Ireland Books

This work is the magnum opus of Irish genealogy, a vast and prodigious compendium of family history and source material. The first volume explores the origin and stem of the Irish nation. The old Irish genealogies assembled here are brought down to the lineal descendant of each family living at the time of the British dispossession, although many of the descents are brought down to the 19th century. Also included is a lengthy appendix with an extraordinarily detailed table showing families that owned land in the 12th century. In addition, there is an index of several thousand surnames.

The first half of Volume II consists of Anglo-Irish genealogies, all carried down at least to the Commonwealth period, and most to the last quarter of the 19th century. Arranged alphabetically by family name, these hundreds of genealogies are heavily annotated, and being supported by references to events of comparatively recent history, they sometimes trace the line of descent to an American branch of the family. There also is data on the Huguenot and Palatine families of Ireland and a chapter on the Ulster Plantation and Scots settlers. The latter half of Volume II is encyclopedic in coverage, bearing reference to countless persons, places, and events associated with Ireland.

If you're researching your Irish roots, this two-volume set is an invaluable resource. I found ancestors that I have been searching several years for neatly described and catalogued. There is a wealth of information here that I haven't been able to find anywhere else!

This reprint of the 1892 edition makes available rare source material on Irish geneaology. Much of the material on which it was based has since been destroyed. John O'Hart traces the genealogy of all the major famiies of Ireland from ancient to late Victorian times. Some families are even traced back to Adam! His material provides valuable clues for reseachers and those fortunate enough to be able to link with families included may add centuries to their pedigress! Not limited to the aristocracy, many quite ordinary people are identified and linked to the ancient families. There are numerous references to American branches of the Irish families. An essential reference work and interesting reading besides.

Ann Milholland Webb's first book about her adventures in Ireland was The Connemara Bus. It left us asking, "Then what happened?" Her latest offering, Irish Reflections, answers many of those questions with wit and insight as she takes a wry look at her Irish friends and the situations she faced.It is not all skittles and beer. The account of her experiences on 9/11 and the days that followed is compelling and sobering to read. Closing her Irish business was a great disappointment, yet her humor shows through it all.Irish Reflections is an enjoyable read. Perhaps you'll ask after you finish it, "Then what happened?"

Refreshing and brutally honest, the arthor captures situations of life that merit raised eyebrows. It made me think of life in a while new light. Invest an afternoon (or two) into this book and you'll see what I mean.

Julie Preston
Dallas, Texas USA August 7, 2005

Irish Reflections is an insightful and thoughtful book about one special woman's journey through her life and travels. She writes with humor and love about her travels, her heritage and her experiences. She was trying to get home from Ireland to visit her family in Kentucky on 9/11/01 when she discovered that she was the only traveler on the plane without a partner to share the uncertainty, fear, and horror of the event that would reshape the way we all view our place in the world today. She never lost her sense of humor or took herself too seriously as she coped with each new challenge. Irish Reflections is a good read and a comforting reminder that there is always reason to hope, learn and grow.

A striking breadth of work that allows the viewer to see, hear, and feel the difficulty of life in concert with the beauty and light.

A very important body of photographs -- both artistic and historic -- framed by a text of the Travelling people's stories and a compact disc of the people in the book performing their music, over forty years ago. A testament to a great photographer's determination that brings to life a part of Ireland's immemorial past which has vanished in our lifetimes.

This work is truly profound. His composition is genius. The subject matter is an important cultural statement. Alen is without doubt a master photographer. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The reproduction is perfect. A hidden gem is the beautiful audio cd that captures the the music of these people. What a brilliant work!

This book tells a story that is often (and tragically) forgotten about: the history of German Jewry prior to the rise of the Nazis. In telling the story, Mr. Gidal makes great use of art as well as of text. Though he doesn't go into tremendous detail, he definitely covers the main thrusts and events of the German-Jewish experience. I was particularly interested in the status of Jews under Charlemagne and the early Holy Roman Empire, and in the gradual emancipation of German Jews from the 18th century onward. This book looks like a coffee-table book, but is nothing of the sort. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in German and/or Jewish history. It makes a great companion to The Pity of It All, by Amos Elon.

This is an outstanding history of the Jews of Germany from the Middle Ages to the time of Weimar. The book has especially colorful and interesting illustrations that truly add to one's feeling of the period and world being described.

In my view, this book stands as the best of its kind: a one-volume, fully illustrated reference. Don't be fooled...this is not a simple coffee table book. It is exhaustingly researched complete with a huge bibliography and fully footnoted. Nearly every page of every chapter is filled with pictures, photos, and the like. This book can either be read from cover to cover, or the reader can choose to read a chapter at a time...much like an encyclopedia.

I own a copy of this, I purchased a copy for my brother as a gift, and my Dad went out and bought one for himself after he read mine. I have seen these on sale at amazon.com for less than $6...do yourself a favor and take advantage of it.

The Emerald Bottle was an enchanting page-turner. It was such a well-written gem-of-a-journey and Tara truly had the luck of the Irish. Tara, a hopeful, courageous girl, must travel across the Atlantic Ocean to reunite with her family. We have been a mother-daughter book club for five years and we rarely all enjoy the same book, but this book we unanimously recommend. T'was a great adventure and we look forward to the next one.

This little gem of a book fell into my hands through the recommedation of a friend who is an elementary school teacher, as am I. I have taught for many years and feel I know good literature for young readers. This book has it all. It is full of vivid detail, historical information, positive values and is a wonderful and compelling adventure story to boot! The book is set in potato famine Ireland, but I understand the next books in the series to come will cover other time frames such as the underground railroad, the Westward expansion and other historically signifcant periods. I think both parents and teachers should be interested in this book for their students/children. It's the best, and comes with an adorable little collectible bottle to boot. Sue Slaughter, Las Vegas, Nev.

I purchased this book because my mother was a good friend of the author's mother. I figured I would read it and pass it along to my mother and that would be it. I am going to have to purchase another copy to send to my mother because I want to keep my copy of The Journey of the Emerald Bottle.

What a wonderful story that Linda Shields Allison has written about a girl and her journey. It is a story that can be read to children but it is a story that grabbed me and caused me to stay up late reading to find out what was going to happen to Tara. Linda gives us some historical information about Irish Immigration. She has wonderful characters both heros and villians. She offers in story the idea that those who help other people along lifes journey are the good guys and that in the end that is rewarded. She has a twist at the end of the story that is surprising and will hopefully lead to a sequel to this wonderful book. It reminds me of the style of Kate Seredy who wrote "The Good Master" and "The Singing Tree". Just like author Seredy, Linda takes a historical situation and puts in in human context and brings it a life. It was about midnight on St. Patrick's Day that I finished "The Journey of the Emerald Bottle." I am sure Linda's Irish mother is proud.

The book was in excellent condition and was shipped in a timely fashion. Great service!

Duffy writes a fascinating account of the Irish potato famine during 1846-49 by examining a local community in Ireland that during the famine, now defined as genocide, suffers severely, as all of Ireland does. The severity of the famine is made even worse by actions of large land owners and the English government to remove small plot farmers, to reduce dependence on potatoes and increase alternative agricultural production, that rent by eviction and mass forced immigration during the heights of the potato famine that resulted in over a million deaths and 1.5 million forced or coerced immigrations, many of whom died in transit on over populated ships. Massive relief efforts are slow and not efficient as England initiates limited relief requiring landlords to fulfill part of the financial obligations but what is fascinating was that the famine was widely known in the western world about the level of death as many countries (including the U.S.) offer private or governmental assistance although limited. Soup dispensaries are set up effectively in many cases but are under funded and struggle to stay open and poor houses virtually act like a prison system and are severe on the populace. In Stokestown, Major Mahon, a sometimes absent landlord carries out evictions with less severity than many landlords, pays some subsidies and limited fees for immigration, but still turns many poor out leaving them little in shelter but the ability to remove their thatched roofs to set up as temporary cover. A conflict over relief funding with the local parish priest allegedly fuels the priest to target open criticism on Major Mahan resulting in the priest being accused of inflaming the suffering to commit a severe act of violence. Duffy tells the history virtually before Cromwell to the mass deaths of the Irish famine leading up Mahan's killing and the aftermath. Duffy expertly tells the story of the killing of Major Mahon that shocked England all the way to Parliament, along with the slow revelation of controversial witnesses, resulting in conviction by circumstantial evidence. The strength of this unique telling is the concentration on this local community that reflects what as happening in all of Ireland with the exception of the notable killing of a local elite well connected to England. Duffy covers the trials extraordinary well and this is a great telling of a horrific time in our world history told on virtually a local level of the Irish community.

This book paints an extraordinary portrait of a time and place in history that can arguably be called one of the greatest human tragedies in modern history. Duffy sheds light on not only the grim physical facts of the Famine, as expected, but plumbs the depths of the social structures that amplified it's effects. It is refreshing to read, in today's media culture of quick conclusions and black/white reasoning, a book which acknowledges the complexity of the interplay of forces that create history, and assumes the reader is intelligent enough to draw conclusions for themselves.

I wanted a copy for a long time but could never find it in any bookstore I went to. I am enjoying the book very much

For this reader, this book was the end of a journey...a thread I've been following for the last five years. I was overwhelmed by its truth. The more I meditated on this tiny volume, the more truth came. Everything I had read up to this point from the Gnostic Gospels, the True Teachings of Chirst, The Masons, Emerson, The Vedas and so many more...all of these teachings flew like blinding arrows to this target (The Master Key). In the end I had to aknowledge that this was a profound truth, one so simple, yet so revolutionary to our future. One that also requires a staggering amount of responsibility. Maybe that's why this simple thread is so hard to follow...once you've found it, you're so exhausted (and have probably grown a great deal from your journey) that you hopefully apply this "Key" only to good. I for one, think things are going to get rather interesting in this little universe of ours.....very interesting indeed.

A number of other books has been written about these seven principles, using somewhat more modern language, but this book is the classic. This is not just a theory or a philosophy - the principles, being universal, are down-to-earth practical. If you apply them consciously in your life, your life will change.

While in times long gone by, these may have seemed to be only arbitrary spiritual principles, they are in accord with the view of quantum physics. Kybalion states that universe is mind-like in nature; quantum physics states that the universe is composed out of intelligent energy. The rest of the book describes how to manifest anything with one's thoughts - the process of manifestation, and it reminds me of the book "Dimensional Structure of Consciousness" by Samuel Avery.

The most important part of this book - other than pointing out these principles is that they are UNIVERSAL - they allways work, they express throughout nature and if you use them and apply the consciously, you can create whatever you can possibly desire in your life. You will know then that there is a law and that it works with mathematical precision, and that you can ALWAYS count on it.

The moment you grasp this truth, you will never ever again wish or hope for something to happen, you will know that you have the power to create it and you will be certain of it. And when you use this principles consciously and experience the truth of them - no one in the entire world will ever be able to talk you out of fulfilling your heart's desires. Even if the entire world doubts and laughs at you, you will not care because you'll KNOW that you CAN. You will have the "key".

Table of Contents
England after the Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution and the Revolution Constitution

The Facts of Life

A Bloody Progress

The Political World of William III

Wars of Words and the Battle of the Books

Faith and Fervour

England, Britain, Empire

The Political World of Queen Anne

Profits, Progress and Projects

The Wealth of the Country

The Political World of George I

Urban and Urbane

An Ordered Society

Epilogue

Chronology

Bibliography

Index

Writes Professor Roger Hainsworth, formerly of Adelaide University, South Australia: Students of English history will welcome this new volume in the New Oxford History of England series.1689-1727 is a very significant period for the history of the British people and indeed it proved important to many European people also for this reason: during it Britain became a great power and in the process the growing hegemony of France over western Europe was first confronted, fought against and finally halted. More of this later. Dr. Hoppit, although his eye is undimmed by romantic illusions about past eras, has a positive tale to tell. He writes that in late seventeen and early eighteenth century England "political discord was contained and then undermined. Warfare was endured and survived. Britain's empire was extended and its value increased. Population began slowly to grow. Many towns flourished. Agriculture, industry and commerce all showed signs of expansion .... society was not stagnant, it was on the move." This favourable assessment might have astonished contemporaries both at home and abroad. They still perceived England as politically unstable, riven by party ("faction"), and menaced by the apparently unbridgeable dynastic dispute between the Jacobite supporters of the exiled James II and then of his son (the Old Pretender) and the Whig and Orange Tory supporters of William III, Anne and the Protestant Succession (the Hanoverians). Meanwhile the British state was menaced by growing poor rates, menacing numbers of unemployed, seemingly endless foreign wars, and a growing mountain of debt: all presided over by a government which appeared more powerful and uncheckable every year and was backed by that worst of all English nightmares: a permanent army. Dr. Hoppit explores these fears and traumas incisively and expertly and makes it clearer than it perhaps has ever been made before why the positive developments prevailed and the worst fears ebbed away. The fundamental problem for historians of the period is to explain how England become a great power during the reigns of William III and Anne. Cromwell's disciplined army and a powerful navy had made England a great power fleetingly during the 1650s. However, there was no way to finance these prodigies on a long term basis. The restored Charles II almost went broke disbanding these extravagant instruments of power. England's resurgence in the two decades following the Glorious Revolution of 1689 astonished foreign observers who had believed, reasonably enough, that England's small population doomed it to the side-lines of European politics. In a long contest between Britain and France surely there could be only one result? England with Wales had only about 5.25 million in 1700. Scotland had 1.23 million and Ireland about 2 million. France, the most populous country in Europe (including Russia) had 22 million. These bare statistics proved deceptive. Although eighty per cent of England's population were rural dwellers, almost thirty per cent of the population were engaged in some form of industry. Manchester was then only a large village but Defoe estimated it provided "outside" employment to 40,000 weavers and allied trades. In fact England was the most urbanised country in Europe and if this was partly because ten per cent of the people lived in London her urbanisation was to increase hugely during the eighteenth century while London's population stagnated. Industrial strength and a powerful navy were gradually joined by a formidable army. During Anne's reign it would be led by one of history's greatest commanders who was also a remarkable diplomat and builder of alliances: the Duke of Marlborough. The financial problems of the mid seventeenth century were resolved by taxation passed freely if grumpily by the House of Commons which had now become a permanent institution of state rather than an irregular occurrence. The taxes funded that unusual novelty the National Debt which was partly managed by an enlarged Treasury assisted by an inspired creation, the Bank of England. The two great European wars of the period weakened the Continental powers, especially France, but left Britain stronger than when she entered them. Many speculated about this paradox but no great power seemed able to copy the method even supposing they understood it. All these matters receive due attention in this volume. So also does a range of other important topics: the remarkable growth of parliamentary government which in time would make possible the political peace of Sir Robert Walpole's long prime ministership during the 1720s; the decline into impotence of the Jacobites; the astonishing efflorescence of a print culture of books, newspapers and pamphlets; the slow decline of the Anglican hegemony in the face of stubborn Dissenters and ideas of religious tolerance; the extraordinarily rich burst of public and private building ranging from Wren's St Paul's to Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor's masterpieces (Castle Howard and Blenheim the best known of many); and the steady advance of pragmatic, experimental science. This last owed much to one man and in a fine passage Hoppit writes that the year his period ends is better defined not by the death of George I but by the death aged 84 of one of his subjects. Interred like a prince in Westminster Abbey with the Lord Chancellor, two dukes and three earls among his pall-bearers, he was Sir Isaac Newton. That indeed was the end of an era. This is a worthy addition to a very collectable series. There are the minor flaws often found when the author has to shoehorn a complex discourse into a confined space. Stylistic faults occasionally jar and infelicities of sentence structure ("there were those (such as Locke had done) who strongly argued ...") often require the reader to turn back to disentangle the sense. However, Dr. Hoppit's text is informative, interesting, thought-provoking and engrossing. He has explored the diverse facets of his subject with care and sensitivity to their nuances. All students of this significant period will be in his debt for decades to come. Had it been put in my hands when I was studying this period as an undergraduate I would have gnawed on it like a famished wolf.

A very well- rounded introduction to a period of British history that should be better known. The author strikes a good balance between the political narrative and his coverage of the social, economic, cultural, and military developments of the age. This book should be accessible to anyone with a serious interest in this period in European history.

While I may or may not agree with the other reviewers' suggestions, I am puzzled by one thing: their inability to call things by their name. I am specifically referring here to their use of terms like "Fascists" or "Nazis". Is the war in Iraq being fought by "Republicans"? Was it the "Nixonites" who committed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam? The Germans may be trying to whitewash themselves - and they have indeed been doing so since the end of the war - but why is the rest of the world playing by?

Otherwise, I heartily recommend Kruk's compelling book to anyone interested in 20th century history - and the general history of mankind as well.

This is a deeply affecting work, compulsively readable, yet always painful to read, account of the slow garroting of the Jewish community in Vilna. From one page to the next, one is amazed (even now) at the viciousness of the Fascists and the humanity, ingenuity, courage of those they oppressed. God and the devil are both in the details and Kruk gives us plenty of all three.

Herman Kruk was a librarian. Even as the Vilna [Vilnius] ghetto was reduced to inhuman conditions, Kruk risked his life to smuggle books into the public library he set up. While the Nazi regime tried to reduce Jews to a subhuman status, with harsh labor, restrictions, and eventual extermination; Kruk helped to initiate literary contests, plays, and lecture series. His diary reflects the intellectual and cultural activities of the ghetto, as well as the minutiae of the library.

Kruk's diary is an overwhelmingly human document. His tears for the destruction of his beloved Warsaw and the personal horror felt when hearing rumors of the massacre of Jews elsewhere in Europe are not diluted or diminished by his desire that his diary become a publicly read record of the destruction of Jewish Vilna.

As the XVIII century advanced, the Latin language tended increasingly to decline in favour of the French, which reigned for the whole XIX century, before itself meeting competition from English.

In a sense it was the end of an era, a long late summer appropriately marked by the French revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the ensuing spreading of nationalisms. The "death" of Latin was more a kind of slow fading away: while it was increasingly superseded by French in the Republic of Letters and in the international diplomacy, it knew his last melancholy bright days with the philological studies in the German universities and the creation of Gymnasium: dissected, revered and enshrined it was no more than the cadaver of that great sovereign who ruled the European continent for so many centuries.

Universal language par excellence, Latin never ceased to be used in Europe even after the fall of the Roman Empire and the spreading of the new national languages. But in the meanwhile its use had changed substantially: from everyday language, increasingly to universal language in the double role of "sacred" language (for liturgy and Scriptures) and language of power and diplomacy. Then with Renaissance it finds a new role as language of culture: it is a second spring, because it becomes the supranational official language of the humanism first, and then of the so called Republic of Letters. Decline is only slowed none the less. Parallel to these roles, others are less obvious: aristocratic language, with its power of exclusion, the power to "say and conceal" and its obvious immediate uselessness that can become a mark of distinction for a proto-leisure class (Veblen).

"Latin or the Empire of a Sign. From the XVI to the XX century" is an outstanding essay on the evolution and role of this language in the European culture.
Well written, in a lively and colloquial style, sprinkled with examples, citations and anecdotes, it successfully captures the attention of the reader.
Certainly, the theme is very specific and targeted to an readership interested in the development of European culture and in Greco-Latin philology, none the less the writer has been able to arrange a "reader-friendly" text: all Latin citations are translated, every theme is carefully expressed in a way that also uninitiated can fully understand.

I found this book almost by chance: a few years ago had read a very flattering review of it, but as often happens, I forgot and reading did not follow. This is a study that springs from a former essay written by Francoise Waquet with Hans Bots: "La République des Lettres" (unfortunately still not translated into English), of which Latin was the common jargon.

So why Latin could be such an alluring theme?
Well, because it was a common primeval language, a common mark in the identity of a culture before the Babel-like fragmentation of the Romantic period.
By looking at the story of the decadence of Latin, the development of the Continental culture can be understood more clearly: the decision of Louis XIV to favor a national literary language and the French great literary blooming (the age of Racine, Molière, Pascal,...) that precede the spread of French as common language of the European Enlightenment, the rise of bourgeoisie and the French Revolution, up to Vatican II Council in the XX century. But still in the XVII century Spinoza, by family and culture Ladino and Dutch-speaking , had to learn Latin to compose his treaties - and we can guess he did speak and write Latin with the Great Condé, with Leibniz and Oldenburg.
So first sacred language of religion and priesthood, then universal language for the Renaissance savants, diplomatic jargon in the European court and common idiom of the European cultural space, increasingly threatened by new national ambitions: the French decision to use national language for diplomatic treaties (to mark the national grandeur) and the development of true national cultures favored by the rise of a new middle class.

Mme Waquet is neutral in presenting the argument: she is neither against Latin nor nostalgic of the Latin golden age: she carefully gives voice to all parties in a well balanced and very convincing portrait. Most of the chapters actually deal with the pedagogic means used to learn Latin, and the contrabanded "virtues" of the fluency in that language.
Nevertheless sometimes the books presents passages of a great evocative force: the title in the first place with its suggestive "Empire of a Sign", the chapters dealing with the French Restoration (the "signe Européen" of Joseph the Maistre, Chateaubriand,...) up to scattered citations. One especially got my attention, and truly deserves to be fully cited:

"The writer Marie Noel, who regarded herself as "ignorant" ("I know no more Latin than my mother, my grandmother and their servants"), gives an admirable description of this experience which was certainly not hers alone: «The words, many times repeated, of Veni Creator, Miserere, De Profundis, Magnificat, Te Deum and all the others had become within us our family treasure». Her "Notes intimes" give a clear impression of what it was like to have contact with a language that - apart from everything else - was neither read nor-spoken, but sung, and that was therefore inseparable from its musical coating: «The little girl of Auxerre will begin ... on hearing Christmas carols, the moving monody of the Stabat, . . . to become aware of the power of words». Words, moreover, that resounded in the nave of a cathedral whose rich decor accentuated the impression they made.
«I had just turned nine, my grandmother took me with her. For me it the entrance to a sublime world, outside the other one, a world in which god and men exchanged unprecedented words that had no meaning in other countries. On the evening of All Saints' Day, at six o'clock, the two of us made our way into the great Night of the Cathedral which at that hour, under its prodigious vaults, had neither beginning nor end... In the tower the knell tolled... that admirable knell of Auxerre Cathedral, a tragic group of deep bells that burst suddenly into sobbing - five or six heartbreaking notes - and then fell back into silence from which, after a few minutes of anguish, they would break out once more in sombre tears drawn from some unknowable well of suffering and fear... Nevertheless, we sang along with the priests! »" (pag.102)

I did read this book because of my passion for the history of the European culture and also because of my old studies in Greco-Latin philology.
This book is unique in his genre, and while I strongly recommend it, it is not easy to suggest other books on the same theme. Nonetheless, I think that these titles could be excellent associates:
- "The Republic of Letters. A cultural History of the French Enlightenment" by Dena Goodman. Very interesting and well written, but uneven in the result, and sometimes with a too marked militant feminist approach (yet the author doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that Enlightenment was the first period in which women had a true relevant cultural role).
- "The Age of Conversation" by Benedetta Craveri - a must read for sure! Gripping like a novel and hugely learned, this is the story of the development of that culture of bonne manieres, intelligent conversation, informal culture and tact that we now tend to associate with Enlightenment and the last years of the Ancien Regime.
- "The Renaissance Bazaar. From the silk road to Michelangelo" by Jerry Brotton. One of the best presentation of the European Renaissance I had the chance to read: extremely lively and hugely learned (if interested, I have written a review on it)
- "Scribes and Scholars" by L.D. Reynold & N.G. Wilson, still unsurpassed introduction to classical philology. One of the few books in which academic and poetical are not incompatible adjectives. Extremely interesting the chapters dealing with the re-discovery of classical Latin texts, the struggle to emendate from errors and improve understanding.

You are truly welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!
Thanks for reading.

I found the first chapter of this book rather tedious. It is about the teaching of Latin in schools and universities, and shows, by way of innumerable examples (a trait of the book as a whole - the author's range of research is truly amazing), the dominance that Latin had in the secondary school syllabus even for a decade or so after the end of the Second World War. In the 16th century, where this book begins, teaching was often done in Latin; at Oxford a statute of 1636 even required students to converse with each other in Latin, and in Prussian schools Latin was still spoken between pupils and between them and their teachers in the middle of the 19th century. Oxford and Cambridge required Latin as a condition for entry until the 1960s and 1970s, and therefore many schools had perforce to continue teaching it. (In a later entertaining section we learn how the young would compensate for the tedium of their instruction by inventing skits - sometimes scabrous ones - on the language.) But from the 18th century onwards teaching in the vernacular made more and more headway; and this, too, is illustrated with many examples. What is completely missing in this chapter is an account of the arguments in defence and (except for one or to examples) in opposition to compulsory Latin, or indeed of the sociological forces that were at play on both sides. For that kind of analysis we have to wait till Part III, the last two-fifths of the book. Before we get there, we are given a devastating picture of how, right back to at least the 17th century, only a very small proportion of pupils benefitted from - let alone enjoyed - their studies in Latin: the great majority, after 10 or more years of study, could scarcely understand a Latin text.

It is odd that the Latin of the Catholic Church should be the subject of only the second chapter; for surely the commanding position of Latin has its origin in the Church. This chapter is much better, for it gives explanations together with the exposition. The Catholic Church was suspicious of lay people being able to read the scriptures for themselves and interpreting it in a `heretical' sense; and it did its best to oppose translations into the vernacular; and though it accepted sermons in the vernacular and eventually even sanctioned translations of the scriptures, it insisted until Vatican II in 1963 that the liturgy must be in a language that even some of the lower clergy often mouthed without really understanding it. (Waquet does not mention the origin of the words `hocus pocus' - which is what laymen heard when the words `hoc est corpus meum' were gabbled by the clergy during the `magical' transformation of the wafer into the body of Christ.) The Catholic Church believed that a language which was no longer changing was appropriate for liturgies that expressed unchanging truths and for uniting Catholics all over the world.

The fact that Latin was read all over the world also made it for a long time the language of scientists, or indeed of any scholarly text that hoped for international distribution. Many works, originally written in the vernacular, were translated for this purpose into Latin. Even today, new words used in medicine are being concocted in Latin; Linnaeus' Latin or Latinized botanical descriptions are still in use, as are the symbols for elements in chemistry. In the multilingual Habsburg Empire Latin was widely used in administration (and in Hungarian Diet as the language of debate until 1840). The Treaty of Rastadt in 1714 was the first to be written in French; but until then Latin was the language of international treaties and frequently of diplomatic correspondence. However, when people spoke to each other in Latin, they often could hardly understand each other because each country, and often each region, pronounced Latin (even Church Latin) quite differently. (When I was at prep school myself, I was taught to pronounce `veni, vidi, vici' like `veenigh, veedigh, vighkigh', and had to unlearn this at later stages of my education.)

In Part III we at last come to the barrage of fiercely maintained arguments in favour of compulsory Latin: through Latin grammar one gets a better understanding of vernacular grammar; its study is a unique mental discipline in logic and its difficulties are good for the soul; it connects you with the loftiest part of the European inheritance; the moral qualities it conveys stand in contrast to the materialism taught by the sciences; some even claimed that it was a defence against Marxism as well as against Americanization; a Tsarist minister of education praised it for `inhibit[ing] the formation of independent opinions'.

And of course the knowledge of Latin was associated with class, status and power. In England successful entrepreneurs who had had no Latin and were not `gentlemen' would send their children to schools where they were taught the classics and so would become gentlemen. On the continent, the children of the poor were often deliberately kept away from Latin lest it encourage them to aspirations beyond their station. The medical and legal professions often used Latinity to bemuse and intimidate the laity. Latin was also used euphemistically to avoid the use of `coarse' and embarrassing vernacular words, usually to protect the modesty of women, only a tiny proportion of whom knew any Latin at all.

It is easy to understand why the modern world has abandoned Latin as any kind of staple. It is perhaps a miracle is that it survived as a staple for as long as it did; its defenders often went to quite absurd lengths; but this book explains what gave it its long-lasting sway. Although much of the material in it is very repetitive, it is very readable (and well translated by John Howe), and often entertaining.

This is a thought provoking book about the teaching of Latin in traditional, mostly European, educational systems from the 16th through 20th centuries. The author cites numerous examples of the way in which the prestige of knowing or being forced to learn Latin shaped the educational process as well the sometimes unwilling students who needed to acquire a fair amount of Latin in order to be full participants in this "empire." Highly interesting as a social/linguistic history in its own right,much of what Waquet describes could also be applied to any number of other class/educational factors that seemingly separate those who are inside or outside the system. No Latin ("dead language") basher, the author actually provides examples for the continued utilty of the study of Latin, albeit in a more specialized mode than those who wish to restore the classics to a place of prominince might wish. Highly readable for a scholarly book of this sort.