Reviews for Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland

The average rating for Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-23 00:00:00 Ryan Martone This book is a revisionist history of Ireland, published in 1989 as a set of essays by six academic professors. I found it condescending throughout. I read it to the end, hoping to find at least one of the contributors who didn't simplistically describe history as "clashes of classes." But, alas, from the year 77 to the date this "history" ended in about 1987, the people of Ireland are portrayed as either tribal class, lordship class, vassal class, magnate class, rural class, noble class, peasant class, ascendancy class, tenant class, landholding class, rebels, militants, degenerates, priests, bards, high society, low society, and of course the ultimate Marxian assignments: bourgeoisie and proletariat. Herr Marx himself is cited for his "observations" about the hierarchy of status among populations, which does at least suggest a source for these professors' fixation upon categorizing everyone according to some social "status." Besides general group classifications, each historical individual cited—from mythology through royal, political, literary, religious, military, or rebellious fields—is placed into one "class" or another, but if any is said to have moved from a birth class to another class during a lifetime, he or she is besmirched for some sort of betrayal. Every phase of the 2000-year-old history of Ireland is demeaned as it is summarized by these authors, and the conclusion on the final page seems to be that the Irish are hopelessly inept and unlikely to ever be able to govern themselves should they ultimately succeed in their recurring attempts to extricate themselves from rule by foreign invaders over the centuries. How ironic that since 1989, the Irish have proved these writers to be wildly mistaken. I will have to find another book to teach me the history of the past 27 years, so that I will understand how a tourist to Ireland today finds such a clean, orderly, and exquisitely beautiful land filled with kind, generous, industrious, prosperous, gracious, and welcoming native citizens. How, indeed, did such a degenerate culture produce such vast numbers of musicians, writers, craftsmen, corporate executives, politicians, professional golfers, small business operators, large business managers, agricultural producers, and every other skilled occupation one might name, both at home and throughout the world? Whatever accuracy is related about Irish history in this book is overridden by a tone of unnecessary snobbery that spoils the telling.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-07-31 00:00:00 Mona Deans It's great if you want an overview. A little dry for what it is. I gave it three stars because if you want a quick overview it will do the trick. Otherwise, I think you might want a longer form of the stories of Ireland. This really does cover from Vikings to the British, to Henry VIII and to the present day. I can't complain. I get that much out of it. But if you actually go to Ireland, well, that is a place that knows how to make a short story long. As such, it was kind of striking how this made a long story short. Depends what you want.