Ireland Books

The subject of The Third Crown has speial relevance in our century. As nations are getting more interdependent and wars potentially more destructive, a global organization to mediate international disputes became a necessity in our time. In centuries past it was the papal government that exercised the function of arbitrating legitimacy as understood at the time. If we peek behind the curtain of the past , we may discern some lessons for the future. The book discusses, among other topics, the military policy of the popes, their peacekeeping efforts, their awards of imperial and royal crowns, and their global territorial judgments. Today the United Nations performs many of the former functions of the papal government,

The subject matter of The Third Crown has special relevance in our century. As nations are getting more interdependent and wars potentially more destructive, a global organization to mediate international disputes became a necessity in our time. In centuries past it was the papal government that exercised the function of arbitrating legitimacy as understood at the time. If we peek behind the curtain of the past, we may discern some lessons for the future. The book discusses, among other topics, the military policy of the popes, their peacekeeping efforts, their awards of imperial and royal crowns, and their global territorial judgments. Today the United Nations performs many of the former functions of the papal government.

The subject of The Third Crown has speial relevance in our century. As nations are getting more interdependent and wars potentially more destructive, a global organization to mediate international disputes became a necessity in our time. In centuries past it was the papal government that exercised the function of arbitrating legitimacy as understood at the time. If we peek behind the curtain of the past , we may discern some lessons for the future. The book discusses, among other topics, the military policy of the popes, their peacekeeping efforts, their awards of imperial and royal crowns, and their global territorial judgments. Today the United Nations performs many of the former functions of the papal government,

I am a huge fan of Sasek so I like every book he's wrote and illsutrated. This one abut Ireland is nice and funny and "greener".
As I think that Sasek is one of the best children illustrator I suggest this one and even the other ones. My daughter loves it and she learns many informations reading it.

Great book for my grandchildren for St. Pat's Day. Well written, good pics and terrific information about Ireland.

The illustrator, M.Sasek, lives up to his reputation with wonderfully illustrated images of Ireland both in the city and the countryside. (Be wary of amazon's packaging. I ordered a new book and part of the cover was dog eared)

Dr. Blaustein's book is destined to become a standard reference for teachers and students of History, English, American and Ethnic Studies. The author simplifies the complex connections between Appalachian and Scotish traditions. He concludes that despite the pressures from dominant cultures, traditions are as tough as thistles and briers to destroy. Dr. Blaustein applies folklore and oral history techniques to prove that cultural revitalization movements have helped empower people who are oppressed by outside colonial forces. This book is a strong reminder of the power of poetry and music to reinforce and regenerate ethnic identity.

This comparison between the marginalized peoples of Scotland and Appalachia deserves a wider reading than it's likely going to receive. Its theme transcends the treatment of these two groups by "mainstream cultures" and shows how marginalized people in general use their creative skills to rise above discrimination and shame. Blaustein is both a part of the Appalachian culture, having lived in East Tennessee since 1970, and yet removed from it as well, having grown up in Brooklyn. His years in Brooklyn helped him understand the Appalachian mindset, because, as he writes, "the Borough of Brooklyn is to the City of New York what Appalachia is to the United States--marginal, subordinate, and popularly portrayed as uncouth." This book describes the rise of the Appalachian studies movement in the region's colleges and universities and chronicles the growth of Scottish heritage celebrations in the United States, through excerpts from a personal interview with Waynesville, North Carolina, ballad singer and activisit Flora MacDonald Gammon, a driving force behind the annual Highland Games, held on Grandfather Mountain in Western North Carolina. A particularly powerful chapter recounts instances of "colonialism" among public school teachers who derided pupils for usages such as "hit" instead of "it." Blaustein strongly reinforces the notion that dialect is unrelated to intelligence. With the deplorable proposal by CBS to create a hillbilly reality series, this book is especially timely for those who seek to understand, rather than mock, the Appalachian mountain people and their rich and complex culture.

Richard Blaustein's book is fascinating comparative study of Appalachian and Scottish culture. The approach provides ways to ascertain salient features in the areas' contemporary culture that are derived from different, yet similar, historical backgrounds. Blaustein uses this analysis to demonstrate ways that folklore and literary arts contribute to the revitalization of culture and community life. Blaustein extends this argument to show that this type of revitalization is a creative resource for ameliorating psychological stresses and for unifying people politically to resist hegemonic forces in the wider society. Blaustein's critique of critical theory and deconstruction of deconstructionism are especially important contributions. This book is an important addition to post-postmodernist discourse, and it also serves as a great introduction to terrific writers from Appalachia and Scotland.

Full of interesting characters, cruel soldiers, vicious fellow prisoners. The physical desolation and emotional desperation these women experienced during their respective prison sentences is unforgettable! This book should be required reading for anyone interested in modern-day tragedies.

I think everyone should read this book. It only serves to make us realise how lucky we are and how we, especially in the West, can have nothing to complain about. The sufferings of the various women who in some cases had to fell trees in -50 degrees centigrade for 600grms of bread a day is inspirational. At some points I felt that I was ready fictional accounts as I found it hard to believe that mans inhumanity to man, or in this case, woman could be so mind numbingly awful - and for what.....truly terrifying. Exceptional read you will not be able to put it down and the strength of character of the women will stay with you long after you have finished the book.

This book is, without doubt, shocking, shaming, horrifying and representative of the utter degradation of the Stalin regime but equally, it is filled with courage, strength of spirit, endurance and compassion for one's fellow human beings. A collection of memoirs of women imprisoned in Stalin's purges, reading this is like having a series of intimate conversations with women caught up in something so evil and wicked it defies imagination.

I found myself wondering about the Russian psyche, the nature of communism, the parameters of dictatorship and the increasing obsession today's governments have with political correctness. There are scarcely words to describe the future an ordinary, well-educated, Moscow career girl could face for telling a slight joke, having vengeful neighbours, marrying the wrong man, being the child of the wrong parents or, indeed, doing nothing wrong at all. This stuff makes Orwell's 1984 look like The Simpsons and Kafka like Harry Potter. So unjust and farcical were the bases on which these women were incarcerated in prisons and camps no different than those created by Hitler and the Nazis, that you feel the victims and, indeed, the whole of the USSR was caught up in an indescribable nightmare. Truly, I don't have words to describe how sick and devastated I felt on completing this book. Read it and weep. This truly was Armageddon.

A good range of resources were used in this study. The author goes beyond the' them and us' stereotype of relationships in nineteenth century Ireland i.e. Protestant landlord v Catholic tenant, and explores the realities of life for people living on Otway estate in Templederry, Co.Tipperary

Miriam Lambe captures the activities and history of the life on the Castle Otway Estate from 1750-1853 in a manner rarely achieved by Historians.

The book is highly recommended if your ancestors came from Tipperary. The book gives a rare insight of life under the English landlord on an Irish Estate.

Miriam Lambe captures the activities and history of the life on the Castle Otway Estate from 1750-1853 in a manner rarely achieved by Historians.

The book is highly recommended if your ancestors came from Tipperary. The book gives a rare insight of life under the English landlord on an Irish Estate.

THis was a favorite of my daughter's. Especially the recipe for Baklava! IT was delicious. I purchased both as support material for our study of Ancient Rome and Greece and enjoyed them volumes. The information was presented well and the activities were worthwhile. Highly recommend!

What a great resource to stimulate young minds! I've got girls in 5th and 7th grades, and have had a hard time finding reference material that interests and challenges them. This book does both. I wish there were more like it.

What a nifty book! Not only do kids learn about the inventions of the Greeks, but how those discoveries help us today. Kids learn about Greek gods, philosophy, architecture, science, math, medicine, art, and even about the start of the Olympics. The "words to know" (ie: Sparta and acropolis) and the quiz questions (ie: What were the three uses of olive oil in ancient Greece?) sprinkled throughout the book invite dialogue, and the 15 activities bring the book's information alive. My favorites? Make your own baklava and write a letter in Greek. This book is interesting, well written, and engaging. A must-read for any kid (or adult!) wanting to immerse themselves in Greek history.

I read this book cover-to-cover before, during, and after a recent trip to Venice. I have to say that more than any of the other books about Venice that I looked at, this one had the most profound and positive impact on my trip and understanding of the city. No, it certainly won't tell you where to stay or eat, and you probably won't find yourself looking up churches and museums in it like you might in the Blue Guide or some other book. But the centuries of travelers' observations compiled in its pages will bring color and life to the city and its monuments and public spaces in a way that no single guide or history could. The passages in this book are not merely informative; they are also highly engaging and range from touchingly serious to laugh-out-loud funny. If you are going to Venice, or if you merely want to travel there from your armchair, get this book before you even consider getting any other!

I bought this anthology in the months prior to a trip to Venice, after reading editor John Julius Norwich's excellent "A History of Venice", to which it makes a terrific companion volume. These first-hand historical accounts present a colorful review of divergent viewpoints on "La Serinissima", from its distant origins in the Dark Ages up through the 20th century.

Though billed as a "traveller's companion", this is not a guide book in any sense of the phrase; rather, it serves to give one a sense of the history and character of the city and its most prominent features through letters, journals, and essays spanning the nearly 1400 years of its existence. Amongst the commentators are humorists like Mark Twain, great eccentrics like Thomas Coryat, litterateurs such as Henry James and aesthetes like John Ruskin -- and their contrasting views create a multifaceted portrait of this unique city, full of surprises and compulsively readable.

For those who want a sense of the hidden history and culture under the dazzling surface of Venice, who want to more deeply appreciate the city and its sights while experiencing them, this collection is highly recommended.

Lord Norwich is a consumate storyteller with an incredible ability to weave various sources of information into a compelling narrative--or in this case, a series of anecdotes. I can hardly recommend this highly enough. His choices of material are brilliant, his narration masterful, and the overall sense of place perfectly fitted to the Most Serene Republic.

Also not to miss is his A History of Venice and Paradise of Cities: Venice In the 19th Century. The letters written by Euphemia Ruskin inspired several characters in my second novel!

Venice for Pleasure is useful for the traveler or writer, as well, as is Jan Morris' The World of Venice.

Another excellent book by John Fine.

Treasures of the Spanish Main: Shipwrecked Galleons in the New World tells of gold, treasure, and fleets which promised riches to divers who would unearth them. It's a history of the ships who sailed the 'Golden Highway' laden with gold - and it uses both historical record and the diving explorations of modern treasure hunters to spice its story of pirates, wrecks, and history. An excellent adventure evolves.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I live in Nevada, which if it were a country would be the third largest producer of gold in the world. Each year Nevada produces a bit more than 7,000,000 ounces of gold. Mr. Fine has looked at the Spanish records and in the years between 1493 and 1780 103,246,510 ounces of gold were produced and sent back to Spain in approximately 17,000 voyages. Some estimates are that 10% of those voyages never made it back to Spain. That's ten million ounces of gold at the bottom of the ocean somewhere. There are also emeralds, silver and other treasures.

Unfortunately, finding and then recovering anything of value is no simple matter. This book goes into detail about seven treasure ships that sunk and were then subsequently found and from which treasure has been removed. The sunken ships, the men who found them, and the results brought to the surface are discussed.

This is a beautifully printed, well illustrated, and written with a great understanding of the challenges faced by the salvagers.

Elizabeth Hamby Carlson's Trip To Ireland takes two classic quilt patterns - Irish Chain and Trip around the World - and combines them for impact and innovation. From Irish Squares to an easy Irish Trip, this is filled with colorful photos and examples of blends.

This book is extremely helpful. Everything is spelled out clearly and simply - right down to pressing instructions (which are extremely important with these quilts).

The quilts in this book are breathtakingly beautiful with using only squares. If you're sick of dealing with half-square triangles (I sure am!) you're sure to find something you like in this book. It's not in print anymore, but I bought it used through Amazon and was very pleased with the perfect condition (and price) of the book.

Bergen's well researched and tightly written account of one German sect, the _The German Christians_ , offers a sobering account of the political consequences of a Christianity turned anti-doctrinal, anti-hierarchical, anti-Roman, people-centered, and focused on "feelings" rather than objective reality. This movement, self-designated as "The People's Church," celebrated its uniquely German form of Christianity in emotion-charged liturgies cleansed of traditional rituals and language. Stripped of long-established ritual, rules, tradition,theology, and foreign co-religionists, this wholly-German sect pressed its reconfigured notions of Christianity into the service of Nazism.

Trend spotters will note ominous parallels to developments in contemporary (increasingly horizontal forms of) American Christianity. Bergen offers evidence that tinkering with religious language, liturgy, rules and doctrine can have profound socio- political consequences.

Must read for all German history buffs as well as readers interested in Christian liturgy and theology. A complete copy of my review of _Twisted Cross_ appears in the September 1998 issue of Adoremus Bulletin.

Adherents of the German Christian movement of the 1930's and 1940's saw Nazism and Christianity as movements with shared values and a common agenda. They were given official support by the Nazi party for a time and the first and only Protestant Reich Bishop, Ludwig Mueller, was nominated from among their ranks. While traditional church historians have sought to minimize this movement as an aberration, Bergen provides evidence to support the thesis that it remained a popular mass movement throughout the years of Nazi rule. The evidence she presents further demonstrates that this Protestant sect blended together Nazi and Christian doctrine not out of expediency but out of faith. She analyzes the views not only of the leaders of the movement but also of its rank and file in order to capture a sense of their religious as well as psychological and political motivations. For most of the book, her focus is on understanding how the at once nationalist and anti-doctrinal theology of the church evolved under the pressures of the Nazi regime. In this regard, her account of their escalating struggle to purge Christianity of its Jewish roots is of particular interest. The last chapter, Postwar Echoes, gives and interesting account of the way in which German Christians tried to reconcile their old allegiances in the post war period and the way in which other Protestant sects used the high-visibility collaboration of the German Christians to avoid thorough de-Nazification at the end of the war. Hard to find documentary photographs showing the widespread blending of Christian and Nazi symbolism in church life enhance the overall value of the work.

The two previous reviews may be well-intended, but are not quite accurate from what I read in the book. The book is an excellent indictment of Christian anti-semitism fully realized on a national level, revealing the inherent hatred of Jews so easily supported by the Christian Bible. I highly recommend this book to every Christian as a tool for some soul-searching concerning the true nature of their faith.

The German Christians were not a sect. They were not a separate entity from Christian churches in Germany. It was a movement *within* typical German churches with large numbers of supporters and great influence on all Protestant Christians in Germany.

In Germany at the time, and "In July 1933 Protestant church elections across Germany filled a range of positions from parish representatives to senior consistory councillors. Representatives of the German Christian movement won two thirds of the votes cast. Hitler himself had urged election of German Christians, who, he claimed in a radio address, represented the "new" in the church. Affirmed by the biggest voter turnout ever in a Protestant church election and soon ensconced in the bishops' seats of all but three of Germany's Protestant regional churches, in 1933 the movement seemed unstoppable." (pg. 7)

Protestant refers to Lutheran, Reformed,and united churches in the category of Evangelical churches (not quite the same as used here in the US today).(pg. 5) SO the German Christians were not a relative few, a sect, a cult, or the "not true" Christians but instead a vast number of the Christian population---all devoted to the elimination of Jews from culture, from the nation, and physically from the land of the living. How proud their Aryan Jesus (descended from Viking tribes in Galilee!!!) must be of Christianity in Germany!

This book documents the driving Christian force in Christian churches of Nazi Germany, and exposes the complicity of Christianity in the Holocaust. The everyday Germans did not sanctimoniously sit in the pews unaware of what was going on in the streets, ghettoes and camps. Jew hatred was a national endeavor taught from the pulpits, the teacher's lectern, and recited by the children of that Christian nation. Christians made up the armies, execution squads, and camp staffs who murdered men, women, children, and infants for their Nazi Christ and fatherland.

This book also reveals some of the religio-social mechanics that allow such failures in humanity. It can happen here.

Jesus taught repentence. Admission of guilt precedes correction and rejection of sin and evil. Christian? Read this book and start the process.