. Matsuda calls his approach a general history owing to the familiar topics of politics, economics, cultural and social developments, and by limiting his focus to images from the Paris Commune of 1870 to the outbreak of continental war in 1914. The novelty of Matsuda's work stems from the modernistic framework of memory which the author uses to adeptly weave together the many disparate locus of memory and history into a coherent narrative. From monuments to mnemonic devices, from the Tango to scientific testimony, from the cinema to the stock market trading floor, Matsuda traverses the cultural landscape of late nineteenth-century France. This calvalcade of diverse memories presented by the author challenges traditional history by obviating the use of a sequential narrative.

Starting from Braudel's call for histoire totale, through Yates, Bergson, Nora and others, Matsuda argues for the centrality of memory in history. For Matsuda, memory in education is revealed when "a child pronouncing Latin grammer manifested the living soul of the ancients by stirring up the timeless power of language," while memory and criminality evinces itself as "an atavistic criminal, a living prehistoric relic, imprinted in his body with the savage traits of his ancestors." Even the Tango, when viewed through the prism of memory history, demonstrates that " a fashionable dance [can be regarded] as both glittering entertainment and a pagan rite to the passions of the body...".

Armed with new terminology Matsuda next defines modernity and the apparent acceleration of memory and history. Technological innovations produced a cultural shift in memory and the perception of the past equal to the shift from oral to written traditions. Photographic and phonographic inventions "exteriorized" memory, challenging the perceived inviolable nature of time. In addition, technology and the new view of memory formed a novel role for history.

Positivism in history stressed the scientific approach to research and writing, empirical data, and the certainty of historical truth. The incorporation of memory into historical study invalidates the positivist formula for historians. Postmodernist histories in the same vein as Matsuda demonstrate (as he argues) that "history as a positivist or liberatory narrative gives way to a history of mnemonic traces...the past is not a truth upon which to build, but a truth sought." Viewed in such a manner, the individual images which Matsuda focuses upon each bolster his arguement for the re-historicization of memory while also standing alone as critical memory objects of the fin de siecle.

Thus the varied themes expounded upon by Matsuda, by the nature of his memory approach, fuse together to form a valued addition to the emerging field of memory history. The "constellation of memory places" charted by the author represents a step further in the evolution of this new historiography. The historian Patrick Hutton has argued that Matsuda's approach, as well as that of other memory specialists, "signifies a powerful reaffirmation of history's possibility as an art." If we accept this notion then perhaps we can also speculate on a future of hisoriography of a less dichotomous nature (battling between history as science or art) but rather a dialectical relationship--a reconciliation of science and art in the spirit of the Renaissance. For much in the same way Renaissance artists fused the new science of perspective with the aesthetics of art, history could benefit by integrating the critical and rational objectivity of science with the novel approach inherent in the art of memory.

Thank you to Celia Brown for her collection of poetry Mending the Skies. The reader gets a good idea of "mending" the body and the soul. The soft mists of Ireland run through Brown's poetry and her nursing background, too, is embedded in her words. I especially enjoy re-reading "Forget-me-nots." The poem lets the reader into a unique family, as all families are, and also provides an introduction to the nurse to be. A must read.

Celia Brown, in her first book of poetry, shows the Irish gift of using common words as if they were newly minted, leading us to a fresh reconsideration of their sound and meaning. When Brown writes of cows "knee deep in May with grassy June before them," or of a lake near her childhood home being "three hearts of water,/a stem of land afloat/in the tweed of fields," we know we are in the presence of a poet who can refresh our perception of the world. "Mending the Skies" takes us through Brown's life story, from childhood by Galway Bay, to nurse's training in England, to marriage and emigration to the U.S., where she now lives by another famous bay--Cape Cod. Her poems mingle an exquisite poetic sensibility with tough common sense and a sometimes bawdy sense of humor. To read them is to be left in no doubt that she belongs to the grand tradition of Irish poets.

This difficult-to-find personal history of Ireland's fight for freedom and its legendary leader is well worth searching for. Written by a man who was an intimate of Michael Collins and a trusted conspiratorial comrade in the struggle against England, it has fascinating details about the day-to-day operations of a guerrilla war and the nervewracking lifestyle of the on-the-run participants. Beaslai, although a close friend and admirer of Collins, nonetheless gives a relatively objective picture of the man and his leadership, and this account, more than any other I have read, reflects the perspective and immediacy of a real participant in the history-making events it recounts. This sets it apart and makes it a highly recommended read for anyone truly interested in Irish history.

Written in 1924, only two years after Collins' death, this two-volume biography is as enthralling and relevant as it was when first published. Beaslai actually owes his own life to Collins, who planned and carried out his jail-break. This fact however does not cloud his judgement of Collins. This is the authoritive biography of Collins. You can be sure that all of Collins' more recent biographers have a copy! Buy it!!!

This atlas is great if you are planning to drive around Great Britain. It includes helpful blow-ups of each city for orientation and excellent detail. We traveled around Great Britain for 2 weeks and never got lost!

I recently did a 12 day driving tour of southern Ireland with this atlas as a companion and I never got lost. Very clear, and well laid out. I'm going to use it again for a trip to England and Scotland in the fall. If you going to Great Britain or Ireland, you can't go wrong with this guide. So enjoy, stay left, and. . ."mind the pedestrians."

This book is gives very good insight into local Irish folklore. Written by a local who grew up in a time when the fairy folk were taken very seriously, this book is certainly hard to put down.

A Friend found this book for me in the childrens section of our city library, but this is not a childrens book, but that seems to be the typical attitude though. Dermot Mac Manus writes very poetically, which is not that suprising considering he was good friends with William B Yeats. This Book was used as one of the main source books for Patrick Harpur when he wrote Daimonic Reality. I will probably never look at trees in the same way after reading the section on Fairy Trees, which is great.

The author defines fairies at the begining so if your expecting a book solely on the peter pan type of fairy you may be disapointed, as he point out they come in all sizes and to add to that, there not all malevolent or benevolent for that matter... All in all it was quite eerie at points, but also very romantic and peaceful to read at night.

Montecuccoli was actually the very first military intellectual in the modern world of firearms. After his death in 1680, Montecuccoli's military works were published posthumously. Some of them had been held by the Hapsburgs as state secrets throughout his entire life. For decades afterwards, Montecuccoli was just as popular as Clausewitz is today. His works are published in almost every Europen language except English. This is the ONLY publication which contains a work of Montecuccoli in an English translation. Montecuccoli was a product of the Enlightement and his military theories refelct this influence. Montecuccoli was the "real thing" in the 17th Century - a nobleman, an expert cavalryman, a prisoner of war, a military strategist, a victorious general, a diplomat, a military theoretician - a man of many military roles. If you want first hand knowledge of how military theory actually got started in the modern world - then get your hands on Montecuccoli !!

Montecuccoli was an Italian officer in the Thirty Years War serivng in the Imperial Army. He draws on his own vast experience as well as his readings of the ancients to develop a scientific system of warfare. Everything from how to scout the enemy, set up camp, speak to the troops, utilize the different forces at your disposal, conduct a pursuit or retreat is all covered in detail.

After reading this closely, It seems that many of the myths that have developed around the tactics of the Thirty Years War -especially the role of firepower cavalry-may have started with some misreadings of Montecuccoli. These misreadings are not to hard to trace back to this book.

The book actually consists of three parts. First, a well researched bio of Montecuccoli, written by Barker. Second, a translation of Montecuccoli's Military Intellectual and Battle. Third, descriptions of several major battles of the 30 Years war. The descriptions rely on some old sources, especially the Breitenfeld and Lutzen battles, but are still well done overall.

Reccomended for historians, both amateur and professional, and wargamers of the period.

Anne Campbell looks at why females are too easily presumed to be merely passive receivers of winning males' sperm.

Considering the enormous burden of motherhood and a mothers need for resources for both herself and her limited number of potential offspring it should follow that females will compete with each other for resources and there will be differential reproductive success amongst females.

But it is also essential for females to preserve their own health throughout their reproductive lifetime so open, physical aggression is not normally an option. (It is an option for males who can maximise their number of offspring in a brief spell of copulatory access to a number of females.)

So female competition is indirect and low-level harrassment except when the mother needs to show full aggression to directly protect her offspring.

Campbell discusses hormone studies - particularly serotonin and dopamine - suggesting that different levels of these in the sexes provide a braking system on female emotions and impulsive behaviour but less so on males. Hence greater male impulsivity, risk-taking, violence and even suicide. Only the male had the potential for reproductive gains via this weaker braking system.

Campbell also makes many more points about females and males such as the rarity of male parental care in nature and the possible reasons for monogamy eg the female trades sex for the protection of one male against numerous other males who may also be infanticidal. She also discusses female crime and female friendship.

And regarding modern women she points out that there is nothing new about women working except that women have to leave their children to do so.

This is a solid, wide-ranging book providng sound evolutionary reasons for women's psychology and behaviour. She includes the important points about variation within the sexes and the overlap of the sexes. But by considering the reality of how males and females achieved reproductive success in different ways during evolution she explains much about the differences between the sexes today.

Highly recommended.

Quite simply, I am impressed with the value and scope of this manuscript. It is the most influential piece of work written about the mind and behavior of women to appear in history (and yes that is a bold statement, read it you won't be disappointed). I say kudos for taking on a topic of such magnitude, and bringing to light the fact that women too have an evolutionary past. This book is loaded with insight about women's behaviors such as social aggression, friendship, love and marriage. And far from offering simple opinions, the ideas and explanations are backed up by a stagering mound of scientific data. Whether you are an academic or the average Jane, this book is bound to be a classic read for anyone interested in the unique behaviors of women.