Ireland Books

Carson takes the reader on a journey deep into the very heart of Irish Music - the musician at his most timelessness. Don't pick this up expecting a scholarly approach to Irish music. This is an amazing insight into the music and the soul of the music as performed by an Irish musician. Carson even shows the little quirks of daily living that help to give birth to such a personable music. I love Irish music, but am a jazz pianist by musical trade. I highly recommend this to any and all musicians who are searching for their soul in music, especially those in jazz. It is a very moving and thought provoking work.

I've been a Celtic music fan for many years, long before it began to turn up on the New Age charts. While I don't mean to knock that genre (which has given some splendid traditional musicians -- e.g., the O'Domhnaills of Nightnoise and Alasdair Fraser of Skyedance -- the wider listenership they deserve), traditional Celtic music is an altogether grittier, funkier breed.
Ciaran Carson brings a poet's sensibility to the performer's-eye perspective of Irish music, from last night's fun to the next morning's rude awakening. Irish music isn't simply the tunes themselves; it's the old-timers who performed them, the instruments they played, the pints of Guinness, the choking smoke in the bar and the pouring rain outside, and Carson conveys the whole experience admirably. It's almost as good as being there.

Belfast writer, fluter, raconteur and unreliable witness takes us into the subterranean world of craic agus chaos as he attempts to surf the web of the perfect session experience. Part nostalgic interrogtation of his own relationship with traditional music, part exploration of the Ulster breakfast: this book is a close as it gets to the cameraderie and catharsis of an all night music bash. A work of astute fiction that might never be true but is always believable.

At the end we are left wondering was this one large joke or simply a witty Northern oxymoron? A book to be revisited when the frost keeps us away from session, pub or our inner fiddler.

Excellent is too narrow a word to describe the sweep of the narrative.

Sean Laffey Irish Music Magazine Dublin

A skilled and formidable poet and chronicler of his native Belfast, Carson here blends his power over words into an evocation of how Irish music makes the impact it does. Seemingly an impossible task to attain on the page, but his decades as a musician allow him to capture the spirit behind the music. As they say, it's not how you read the notes, but how you hear them.

His chapter headings refer to various titles of Irish songs, and I enjoyed his rendering of differing reasons (or lack of) for how various tunes get attached to specific names. A much better book than "Round Ireland with a Tin Whistle" by David Wilson for its ability to convey the feel of how music changes with every playing, and how fluid the communication between players can be in a seisuin.

Any book Carson writes deserves a read, whether his version of Dante's Inferno, his prose-poem-fiction of late, his explorations of his city's past, or his crafted if learned verse.
He opens up a bit more here than in some of his earlier works, and the glimpses into the world he lives in between nights playing makes for intriguing scenes.

This book gives an incredibly detailed description of Latvia in World War II, but includes events immediately preceding the war and those that briefly follow. The text is very well organized and has pages and pages of endnotes. Anyone who has heritage from Latvia -or Estonia and Lithuania- and is interested in this critical period of Latvian history, would find this book about as informative as anything available in English.

This is a very interesting book, particularly for those of us not overly familiar with the Baltic states during this period. That area of Europe is not normally in the forefront for most Americans interested in the continent's history, and this book helps bring it into clearer focus. Since I am typical in that sense, it is helpful in understanding the tragedy of those smaller countries trapped between Germany and the Soviet Union before and during the war.

I know the author personally and find his treatment of the subject to be fair and interesting. I would recommend it to those interested in this area.


If there is any criticism to be directed at this book, perhaps it could be said that more familiarization with the area of the Baltics might help the general reader grasp the material more easily.

Latvia is a small country on the Baltic that has the disadvantage of being a tiny country inbetween two giant and agressive military powers, Germany and Russia. After having a very difficult time during World War I, Latvia became as an independent country in 1921.

Latvia attempted to remain neutral during World War II, but in 1940 Latvia was occupied by Russia. In 1941 the Germans came and established a puppet regime that acted in their normal manner executing large numbers, including some 70,000 jews and forcing others into German military service. In 1944 the Russians came back through driving out the Germans only to begin their own reign of terror which was to last for fifty years.

This is a supurbly researched description of a small part of the life in a small segment of the Eastern front during the war.

It appears that this publisher is beginning to publish a series of books on the actions of individual countries during the Second World War. If this is true, it is to be welcomed since this book on Latvia and a companion book on France are excellent.

Valdis Lumans' volume on Latvia in World War II provides a thorough and impartial account of that Baltic nation's experiences before, during and immediately after the war, along with an excellent bibliographic essay on the historical literature on that topic. Latvia in World War II, intended as a starting point for the literature that is sure to emerge on Latvia as result of the opening of new archival resources in the early 1990s (with the collapse of the Soviet Union), is a well-written synthesis and analysis of the secondary literature on Latvia's history during the war and an excellent resource for scholars, teachers, and members of the general public interested in eastern Europe in the 20th century.

This account of Latvia's fortunes in the war years is strengthened by Lumans' own poignant connection to Latvia and its history. Lumans' father, a former Latvian legionnaire, was declared, as were thousands of other Latvians who for various reasons fought on the German side during the war, a "displaced person" after the war and was provided refuge in the U.S., along with his family, including Lumans. The senior Lumans and many among the thousands of other exiles who settled mainly in Anglo-American countries including the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Australia "carried with them their prewar images of Latvia," which they "passed on to their children and children's children as the latter grew up as Latvians far from Latvia." Lumans' parents brought with them a sense of nationalistic pride in and nostalgia for their homeland and its former leader Karlis Ulmanis, hatred of Stalin and the Soviet Union, and a perception of Hitler and the Nazis as liberators of Soviet- occupied Latvia. It was not until Lumans entered college at the University of Florida that he gained a new perspective on events in the Baltic States during the war, and his interest and determination to, as he puts it, reconcile myth and reality, was a factor in his decision to take on this scholarly endeavor.

Latvia in World War II begins with an overview of Latvia and its cultural, political and economic history from the 12th to the 20th centuries. Latvia's relationship with Russia and Germany after World War I is covered in this chapter, and the conflicted nature of those relationships is captured in a song sung by Latvian soldiers, "We'll beat those Reds, and after that the Blue-Grays [Germans]." The struggle to clearly identify their national enemies continued into the World War II era and beyond. Lumans describes the newly independent country's armed forces, foreign policy and relationship with its neighbors in the early 20th century, and makes clear that what Latvians desired above all else was to "be left alone to follow its own destiny."

A year after Hitler took power in Germany, Latvia also moved from a democratic to autocratic model with a coup that brought Karlis Ulmanis to power. The Ulmanis dictatorship lasted six years, until the Soviets occupied the country in 1940. The era was characterized by imprisonment of political enemies, censorship of the press (which led to Latvian ignorance of the growing threat of Soviet and German aggression), economic centralization (and "Latvianization"), and repression of minorities. Ulmanis' economic and political priorities did not include support of the military, and therefore the country found itself unprepared as World War II loomed. Further, military leaders and civilians alike had difficulty determining which country posed the greater threat to the tiny nation: the Soviet Union or Germany.

The next few chapters of Latvia in World War II describe the manner in which Latvia became a victim of both Soviet and German aggression and political maneuvering as World War II broke out. Even though Latvia attempted to maintain its neutrality, Hitler's ambitions for Eastern Europe, his pact with Stalin, and the Soviets' determination to control the Baltic region meant Latvians had little control over their own destiny. Ulmanis and members of the Latvian Cabinet allowed the Soviets to occupy the country in 1940 without a fight, which, as Lumans points out, was also the response of other European leaders faced with the "threat of overwhelming force." By summer 1940 the Soviets had put a government in place, and Latvia became the 14th Soviet republic in the USSR.

Among the strengths of Latvia in World War II are Lumans' detailed descriptions of daily life in Soviet- and German-occupied Latvia. By clearly describing Sovietization, for instance, the reader gains a more thorough understanding of the dramatic changes and tremendous difficulties Latvians endured under both periods of Soviet control of Latvia. Under Soviet rule during 1940 and 1941 (the "Year of Terror") Latvians endured economic restructuring, political imprisonments and executions, deportations to Soviet GULAGs, and outright murders. It is no wonder that some Latvians saw the German invasion of summer 1941 as the arrival of the liberators. Others, on the other hand, fled the Germans and went to Russia.

Under German occupation (mid-1941 to mid-1944), Nazi leaders' competing interests meant that Latvians' desire to once again become independent were encouraged by Germany while at the same time Germany milked the country for military personnel and other resources. Worse, as result of German occupation thousands of Latvians were deported, put in concentration camps or lost their lives in other ways. Lumans addresses the difficult issues of Latvian complicity in Nazi efforts not only to dominate Europe but to eradicate minorities, including Jews. At the same time, he guides the reader through the complexities of Latvian social and political goals during the war, making clear that Latvians' actions were motivated by a variety of objectives and/or fears. The excellent chapter on Latvia and the Holocaust could stand alone, useful for example as student readings in courses on 20th century Europe, World War II, or other European or world history classes.

Lumans' expertise on Germany during World War II and the Nazi military machine no doubt contributes to the strength of the chapters on the Latvian Legion and other Latvian military actions during the war. The detailed chapters on the role of Latvians in service to the German and Soviet causes and as partisans underscore the diverse perspectives and allegiances held by Latvians during the war. Thousands of Latvian military men died in battle, many of them convinced that service to the German cause would guarantee an independent Latvia in the future.

As the Soviet army forced a German retreat in 1944 and 1945, Latvia once again became a pawn to larger nations' ambitions, and the Soviets reoccupied the country, once again annexing it into the Soviet Union. When the war was officially over in Europe in 1945, Latvians saw no reason to celebrate, for they were now at the mercy of another conquering force, one that most Latvians considered far worse than the Germans. With the war's end, the Baltic States were among the few countries whose pre-war independent status was not restored.

Rather than returning them to Latvia and sure punishment by the Soviets, the U.S. declared hundreds of thousands of former members of the Latvian Legion and other Latvians held by the Allies to be Displaced Persons and given refuge in other countries. Lumans offers an engaging discussion of the issue of culpability and criminality on the part of Latvians, as well as the steps that led to decisions about the fate of Latvian laborers, refugees and former soldiers who were part of the Latvian Diaspora. Latvia once again became independent with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the last 20th century, and Lumans describes the challenges this nation faces as result of a dramatically altered population, economy, environment and culture.

This is a particularly well-researched and written volume that is accessible to a broad audience. Lumans' style is engaging and his provision and analysis of sources on Latvia in the war years is a treasure to scholars of World War II and Twentieth-century European history in general.

The Great Book of Gaelic brings together the work of more than 200 poets,visual artists and calligraphers from Scotland and Ireland to create a major contemporary artwork in the form of a visual anthology.
Leading poets and writers were selected to choose 100 Gaelic poems from almost every century from the 6th to the 21st.It includes the earliest Gaelic poetry in existance and represents the greatest Gaelic poets and their poetry about comedy,tragedy,love death,spiritual and the bawdy.
Then, 100 visual artists were chosen to interpret the poems . Furthermore a team of calligraphers and a topograpgher worked with the artists to integrate the key lines of poetry and the artist's images.
This book presents an outstanding collection pf poetry and art of Gaelic culture from the 6th century to the present times.
It took an amazing effort coupled with much assistange to bring this collection to fruition. It was published in 2002 and while it is still available in small numbers. It is already being offered by mdealers at prices many times exceeding the origional price. If you are a lover of Gaelic poetry and art,you will be enchanted with this beautiful book as soon as you see it;and want to acquire a copy of your own ,while you can.
Each poem and picture is presented on 2 facing pages. A Supplementary Text includes complete poems in Gaelic as well as English. A Biographies Section covers all the artist involved including photographs and their backgrounds. A detailed Index is also included.The paper quality,printing,and construction is excellent. It is fairly large at
8 3/4" X 10 1/4" X 1" and 321 pages.

This is to clarify the contents of this elegant "Great Book of Gaelic." The previous two reviewers may be misleading-- the book is not only Irish but Scots Gaelic in its verse and illuminations-- and the other Celtic languages are not represented. It plays off of the co-editor Theo Dorgan's work with the earlier "Great Book of Ireland" in format and intent. This new Leabhar Mór commemorates 1500 years of cross-channel cultural connection between Scotland and Ireland. The 100 poems in the Irish and Scots Gaelic languages (here with translations) were nominated by poets (both as judges and contributors) and span from the 6th c CE to today. Fifty artists each from Ireland and Scotland were commissioned to use graphic media (calligraphy, typography, collage, photography, and all the varieties of ink, pen, brush, and paint) to enhance and play off the verses. The lines of the poems, in fact, are partially inscribed on each of the artworks: this alone links the hundred poems and representations to each other.

The themes lament and celebrate. The work emerges from a period of hope with the peace in the North of Ireland symbolizing a reapproachment with the warring sides, each of whom in Ulster drew on Gaelic images and rhetoric in their territorial struggle. Also, such efforts as the Colmcille Project seek to re-orient the perspective of not so much British as Celtic isles and nations in the North Atlantic: this book carries such a mission into the realms of the aesthetic and the visual. The attention devoted to English, Scots Gaelic, and Irish, therefore, balances these three living sources of the words and ideas imagined here.

Essays on the poetic traditions, the art, and capsule bios of the writers and artists enhance this handsome volume. The originals were displayed in exhibition before being bound on handmade paper. A website also shows a sample of the work; the BBC also gave radio and TV coverage to this millennial project celebrating Gaelic history and identity. The content rewards close study, often with a magnifying glass, as you'd view a medieval manuscript. The scope recalls such disparate monuments as the Apocalypse Spanish texts of Beatus of Liebana (themselves inspiration for Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose"), the ancient portrait of a Roman matron, fashion shoots and gallery photography, iconography, and doubtless dozens more influences I lack the erudition to compare.

If you are interested in modern Irish poetry this a beautiful and lyrical selection of some of the best writing from Ireland's past and present. The poetry spans all the depths meant to be explored through the medium of poetry and the artwork accompanying the poetry is equally moving. This is a unique marriage between calligraphers, artists and poets.

Cho h-àlainn! Cha b' urrainn dhomh leugh leabhar bhàrdachd nas fheàrr! Dè barrachd b' urrainn dhomh mu dheidhinn e? 'S miann leam gum bitheadh an Ghaeilge, y Gaelg, is a' Ghàidhlig nas làidire 'gus nas motha 'san t-saoghail, cuideachd Cymreig, Kernuack, is Breizhoneg. Uill, creid mi gun, le seo leabhar, bidh rudan nas fheàrr! Éirinn, Mannin, agus Alba gu bràgh! ...Agus Cymru, Kernow, is Breizh cuideachd! Suas le na ceilteach cànannan!(So beautiful! I couldn't read a better book of poetry! What more can I say about it? I wish that Irish, Manx Gaelic, and Scots Gaelic were stronger and bigger in this world, also Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Well, I belive that, with this book, things will be better! Ireland, Isle of Man, and Scotland forever!...and Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany also! Up with the Celtic Languages!)

I have read and re-read this book since buying it 3 years ago. While it is now 9 years old and could use a 2nd edition (for example, the green fees have risen dramatically from those listed), Links of Heaven is still the best golf travel book I have ever read. The historical accounts of some of these courses, and the role of Irish golf architect Eddie Hackett, are engagingly written and utterly charming. Still a great help to anyone planning a golf trip to Ireland.

The best book ever written about Irish Golf. I read this book in preparation for a trip to Ireland last summer and took it along for the trip. The authors clearly love golf and do a great job in helping to explain why Irish golf is so special. If you only read one book on golf this year, let this one be it. However, after reading the book you might have an uncontrollable desire to make the trip yourself!

This book is a very helpful and unique guide to those who are planning a golfing vacation in Ireland. There is very little information like this in the usual travel books. The authors provide discriptions and history of the top 30 courses in Ireland in a very organized easy to read format. (There is information about 100 other courses as well) There is also some information on where to stay, eat, costs and other sites. Only one criticism, I wish there was more! I would like to know more about the nuts and bolts of getting around with golf clubs, some out of the way golf interests and information on unusual golf (not just the famous). However, I must say, I did appreciate the listing of golf tournaments that foreigners can play

Richard Phinney and Scott Whitley have produced the best book on golf in Ireland to date. It's full of first accounts of the Emerald Isles' best courses as well as interesting stories about Irish characters in the world of golf. You'll read it more than once.

As a Lithuanian-American, it's wonderful to finally find an account of my national history that is written in English. This is an academic book, so I find it easier to dip into it rather than read it from cover to cover, but the writing is generally clear and straightforward. For any first-generation Lithuanian-American who wants to remember what they learned long ago during Lithuanian Saturday school, this book is well worth the price.

I heard people praise S. C. Rowell for this book, but spending $100 on a book that dealt only with 50 years of Lithuanian history seemed way too much. However, eventually I bought it -- and that's the best history book I have ever read.

Most histories are just chronological narrative of wars, battles, and other events. What Rowell did was taking extremely scanty historical sources and piecing together a full view of history: wars, diplomacy, succession disputes, religion (paganism vs Catholicism vs Eastern Orthodoxy), culture, etc. and how everything inter-relates. His scholarship is rock-solid and you just pray for a sequel.

It is very different from usual over-generalized histories that are available. This one takes down to the very core of such claims as "Gediminas arranged shrewd marriages for his children." While you can easily find a list of these marriages elsewhere, the real appreciation comes only after reading Rowell's analysis. You can actually start understand what it was like to be sent over to an enemy's son to establish Lithuanian interest in some far-away region. Amazingly, it is done using not empty rhetoric but historical facts and documents.

So go ahead any buy this book. Hopefully, you will also learn how to write histories and conduct academic research.

S. C. Rowell has written an excellent account of the rise of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a pagan empire within Europe that embraced such supposedly "modern" virtues as religious and ethnic tolerance, multiculturalism and multiconfessionalism, although Lithuania's leaders were all pagans who practiced something closer to Hinduism than Christianity, and this at a time when the rest of Europe was winding down from a series of failed cruscades in the Levant and winding up for the domestic cruscades and the Inquisition.

What Rowell fails to touch on is how the Lithuanians managed to defeat the Mongols, who ravaged almost everyone else who stood in their path. In doing so Lithuania gained an empire that stretched from Bessarabia and Bukovina in the south to Estonia and east to the suburbs of modern Moscow. Rowell claims the Lithuanian leadership played a careful and calculated, perhaps cynical game of diplomacy with her rivals in the east and west, Russia and Germany respectively. One wonders if the bane of independent small states and nations in this part of the world, "Spheres of Influence," wasn't started by the Lithuanians themselves in interaction with the Mongols.

The other thing that left me unsatisfied was the lack of clear reasons for the decline of the Lithuanian empire. Traditionally Lithuanians blame Jogaila, or Jagiello as he was known in Krakow, for selling out Lithuanian territorial gains to the Polish after he married their child queen Jadvyga. The truth may also point closer to home than is comfortable for most Lithuanians: perhaps Lithuanians simply learned early what the British and Russians learned much later (and the Americans have yet to really learn): empire costs its masters much more than it does its conquered (i.e. as in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song, they gave it away then).

In any case, Rowell has written an excellent book with fresh and original takes on the entire subject. By actaully living among the Lithuanians of today's Lithuania (he taught at Klaipeda and may still), he has avoided errors almost always taken as gospel in the history of Lithuania as written, ultimately, by a Poland which has never forgiven Lithuania for being an independent entity after Czarist Russia fell and both nations emerged again as something like equals. Strange turn of history it be that people in the west somehow imagine Poland's independence as built of sturdier stuff than Lithuania's, while both nations have undergone almost exactly the same history of conquest, domination and reemergence since their leaders formed the joint kingdom. If the Soviet Union has fallen, does that mean that its juridical rules haven't held good, or are they still binding, if only on academia in the west? That is to ask, is it true to say Soviet Poland was less Soviet than Soviet Lithuania, or is that only a distinction the apparatchiks in Moscow and American campuses are capable of making? Rowell makes you wonder...

This is an extraordinary scholarly work. It clarifies the obscurities and subtleties of the Lithuanian situation in the last decades of official paganism when the Lithuanian state rivaled in geographic extent and ethnic diversity the greatest European nations ever known. The book primarily covers the rise and reign of Gediminas, the grand duke who was most responsible for Lithuania's astonishing growth in the fourteenth century. The subject in English has been covered only in popular and inaccurate general histories by Lithuanians influenced by the politics and mythologizing of the nation's first independence period. The author wrote the book while serving as Professor at the Centre for West Lithuanian and Prussian History at the University of Klaipeda, and it represents the first fruit of Lithuania's second independence in this century. The chapters include information on the importance of the region's peculiar landscape, the economic situation, pagan beliefs and their diplomatic usefulness, the role of Lithuanian princesses in forming marital alliances with Rus'ian and Polish principalities, the exploits of Lithuanian arms in expanding the realm, Gediminas's brilliant campaign in conquering Western Ukraine, its Rus'ian allies against the growing threat of Muscowy, and the attempt to develope a Lithuanian Orthodox Church in Vilnius are fascinating. One can only hope that S. C. Rowell will publish a sequel on the next sixty years of Lithuanian history to include the rise of Gediminas's grandson, the controversial Jogaila Gediminaitis, who became King of Poland-Lithuania, the first federated state in Europe and the largest in its history, Christianized his pagan people, despite their notorious (and admirable) cultural conservatism, and managed, with the help of carefully nurtured alliances first developed by Gediminas, to defeat the Teutonic Order, the military superpower of the day, using a NATO style army, Oriental strategy and technology, and Lithuanian ambush tactics. This book lays the groundwork for understanding the roots of the Jagiellonian dynasty of Poland-Lithuania and its political and philosophical accomplishments, fondly referred to by the present Pope John-Paul in the text of his speech to the UN a few years ago. The book's extensive footnotes, maps, geneological charts, and huge bibliography, to say nothing of the densely informative text, make the book worthwhile to anyone seriously interested in East European history.

Kaspar Hauser is the title article of the November 25th, 1996,issue of German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. DNA investigation, using bloodstains from Kaspar Hauser's clothing, has shown conclusively that he is not related to the house of Baden. Also, a war memorial from Napoleonic times in the remote
Tirolean village of Reith, near Kitzbuehel, has been found to have this name as one of the fallen. The supposition is that
"Kaspar Hauser" was a simpleton from the region who was transported to Nuremberg by soldiers as a practical joke and the pranksters used the name off this monument.
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were the golden era for this sort of thing (see Cardiff Giant, Kensington Runestone, Princess Caraboo, Piltdown Man). You can buy a "dossier" on Kaspar Hauser from Der Spiegel over the internet.

Masson has gone back to original source material (and even discovered some documents long thought lost) to re-examine the story of Kaspar Hauser. With his background in psychology, he was able to analyze the story like no previous writer had, and come to some surprising revelations, not the least of which Kaspar may well have been a member of German royalty, and was quite likely imprisoned and killed for just that reason. Though I gave the book five stars, I do have some minor complaints: 1) Masson is a believer in Recovered Memory Syndrome, 2) he doesn't consider any physiological causes for Hauser's seeming lack of education and his subsequent steep learning curve (Charles Fort, oddly enough, is the only one to present convincing evidence that a bump on the head could have caused temporary amnesia, which then gradually receded as time went on), 3) he doesn't explain why Hauser was released from his imprisonment, especially after so many years, 4) Though he had asked a few pediatricians about the effects of long-term nutritional deficiences (Hauser supposedly subsisted on just bread and water), it is distressing that none of them could tell Masson anything specific (Just for the record, scurvy from Vitamin C deficiency, marasmus and hypoalbuminemic-type PEM (kwashiorkor) from too little protein and other nutrients, and rickets from Vitamin D deficiency, just to name some examples). Still, this book is worth it just for the Introduction alone, and is likely to remain the definitive work on this mysterious child.

Some books are meant to be page turners. When you buy one of those, you put an extra log on the fire, make some hot chocolate, and read till you fall asleep.

That plan of attack will not work with LOST PRINCE. You may as well try to read the complete works of Sigmund Freud in one sitting. Yet LOST PRINCE is as brilliant as it is disturbing. You may stop reading at the end of a chapter, but you will not stop thinking about this book.

The German language has turned Kaspar Hauser into a cliche of sorts. Someone who's vexing and exasperating, yet basically innocent and naive, is called a "Kaspar". German majors at most universities learn only the roughest information about him, generally in terms of his being an interesting case study for how people turn out when they are denied human contact in their formative years.

But Kaspar's story is so much more than that. It is child abuse, political intrigue, good vs. evil, and a murder mystery all rolled into one. When you finish this book, you still cannot tell the bad guys from the good. All you know is that Kaspar Hauser was treated like no human should ever have been treated, and that nothing he could have done would ever justify the inhumanity of the persons who placed him in that dark and cruel prison.

It is therefore a little eerie to realize that all this took place 101 years before Hitler, in a city called Nuremberg.

Kaspar Hauser's life was somewhat different from that of the typical feral child (there's an oxymoron for you). Unlike, say, Victor of Aveyron, Kaspar was deliberately imprisoned for approximately twelve years, beginning from the time he was about 4. At about age 16, Kaspar was suddenly and inexplicably released and set loose to wander the streets of Nuremburg. Anselm Von Ritter Feuerbach took the boy in and treated him kindly even as he observed him closely, keeping a notebook on Kaspar. This notebook is here printed in English for the first time, translated by Jeffrey Masson, who gives a history of Kaspar's life after his release as well. At the age of 19, two men tried to murder Kaspar; a couple of years later, they tried again, stabbing him several times. He died three days later. Why was this done? Apparently the rapid progress Kaspar had made in learning to both speak and write German quite fluently and articulately, and especially the memories that were beginning to come to the surface, posed quite a threat to someone. Masson puts forward for an English speaking audience a theory commonly found in Hauserian scholarship: Kaspar was the crown prince of a small nation, switched at birth at the instigation of one Countess Louisa in favour of her brat. Naturally, both the reputations and positions of quite a few people depended on Kaspar's silence. Masson puts forward many facts to support this theory; it would be well-nigh impossible to doubt that this theory is correct, even though it sounds like one of Grimm's less cosy fairy tales. Intriguing though all this is, however, the fact of Kaspar's confinement looms over the book, making it impossible to get any real enjoyment out of reading it. The description of Kaspar's life in a tiny dungeon is disgusting and disturbing. If you are at all inclined to be emotional, or if your life is not happy right now, I'm not sure you will want to read this book--it can be very upsetting to think about (perhaps that's why it's out of print). But maybe not. On the other hand, those interested in psychology should definitely read this book whether they like it or not--it'll be useful. I would recommend this book very heartily to all if I myself had not been quite so upset by reading it; forget my comments and judge it for yourself.

Rene Chartrand provides in this series an insightful look into the French army of this period, its formations and basic organization as well as the caliber of its troops, with great detail to its unforms which are well illustrated by Eufene Leliepvre.

Truly on an organizational level the French army is quite impressive though its performance a shadow of what it had been under its previous monarch.

This book provides a lot of information about French Colonial and Naval troops that would be very hard to find anywhere else. A must read for any French and Indain War New France reenactors.

All five books in this series are magnificent. What makes them great is that they are not in the usual Osprey fashion. Their is no chronology of dates at the begging taking up space; Chartrand jumps right in with organization details, tactics, equipment, armament, and each regiments uniform distinction as it changed through Louis XV reign. The plates are outstanding. Usually for Osprey their only three figures per plate. Not here, 5 and more a plate. With that number it's not cluttered and doesn't detract from the detail. On a last note, I will never have to buy anything else to help me paint my Seven Year War French figures.

This is an interesting, highly accurate work, as are all of Rene Chartrand's books, which covers a period not usually well-covered, or covered at all. The addition of Maitre Eugene Leliepvre's lively, accurate, and colorful artwork only adds to the value and accuracy.

The early history of French light troops is one of trial and error, fits and starts, that tried to catch up to the excellent light troops of the Austrian army that so troubled the French throughout the early and mid eighteenth century. Here in all their Gallic splendor are the regiments of foreign born hussars, dragoons, uhlans, and whatever else the imaginative, energetic, and not always efficient soldiers thought up to raise and send into the fire in central Europe.

Told in a descriptive and accurate fashion, the book is a must for every afficionado of the period. It is also a very good introduction for the later Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods where the French light troops came into their own and began to dominate battlefields.

The addition of Eugene Leliepvre's superb artwork is a definite plus for the book, and ensures it will be used for years to come. This book belongs on the shelf of every enthusiast of this period and the later Napoleonic and revolutionary periods.

Compiled and edited by Nic Maclellan, Louise Michel: Rebel Lives is the dramatic biography of Louise Michel, the fiery leader of the 1871 Paris Commune, a short-lived workers' government created when the city population rose up to exert its will. Also known as "The Red Virgin", Louise Michel was a rebel who spent much of her life on the run, in exile, in jail, or in danger of being locked in a mental asylum. "Louise Michel" tells the story of her life by directly collecting and editing her own words from her memoirs and the insights of her contemporaries. Her story is presented with her sharp-eyed criticism of a society and an era where the only lucrative trade for a woman was prostitution, and tributes to her life and efforts from such prominent figures as Emma Goldman, Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, and much more.

As the treatment of mental health disorders continues to expand outwards, beyond the domain of psychiatric institutions, the nature and implications of intensified psychiatric intervention is a cause for concern for all of us.

A social worker, teacher, and community activist, Diana Ralph takes on contemporary community mental health systems. In a meticulously researched and highly readable work, the growth and change in the definition and treatment of mental health disorders is subjected to a concerned and scholarly scrutiny.

Ralph finds available theories, from the liberal to the Marxist to the radical antipsychiatry approaches, inadequate in accounting for these changes. Instead, she locates the ideological origins of community psychiatry within the tradition of industrial psychology, and is able to show how its operation is linked to the needs of contemporary industrial management in their efforts to diffuse dissatisfaction and alienation in the workplace.
--- from book's back cover

Kliatt, November 2004

MACLELLAN, Nic (ed): Louise Michel (Rebel Lives) Ocean Books.

Louise Michel. a relatively unknown figure outside of her native France, was an activist, an anarchist, and a fighter against racism who is known principally for her role in the short-lived French Commune in the spring of 1871.

A local rebellion, the Paris Commune was a reaction against the provisional government set up by the French after the defeat of Napoleon III by the Prussian armies in the Franco-Prussian War. Michel, a schoolteacher who had read widely in political theory, was fully embroiled in this brief moment of revolutionary ferment, organizing meetings, writing tracts, speaking, and even firing her gun as a fighter in the ranks.

Deported to New Caledonia at the fall of the Commune. she continued to write; and alone among her fellow deportees, championed the native Kanaks, a local tribe that attempted to rebel against French colonial rule. Back in France, she continued to live as she believed, travelling and speaking for the radical and anarchist causes she promoted.

What makes the Rebel Lives series valuable is its presentation of primary source material once the historical background has been carefully laid out in an introduction. Not only are excerpts from Michel's autobiography and letters included, but also brief pieces taken from the works of Engels and Marx writing on the Commune as well as short citations from many others, including Lenin, Emma Goldman (who calls Michel "a complete woman"), and Howard Zinn. Selected reading lists contain books and Web sites in both French and English. A unique resource.

Patricia Moore. Brookline, MA

"Since it seems that any heart which beats for freedom has the right only to a small lump of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never stop crying for vengeance, and I shall avenge my brothers by denouncing the[ir] murderers" (p.101).

So said Louise Michel before the court passed sentence on her for participating in the rebellion that became the Paris Commune. The court did not execute her. Instead, it sent her into exile at the prison colony in New Caledonia 20,000 miles from Paris. Even there Michel advocated for the indigenous people of the island (the Kanaks) in their struggle against the French occupiers.

Michel was dubbed the "Red Virgin": "red" because she was an anarchist and "virgin" because her sexual orientation was unclear (as if this mattered) and because she was unattractive. I don't see it. She had a great and beautiful spirit, and I have fallen in love with her.

Ocean Press is to be commended for providing a good introduction to the person of Louise Michel and the times that stirred her and she helped to shape. Through the writings of such notables as Bakunin, Kropotkin, Marx, Engles, Lenin, Emma Goldman, Howard Zinn, the editor's introduction (Nic Maclellan) and Michels herself, we learn about her mixed proletarian and bourgeoisie background, her undying devotion to her mother, her days as a school teacher, her militancy and leadership role during the Paris Commune, her exile in New Caledonia, her return to Paris and her prescient feminism. All in a mere 115 pages. It is quite a feat.

Plenty of books have been written on Irish-American history both locally and nation-wide, but MAKING THE IRISH AMERICAN holds a difference: it's nearly thirty perspectives on the process of the Irish in America and blends original research with reprints of classic analyses, making for a thoughtful set of essays and articles which survey Irish-American history in context of the overall immigrant experience. Any college-level holding strong in ethnic studies or American history will find this an outstanding compilation, highly recommended as a basic collection addition.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Of the 29 articles, nine have been previously published; one in 1963, another in 1988, and the others in the past seven or so years. Some authors are widely-known--Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Pete Hamill, Calvin Trillin; while the others are steeped in Irish traditions from heritage and academic or other professional positions. The collected articles are crossovers between popular interest and academic perspective. Most combine popular subjects and approach with historical documentation or data. Within major sections on Irish-American foundations and identity are articles on sports, music, religion, organizations, and the role of notably, in some cases somewhat stereotypical, Irish figures such as domestics known as "biddies" or firemen in Irish-American assimilation and as representative of Irish-Americans in general. For the astute editorial selection of the number of general and somewhat specialized articles, expertise of the authors, and documentation in articles and appendices plus notes and bibliographies, "Making the Irish American" is a major text tying together this field of ethnic studies with American history and social history.

I got this book for my Irish-American dad for his birthday and it turned out to be the perfect pick-- for both of us. The chapters from the various contributors covered a large range of topics within Irish-American history and really got both of us interested in our Irish-American heritage.

My dad went straight to the highly accessible accounts of the Irish in American music, literature, entertainment, and particularly sports, but said he was most appreciative of the "Reflections" section's pieces by Pete Hamill, Calvin Trillin, and Peter Quinn, etc. He's yet to read the rest of the chapters, but he says he's enjoyed what he's read so much he's all the more inclined to read the rest of this 700-page giant book.

I had a different angle approaching the book: I started reading front-to-back and got a more academic experience. The intro to Irish history at the start really cleared up lots of holes in my knowledge of Irish history. The opening essays are more academic and I really appreciated them for their depth and obvious scholarship behind them.

Neither my father or I are done with the book, particularly since we're sharing it and it's so long, but I wanted to suggest the book to people looking to read engaging essays on Irish-American history.

I would highly suggest it to anyone else trying to find a gift for a relative of Irish-American descent, though obviously anyone interested in Irish-American history should get a lot out of this volume.

Here is the table of contents for Making the Irish American:



1. Introduction: Interpreting Irish America by J.J. Lee, p.1-60



The Irish Background

2. Modern Ireland: An Introductory Survey by Eileen Reilly, p. 63-147



Foundations

3. Scots Irish or Scotch-Irish by David Noel Doyle, p. 151-170

4. The Irish in North America, 1776-1845 by David Noel Doyle, p. 171-212

5. The Remaking of Irish America, 1845-1880, p. 213-252



Conflicts of Identity

6. Ulster Presbyterians and the Two Traditions in Ireland and America by Kerby Miller, p. 255-270

7. Religious Rivalry and the Making of Irish-American Identity by Irene Whelan, p. 271-285

8. Address to the Ulster-Irish Society of New York, 1939 by Henry Noble MacCracken, p. 286-288

9. American-Irish Nationalism by Kevin Kenny, p. 289-301

10. Refractive History: Memory and the Founders of the Emigrant Savings Bank by Marion R. Casey, p. 302-331

11. Ubiquitous Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930, p. 332-253

12. Labor and Labor Organizations by Kevin Kenny, p. 354-363

13. Race, Violence, and Anti-Irish Sentiment in the Nineteenth Century by Kevin Kenny, p. 364-378



Popular Expressions of Identity

14. Irish-American Popular Music by Mick Moloney, p.381-405

15. The Irish in Vaudeville by Robert W. Snyder, p. 406-410

16. Irish Traditional Music in the United States by Rebecca S. Miller, p.411-416

17. Before Riverdance: A Brief History of Irish Step Dancing in America by Marion R. Casey, p. 417-425

18. Irish-American Festivals by Mick Moloney, p. 426-442

19. Irish Americans in Sports: The Nineteenth Century by Ralph Wilcox, p. 443-456

20. Irish American in Sports: The Twentieth Century by Larry McCarthy, p. 457-471



Reflections

21. The Irish (1963, 1970) by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, p. 475-525

22. Once We Were Kings (1999) by Pete Hamill, p. 526-534

23. Democracy in Action (1988) by Calvin Trillin, p. 535-547

24. Irish America, 1940-2000 by Linda Dowling Almeida, p. 548-573

25. Twentieth-Century American Catholicism and Irish Americas by Thomas J. Shelley, p. 574-608

26. The Fireman on the Stairs: Communal Loyalties in the Making of Irish America by Timothy J. Meagher, p. 609-648

27. The Tradition of Irish-American Writers: The Twentieth Century by Daniel J. Casey and Robert E. Rhodes, p. 649-662

28. Looking for Jimmy (1999) by Peter Quinn, p. 663-679

29. The Future of Irish America (2000) by Peter Quinn p. 680-685



Appendix: The Irish in the Census: An Explanatory Note

Contributors

Permissions

Index

This is a great book. Easy to read. Covering most aspects of castle life. I would highly recomend it, and may purchase it again (it will make an exelent gift for friends that are intrested in either history or castles).

Philip Warner was lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England and is the author of a numerous of books.
In this work, he gives you the need for the Castle, why it came into being, how it developed. He show the strict structure of the Castle society - inside and out, the lives of the people running it and those serving in it, even down to what they are and worse. He even cover medieval recreation!!

He breathes live into the subject, giving a fresh new look instead of tired impressions.

Excellent work for people wish to see Castle life as it was or for Writers of Historical works.

Highly recommended.

This beautifully illustrated book explains how and why castles were built in the middle ages and why they were such a dominant influence on medieval life, especially in times of war. Philip Warner recreates a complete picture of daily life in a medieval castle: how peasants and nobles lived; how men fought in tournaments and trained for combat; how castles were sited, designed, managed, attacked and defended; and what the the people who lived in them ate, drank, and wore. This book will also go a long ways toward breaking up some of the preconceived notions that people have about castles. One learns that the castle was not primarily a refuge. The object of the castle wasn't to retreat from conflict, but to control it. The Medieval castle was a dynamic integral part of medieval society and Philip Warner does brilliant work in showing this. Whether you're a medieval history buff or just a curious layman read this book. It will take a little effort to find it, but it's worth the time.

If you only read two books on castles, make it Gies' Life in a Medieval Castle and this one. The two books are very similar in layout and readablity, but Warner's is a bit more detailed and in depth. It also has very nice illustrations. As much as I love Francis Gies' book, I think this one just edges it out.