Ireland Books

This book has short stories that relate to Irish folklore around the time when the Tuatha De Danaan ruled the land. Many of the stories have been rewritten by other authors, however, I feel that this author does a incredible job of weaving in more information about the tales and people involved. Also in the introduction the author gives background to the history of Ireland and how the folklore came about. I would recommend this book to anybody intrested in Irish folklore, old and young alike.

Finally, a book of Irish stories that truly captures my heart and does justice to my ancestry. A wonderful job by the author of providing background and such. My favorite legends are brought vividly and hauntingly to life; I couldn't have asked for more.

For someone who wants a quick and dirty introduction yet up to date book on the ancient Celts I cannot recommend a better book. Although it is quite a short book it is highly superior to books havigng the three times the number of pages this book contains.
Although one may sometimes shy away from short books on complex topics like the Celts take heart for by placing yourself in the hands of Barry Cunliffe you are putting yourself in the hands of a master.
A winner!
High recommended.

The Celts have had a long and complex journey, both through history and myth, and this entry in the excellent Very Short Introduction series is a great place to start tracing that journey. Some historians question whether 'Celtic' is even a meaningful or useful term. Is it a modern invention? Who were, or are, these people or peoples we call 'Celts'? Cunliffe warns at the outset that finding reliable answers will not be easy, then proceeds to make it as easy as possible.

He views the subject from various angles - linguistic, archeological, Classical (the Roman and Greek accounts), ethnological - and gradually builds a coherent picture. His bias reflects the current orthodoxy that cultural influence spread without the mass migrations that used to be assumed -- ideas and customs spread, not necessarily people. He encourages us to take a view from the Atlantic, and see the Celts as European peoples who traded along that seaboard. Some readers might wish for more detailed maps -- the author or publisher seems to assume that you will know which rivers are the Marne, Danube, etc.

This is an authoritative and accurate work, although I did spot one surprising blunder: On page 137, the ceremony of All Souls is described as taking place on October 31, preceding All Saints. In fact it follows All Saints, on November 2.

Cunliffe's prose is very readable, except that he has a fondness for litotes ("It is not unreasonable to suppose..." "It is not unlikely that..."). This can get not unirritating after a while.

A great deal of misinformation surrounds Celticism. It has become a tool for propagandists and nationalists. There is a certain amount of healthy debunking in this book, but the Celts emerge alive and well. Before I read it, I thought I was of Celtic descent on my mother's side. After reading it, I still do, but now I have some idea of what that means. If you want to know about the Celts, then you need to choose your sources with care, because - as Cunliffe hints - there are many 'lunatic fringe' publications out there. This is a safe place to start.

Although there have been a seemingly infinite amount of books written on 17th century England, this one stands out from the rest. Although it is not exactly a thoroughly in depth study, it provides ample knowledge about all of the important people and events of the era. It is also helpful that each division of the era is looked at in several different fields of study, including the often overlooked area of economics.

The late eminent British Marxist historian Christopher Hill is better known for his pioneer work in the micro-history of the English Revolution and the influences of left-wing political forces such as the Levellers and Diggers and religious forces such the Quakers, Shakers, Ranters and Seekers on it. Here he has written an overview of the entire 17th century as part of this series of books on the history of England to modern times. Needless to say some of his work around the English Revolution seeps into this work as well, which makes that period the strongest section of the book.

Professor Hill traces the major social, political, economic and religious trends that culminated in the revolution back to the reign of James I (and some economic trends back to Elizabethan times). He covers such keys areas of conflict as the changes in land use and ownership, agricultural innovations including the highly controversial enclosure policy, governmental foreign policy which tended to have a distinctly Catholic, particularly pro-Spanish, orientation, the embryonic beginnings of the split between court and `country' as a result of Stuart arbitrary rule, the split between landed proprietors and city merchants; the city and the country, the established church and the numerous pro-Puritan (read Calvinist) sects that started to sprout up like wildfire and the rise of a secular democratic movement based in the cities that both the Army and the Levellers would draw upon in the Civil War period.

Special note should be taken of the decades between the beginning of the defensive parliamentary struggles against Charles I in 1640 and 1660 with the restoration of his son Charles II to the throne. At this point the tensions that were merely outlined by the prior policies of the Stuart governments came to the breaking point. Hill does more than merely narrate that story. He shows, based on his well-stocked body of knowledge about the period, the various stages that the revolution went through from vascillations of the first defensive struggles of the Parliamentarians to the definitive break with Charles and the establishment of the New Model Army which would usher in a period of military dominance of government and society and with it the rise and fall of the various secular and religious democratic movements. Hill also does a masterful job of showing how the various plebian democratic forces in society reacted to governmental policy (and how the government dealt with those forces) and how, as a result, these various fights sapped the revolutionary energy of the masses.

As more than one historian and sociologist has noted, as a general proposition the study of post-revolutionary periods tends to be rather anti-climatic. That is also the case here with the restoration of Charles II. England, however, exhibited that trend in revolutionary history that demonstrates that even when the revolution runs out of steam there is generally no regression back to the old ways of ruling. Despite the regression in governmental form with the reintroduction of the monarchy, parliamentary supremacy was essentially assured although not without various intrigues by Charles and his brother James against it and against England. As importantly, the capitalist industrial developmental trends that had been gathering force throughout the century kept expanding after the revolution. That trend would make England the number one power in the world in the next century. For an excellent overview of an important period in English history, which moreover is filled with helpful footnotes on sources for further research, this is your stop.

Karl XI is one of my favourites in the Swedish history, Upton's biography gives a fair view of his too short lives. That without leaving his shortcomings as person and ruler. Karl XI may be less well known as his father Karl X Gustav and son Karl XII but far more interesting to study for a modern reader than the warriors. He stands in the history toghether with Gustav Vasa and Axel Oxenstierna as the builders of the early modern Swedish state.
I will recommend this book to everyone interested in Swedish or 17th century European history.

Swedes tend to jump from Charles X Gustav to his grandson Charles XII, forgetting Charles XI. But this was one of Sweden's greatest kings. He broke the aristocratic oligarchy, shored up Crown finances and reorganised the civil service, the army and the navy. Most of all, he kept the peace for 25 years when Sweden was large but poor and all its neighbours were anxious to lay their hands on choice parts of it. Many of his reforms lasted until well into the 20th century and some are still relevant today. Charles XII may have been glamorouos, but he foolishly lost an empire. Charles XI may have been a bore, but he preserved it all his life!

Read this book if you want to make sense of what is happening in the world today - It is funny, magical, strong and sometimes bewildering. Why do some immigrants find it hard to become Americans? Read it and find out.

November 17, 2003
I really appreciate the opportunity to read Geraldine's
book over the past few days. I can tell you this, it has been a long,
long time since I was able to "feel" a book I was reading. I was "in the
picture" the whole time. I guess the time span (which pretty much matched
my own) helped because I remember so much of what those times were like.
I found that being a Sicilian-Scotch Catholic wasn't so different from
being Irish Catholic in America. We all had so many of the same

experiences that we are truly all nearly the same. Geraldine's book
unfolded in my hands and I felt excitement and worry for Michael Joe as he
followed his heart and became a renegade and a hero. I would love to have
met him. Everything was so counter balanced by Nellie. It broke my heart
a little when he lost her and followed soon after. What a testament to
love and "being one". I feel like I've learned so much about what Ireland
must really be like....not the travel stuff that we all know, but the true
heart, spirit and geography of what must be an incredible land......What a truly delightful clan. I hope this
book does very well. People need to have this kind of experience...My
only regret, having finished the book, is what now?
Thanks, again, to you for bringing the book to me and, certainly, thanks
to Geraldine for putting it all down on paper.
Don Senger

houston, texas

Christians In The Warsaw Ghetto: An Epitaph For The Unremembered by Peter F. Dembowski (Distinguished Service Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago) is an intense, personal, and moving story of evading the German troops and camps during World War II. Readers follow Dembowsi through the gripping and remarkable tale of two imprisonments of the Nazi troops, an induction into the Polish Home Army and all of the happenings that enabled his survival in Christians In The Warsaw Ghetto, highly recommended for its informative and gripping content to all non-specialist general readers, particularly students of World War II.

According to the German-developed Nuremberg Laws, Jewish Christians were considered Jews, and treated accordingly by the Nazis in German-occupied Poland. Interestingly, Poland's Jewish leaders often considered assimilation into Polish society as much a repudiation of one's Jewishness as conversion to Christianity (p. 117, 137-138). Jewish Christians often experienced animosity from other Jews in the ghetto (p. 122), including unprovoked violence (p. 85).

Dembowski presents a variety of historical information. We learn that the prewar ONR had been outlawed by Polish authorities since its inception (p. 62). While the occupying Germans forced Jews to wear the star, they also forced the Polish slaves in Germany to wear the "P" (pp. 45-46). Marek Edelman recounted the fact that Warsaw's Jews initially disbelieved Polish reports of the mass gassings of Jews (pp. 53-55). Edelman's wife praised THE PIANIST for its qualities (p. 39).

Dembowski rebuts Mordecai Kaplan's charge that Polish priests wrote false certificates for Jews out of mercenary motives. In actuality, false baptismal certificates were a risky undertaking, incurring the German-imposed death penalty for both the priest and recipient if caught (p. 99).

There is irony in the betrayal of Anne Frank by a Dutchman. Two of her benefactors were not arrested at all, while one of the remaining two was released after arrest. Had Anne Frank's family and benefactors been Polish, they would all have all been summarily shot by the Germans (p. 83).

The Jewish-Christian bacteriologist Ludwik Hirszfeld put prewar Polish anti-Semitism into perspective: "My nation accused by the world of anti-Semitism is a good nation. [It gives assistance] despite the death sentence for help, and despite the inherited antipathy towards Jews. I believe that if Jehovah maintains the register of all the injuries suffered by Jews, he will erase the Przytyk pogrom, university disturbances, and separate seating for Jews [in the universities], because Polish antipathy lasted only as long as there was a vision of powerful Jews. It was replaced by pity when the pauper appeared. It was the case during the Jewish martyrdom." (p. 124).

Several accounts, such as the fictional little Polish girl in Steven Spielberg's SCHINDLER'S LIST and the various selectively-chosen anecdotes in Jan T. Gross' FEAR, would have us believe that Poles delighted in Jewish suffering. In contrast, Antoni Marianowicz (Kazimierz Jerzy Berman) wrote: "When we were returning to the car, wearing our armbands, children at Zytnia Street pointed their fingers at us and whispered: `Look, the Jews!' There was no animosity in their voices, only curiosity in seeing the officially branded people." (p. 114).

The reader learns that the eyewitness monographs of Hirszfeld (p. 33), Makower (pp. 102-103), and Marianowicz (p. 110) have never been translated into English. Why not? Is it because these Jewish Christians are not considered Jews, or is it because their works don't fit the ultra-Judeocentric and oft-Polonophobic motif of much contemporary Holocaust material?

a great book one of the must have for any churchill library . great anecdotes good pictures .recommended by the churchill society

Mr. Buczacki provides a nice, well-written history of the various houses and gardens directly associated with the long life of Winston Churchill. In doing so, the author also reveals important elements of the non-political side of this most remarkable man.

Many general histories of Churchill speak in passing of the domestic trials imposed after the purchase of the family's most important home, Chartwell. Reading this book gives one a keen understanding of what Mrs. Churchill endured as Chartwell and its grounds were slowly, slowly brought into good shape.

If you have a friend who is interested in English landscaping and gardens, this is a book to consider. If that friend also is an admirer of Sir Winston, then it is a must purchase.

Richar Wires does himself most admirably here,in placing 'Cicero' in a wider focus, enlarging one's knowledge of WWII espionage significantly.As much as I enjoyed "The Cicero Affair" and "Five Fingers," to be without the depth and understanding of the principals in this spy episode is like viewing the Mona Lisa only on TV. The overall effect is to add brilliant color to a prized black-and-white photo. Not only are you left with a deeper understanding of wartime espionage but a respectful regard for the diplomatic corps at that period. Who could believe that an amateur servant, with the right impulse, and appropriate acting bravadoes, could upset several continents, and get his just desserts? Or did he? This was an engrossing read, a combination treasure-hunt for clues weighed against fact that is hard to put down. 50 years later the WWII victor, USA, chooses to believe the documents presented before Congress by its internal security watchdogs. Go figure.

This is not a neutral, unbiased review. Even before finishing The Cicero Spy Affair: German Access to British Secrets in World War II, I'd bought second and third copies to forward to author and scholar par excellence Richard Wires for autographing and forwarding to relatives as gifts. How many other reviews posted on this website -- or any other, for that matter -- are based on a copy of the subject volume autographed by the author at his home? I bet very few. This review is an appreciation, really. If you like the numerous excerpts I've included below, you will have to get the book to get more, as this is only a sampling.

I met Dr. Wires at Ball State University in 1975, when I was a European history major working for him as a student assistant when he was chairman of the history department. Four years later, he supervised my senior thesis in European intellectual history on Nietzscke, Malraux and Jaspers. Over the last twenty years, we've stayed in touch though postcards during travels, home visits, phone calls and letters. He is a quintessential intellectual whose history of the most remarkable spy episode during WW II, if not ever, warrants only one - and even that is tongue-in-cheek - criticism: stylistic inconsistency. Specifically, the book is only elegantly written where it is not eloquent. A typical passages of the latter characteristic are:

"In the extensive literature about espionage affairs and intelligence activities during World War II the episode known as Operation "Cicero" has gained prominence and popularity, because of its remarkable character and ironies. For more than four months during the winter of 1943-1944 the valet of Britain's ambassador in neutral Turkey photographed secret papers that his employer failed to safeguard properly; by selling his undeveloped films to a representative of German intelligence in Ankara for a reported total of $1.2 million the servant became history's then most highly paid spy. The access to one of its opponents' most important embassies marked Germany's outstanding achievement in an otherwise poor record of secret service work. But little came of the success. Many of the documents were extremely valuable, but the dictatorship never used the information effectively; the enterprising spy escaped being caught but soon discovered that his money was mostly counterfeit."

The prominence and popularity of the literature about Elyesa Bagna, a Turkish kavass, or valet, who brazenly photographed secret papers of Britain's ambassador to neutral Turkey and sold the rolls of film to a handler at the German embassy for $1.2 million in what mostly turned out to be bogus pounds during the height of WW II is extraordinary and "has become a staple of intelligence lore." Fortunately, the Germans made little effective use of their intelligence lodestar, owing to the intrinsic rivalries, conflicts and jealousies of Nazi totalitarianism, a maze of party, military and career figures, including ambassador and one-time Weimar chancellor Franz von Papen, one of the nearly-purged non-Nazis outmaneuvered at the onset of Hitler's takeover of Germany's interwar democratic attempt in 1933. Cicero even inspired a 1952 movie, Five Fingers, portrayed as a documentary that falsely shows German knowledge of D-Day (in truth, the Germans only learned the word "Overlord," meaning little more than a second Allied front against some target in the northwest part of so-called "Fortress Europe," i.e., the German occupied nations of the continent).

The legacy of the affair is in the lessons learned and the embarrassment of the British reluctantly coming to terms with the scope of the compromises even today, as demonstrated by the sluggish sales of The Cicero Spy Affair in the U.K. In the U.S., however, some stores have sold out their initial stock and each speaking engagement by the author generates further opportunities for spoken history telling, one of the highest praises a historian can receive.

Nearly twenty five years ago, a college history professor sitting next to me at a formal lecture by Dr. Wires said he was the only person he'd ever met who could write a speech, read it verbatim as an oration, and hold the audience's rapt attention as he infused us with knowledge, insight and expansion of whatever we knew, or thought we knew, to newer, higher levels. This reader genuinely "heard" the author on every page of The Cicero Spy Affair.

Writing accurate history requires meeting an exacting standard; Dr. Wires has exceeded it, though. Chief Justice Rehnquist demonstrated the difficulties in meeting this standard when he recently said that, if you think you know a subject, write a book on it and read the reviews. The Chief Justice's referenced book mentioned the dates of admission to the union of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, all wrong! He also referenced a Confederate who kept fighting after Appomattox who, in truth, fell at Shiloh three years earlier. The comment by the Chief Justice, who is certainly not mistake-prone but, rather, is blessed with a wry, dry sense of humor, illustrates the demanding standard of the historian's blend of craft, science and art. Even the most accomplished researcher can still err, but The Cicero Spy Affair appears, by all accounts, to be definitive.

Still not convinced you should read it? Your loss. Say you're not a twentieth century history, military intelligence specialist, read it anyway. Read it for its comprehensive research, documentation, analysis and explanations, and accompanying insightful photographs. Its passages on the vacillations and evasions of Europe's key neutral country, in light of Allied, Nazi and Soviet influences, the (thankfully) inefficient competitiveness of the German intelligence offices and the ineptitude of British security as a result of sleeping pills, piano playing and extremely careless handling of very secret writings all will amaze, enrich, entertain and astonish you. Read it.

In her writing,Stella Tillyard manages to span the difficult gap that separates fiction from non-fiction. Her style is lyrical - almost like a historical fiction - but without the emotive judgement. I find that it makes her books highly evocative and very easy reading.

However that should not lead people to think she has a flare for dubious tabloid presentation. She is quite ruthless in ensuring that her facts are correct, and in 'Citizen Lord' she has stripped away many of the romantic layers that have concealed the true story of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. These were myths that had been spread by Lord Edward's family following his death, and have coloured his story since. The stripping away of these layers makes this book no less interesting, indeed the true story still very much romantic and tragic.

A younger son of the first Duke of Leinster and his wife Emily, a daughter of the Duke of Richmond, Lord Edward was born into privelege and influence. Tillyard traces his gradual move from this life, to one of revolutionary in Ireland of 1798 without descending into either pathos or into judgement.

I was first introduced to Tillyard's writing with her first book, 'Aristocrats' which is also available at Amazon. I would recommend this book as also worth reading, and gives marvellous background to 'Citizen Lord' - it is about his mother, Lady Emily Lennox, and her three sisters.

I think Tillyard is a "Must Read!"

You'll have to look elsewhere for a full picture of the catastrophic Irish rebellion of 1798, but Ms, Tillyard paints a lovely picture of its most romantic leader. I first heard of Lord Edward as a teenager, dipping into Yeats and reading Lord Edward's name linked to Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet..."that wild delirium of the brave...". I have read numerous accounts of '98 since, but found little about Lord Edward in them, save for the melodrama of his arrest and death-an extra-judicial murder, if ever there was one.

So I am grateful for Ms. Tillyard's rendering of the man himself. She gives ample proof of the sweetness of his character, showing how his inborn beauty was nurtured and how it blossomed under the doting care of his formidable and unconventional mother. Their tenderness for each other lights what otherwise is a stark and tragic story. More significantly it gives the lie to the masculinist theory that maternal love weakens and "feminizes" male children. True, young Lord Edward had a "strong male role model"-his tutor, who was also his mother's adulterous lover!-but every step of Mr. Ogilvie's tutelege was directed by the attentive and indulgent Duchess of Leinster. The letters between Lord Edward and the Duchess make lovely reading for any mother concerned with the making of boys into men.

Of course, Ms. Tillyard includes the apparently obligatory expressions of horror about "political violence" a phrase used only in reference to Lord Edward's revolutionary enterprise, not to the ongoing repression and dispossession of the native Irish. Taken against the whole of the book, however, this is only a minor stupidity, one so ubiquitous in books about Ireland published since 1969 that Republican readers can pass over it without undue offense.

The main thing is that Lord Edward Fitzgerald lives on these pages as a beloved and loving human being, worthy of all the praise heaped upon him over the centuries. How often does a shining name in history still shine under close inspection?

Anna Bradley

My address Mr.Ronarong Kaewkanta

This book is very good for me and one likes to read.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 1999-08-17

My address Mr.Ronarong Kaewkanta