Monthly Archives: June, 2009
Cattle Lords and Clansmen: The Social Structure of Early Ireland by Nerys Patterson
Nerys Patterson is trying to provide an analysis of the social structure of medieval Ireland. Her main focus is on the period between the arrival of Christianity and the pre-Norman era. For her sources she uses a combination, of more often than not, fragmented primary sources and sociological and anthropological methods. She uses explanations and …
Europe Between the Oceans by Barry Cunliffe
Europe dominated the world during the course of the second millennium CE, this domination came in the form of arts and sciences. The influence of Europe came from the mobility of its people. It only took a few centuries for the world to come under the influence of European culture. This book doesn’t look at …
The Druids: A History by Ronald Hutton
Back when this book was being publicized just before it came out I was itching to get it. I even pre-ordered it, because I had read all of Ronald Hutton’s books and I knew the kind of scholarly study that goes into them. I couldn’t wait for the day it arrived and when it did, …
The Celtic Consciousness edited by Robert O’Driscoll
The Celtic Consciousness is a collection of essays and lectures that the editor had put together from a Celtic symposium that took place in Canada in 1978. The authors of the essays ranged from the very well known to the obscure. The editor tells us from the beginning that he is bringing these essays together …
Pre-Christian Ireland by Peter Harbison
Pre-Christian Ireland deals with the archeology of Ireland’s prehistoric period up to the coming of Christianity. The author of this book was trying to make a survey of this period taking into account the updated research and finds made of that period up until the time of the printing of the book. This book uses …
Pagan Celtic Ireland by Barry Raftery
Pagan Celtic Ireland is a book that was written with the intent of presenting the new discoveries made about the Irish Iron Age. These discoveries involved new dates established with better techniques in radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology. The main goal of this book is to give a picture of life in the Irish Iron age …
In Search of Ancient Ireland
In Search of Ancient Ireland is a book designed around a PBS Series. The authors decided to write the book because there have been many new discoveries made in the last 100 years about the history and pre-history of Ireland. These discoveries have been made in the fields of archeology and vernacular records. I think …
The Celts: A History by Peter Ellis
Historians who talked about the Celts can be fit into three categories. The first category includes the Classical writers who wrote to demonize them, and the writers who wrote to show how unsophisticated they are. The second category includes the people who wrote to show what a great society they were and how misunderstood they …
The Ancient Celts by Barry Cunliffe
In today’s world, it can be said that there is a huge interest in everything Celtic. Ask anyone who they think the Celts are however and you will get a different answer depending on how this person perceives the Celts. The view of the Celts could also depend on what the person you are speaking …
The Celtic Realms by Miles Dillon and Nora Chadwick
To write a reading response to this book would suggest that the book had good points and bad ones. Unfortunately, this assumption is not true. The only good thing that came out of this book is a working idea of what to look for while reading a book, especially a history book. In the first …
