I would really like to learn a little about the history of Ireland before I go there. Rick Steve's suggests several books: For a quick overview, Richard Killeen's A Short History of Ireland is a well-illustrated walk through key events. Ireland: A Concise History (O'Brien) is just that, while How the Irish Saved Civilization (Cahill) shows how this "island of saints and scholars" changed the course of world history. In Traveller's History of Ireland, Peter Neville leads readers on a tour through Ireland's complicated history. Can anyone recommend which one(s) of them are a lighter read? I am in college, and I have a LOT of heavy textbooks to plow through. Are any of those books informative, but a little lighter/easier to read? Thanks in advance for your help and advice! :D
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Washington, DC, USA
571 posts
Robin,
The Cahill book is both short and an excellent read. It's also filled with interesting history. I haven't read the others. I learned the hard way, both in college and outside reading ever since, that there is no "easy read" of Irish history. If you want to avoid heavy nonfiction, Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes is beautifully written and gives you a sense of being poor in Ireland in the early 20th century. His brother Malachy McCourt has written a short history of Ireland that I haven't read yet, but knowing Malachy, I'm guessing it's funny and engaging. If you like novels and don't mind long, serious ones, an American author named Thomas Flanagan wrote a trilogy of novels about three periods of revolution in Ireland: The Year of the French, the Tenants of Time, and the End of the Hunt. They are all excellent and underrated as literature. I particularly like the second book. Happy reading!