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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,639 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    I was trying to skill up on some military history, from the 17th-19th Century, and these are some interesting books:

    T. Blanning, Frederick the Great, (Penguin, 2015)

    John France, Perilous Glory: The Rise of Western Military Power, (Yale University Press, 2013)

    Michael Howard, War in European History, (OUP Oxford; 1 edition 2001)

    Piers Platt, From the Arquebus to the Breechloader, (Amazon Press, 2016) - Kindle

    D. Showalter, Frederick the Great: A Military History, (Frontline Books, 2012)

    M. Van Crevald, The Culture of War, ( Presidio Press, 2008 ).

    Russell F. Weigley, The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo, (Indiana University Press, 2004)


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,965 ✭✭✭laoch na mona


    for the year thats in it Soviet Century by Moshe Lewin. A great read if you want an insight to the evolution of the USSR


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,642 ✭✭✭MRnotlob606


    for the year thats in it Soviet Century by Moshe Lewin. A great read if you want an insight to the evolution of the USSR

    Might check that one out!


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭bobbyss


    Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey. A good read. It is quite pacy.

    Only read chapters on Florence Nightingale and General Gordon. Gordon used to write hundreds of letters and I often wonder how all these managed to be sent off and get back to England. The telegram was making its first appearance around this time too I think but am very much open to correction.

    Frank Power, whom I have heard of before vaguely, died around the 1884 during Khartoum. He was a well respected Dublin journalist working, I think, for The Times.


  • Registered Users Posts: 883 ✭✭✭ilkhanid


    the Caliphate-Hugh Kennedy. A history of the Muslim Caliphs in history and the evolution of that office to it's current meaning and the latest pretender to the Caliphate.

    Prisoners of Geography:Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall.

    This book explains how the geographical situation of countries and regions dictates so much of their present historical and economic state.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭bobbyss


    Am enjoying the First Casulty by Philip Knightley. It is about how wars were covered by journalists.

    Interesting to note that he argues the father of war correspondents to be an Irishman called William Russell who reported from the Crimea. Another important war correspondent was another Irishman called Edwin Godkin. And an American of Irish extraction called MacGahan was an important correspondent whose (accurate) reports on the Russo-Turkish War were seen as highly important.

    Has anyone read anything else by Knightely? He is very good.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,639 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    The military history Hapsburg and Central Europe has been a topic I've been reading about of late and would recommend the following:
    The Thirty year war by CV Wedgewood
    Grand Strategy of the Hapsburg Empire by A Mitchell.
    Thunder on the Danube, 1809 Campaign by John Gill.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,184 ✭✭✭TomSweeney


    I am in two minds between these 2 books about Ancient Egypt

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Fall-Ancient-Egypt/dp/1408810026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535132110&sr=8-1&keywords=rise+and+fall+of+ancient+egypt

    https://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-Egypt-Pyramid-Kingdom/dp/1250030137/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1/147-2709758-5103102?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RGESB2E3805RRTP77CX8

    Volume I version of the John Romer one ... the fact that it has a Volume II tells me it's pretty detailed and perhaps better for the student.

    I as a lay reader on this subject might be better off with Toby Wilkinsons one - they both get good reviews though.

    what do you think ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭bobbyss


    With a view to the upcoming anniversary of the War of Independence can anyone recommend a good comprehensive account?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 359 ✭✭Thomas_IV


    bobbyss wrote: »
    With a view to the upcoming anniversary of the War of Independence can anyone recommend a good comprehensive account?

    There's one I could recommend but I also recommend to read the review about it stated in the linked website:

    http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/10/28/book-review-a-city-in-turmoil-dublin-1919-1921/#.XAelVU3QZKo

    I have read it once and like in that review, the author takes some lenghts in some chapters on subjects which I found rather dismissive to my taste. Some details the author has some chapters extended with. But all in all, it gives you a different view on that time cos it covers the daily life of the ordinary people as well, not just having the focus on the usual Black & Tans vs. the IRA stories.

    What I can tell from my book collection on Irish history about that specific time period is, that one has to pick up some various and several literature to read about it. But there might be some few in the book shops that cover the whole of it.

    www.books.ie has a good listing of history books to select from.

    It all depends on some special interest even on that subject and I must say that I have very often placed mine on Dublin and Michael Collins. Things have been a bit different in rural areas, but when you brows on the website of The Irish Story, you'll find many very interesting articles to plenty topics in Irish history.

    I hold that above mentioned website as of the best in Ireland and highly recommendable.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,810 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    TomSweeney wrote: »
    I am in two minds between these 2 books about Ancient Egypt

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Fall-Ancient-Egypt/dp/1408810026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535132110&sr=8-1&keywords=rise+and+fall+of+ancient+egypt

    https://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-Egypt-Pyramid-Kingdom/dp/1250030137/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1/147-2709758-5103102?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RGESB2E3805RRTP77CX8

    Volume I version of the John Romer one ... the fact that it has a Volume II tells me it's pretty detailed and perhaps better for the student.

    I as a lay reader on this subject might be better off with Toby Wilkinsons one - they both get good reviews though.

    what do you think ?


    Just was posting the same ! - but was only looking at Romer.
    I'll check the others too


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,587 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Keen to read a book on Daniel O'Connell but theres a good few out there. Any recommendations on whats considered the best biography of him?


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,587 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Muahahaha wrote: »
    Keen to read a book on Daniel O'Connell but theres a good few out there. Any recommendations on whats considered the best biography of him?

    Anyone?


  • Registered Users Posts: 196 ✭✭Ascendant


    Muahahaha wrote: »
    Anyone?


    Seán Ó Faoláin's King of the Beggars is an oldie but goldie.


  • Registered Users Posts: 196 ✭✭Ascendant




  • Registered Users Posts: 19,587 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Ascendant wrote: »
    Seán Ó Faoláin's King of the Beggars is an oldie but goldie.

    Thanks Ascendant, will dig that out of the library :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Peter Taylors series of books on the Troubles (Provos 1997), (Loyalists 1997) & (Brits 1999.

    Here's a small bit about the IRA's descion on bombing London in 1973.
    Peter Taylor asks Billy mcKee who died a few weeks ago on the thought process behind taking the war to England.
    "There had been a dicussion early on about bombing England. I thought we should wait until there was a crisis (in the IRA) before we should start. I agreed with the strategy but I didn't agree with bombing civilians, pubs that were full of people and so forth. I didn't condone that. Blowing up the Houses of Parliament wouldn't have made any difference to me but not ordinary civilians."


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Another interesting book I read latley was a about journalist stories from the North when the war was in full swing, say Ian woods would write 2-3,4 pages about an event he witnessed like Sean Grahams Bookmakers Massacre, Peter Taylor wrote about Bloody Sunday, Jim McDowell wrote about the murder of Martin O'Hagan, Sam Smyth wrote about a night spent visisting Loyalists clubs with drag Sammy Duddy & UDA Commander David Payne & so on,


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Ordered two books the other day.

    Kieran Allen's -1916: Ireland's Revolutionary Tradition - which takes a Socialist view of the Irish revolutionary period. https://www.mayobooks.ie/1916-Irelands-Revolutionary-Tradition-Allen
    I really like this description of it.
    "
    The six days of intense fighting that followed set the course for the next 100 years of Irish history. Today, however, the radical vision of the Easter Rising sits awkwardly with an Irish state which has become a haven for big business.
    Kieran Allen's fascinating alternative history follows the thread of Ireland's 'revolutionary tradition' - an uneasy marriage of socialism and republicanism- as it has unraveled over a century. From the strikes and land redistribution in the aftermath of the Rising, to the current campaigns against privatizations and austerity, the book reveals the complexities of a revolutionary tradition that continues to haunt the establishment today. "


    And

    Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald's - UDA: Inside The Heart of Loyalist Terror - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uda-Inside-Heart-Loyalist-Terror/dp/1844880206
    Which will then mean I have a book on all the 3 main paramilitaries of the war (the Provos & Sticks were guerrillas not paramilitaries and I have tons on the Provos & one on the Sticks.), the Red Hand Commando is covered in the "UVF: End Game" book and the IPLO is covered in "INLA:Deadly Divisions".

    And while typing this I realized the main units are covered in books, UVF, UDA, INLA, IPLO, RHC, Dissidents, Glenanne Gang, IRA's South Armagh &, Derry & Belfast Brigade, English units, but no East Tyrone Brigade.

    Would anyone like to help a book on the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade?


  • Registered Users Posts: 334 ✭✭El Vino


    Can anyone recommend some good books on the struggle for Catholic Emancipation? My son is doing a project as part of his A level course work. It is taught very differently in the UK than I remember and he is keen to get a different perspective. Is it covered well in the Oxford Companion to Irish History for example or perhaps an objective biography of O'Connell if one exists?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    El Vino wrote: »
    Can anyone recommend some good books on the struggle for Catholic Emancipation? My son is doing a project as part of his A level course work. It is taught very differently in the UK than I remember and he is keen to get a different perspective. Is it covered well in the Oxford Companion to Irish History for example or perhaps an objective biography of O'Connell if one exists?

    I used to have a O'Connell biography but gave it away, but the "The OXford Illustrated History of Ireland" does cover a good section of the book to Catholic Emancipation, starting with the origins of the Catholic Association, certainly worth a read.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,639 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    I'm finishing off the book, The King and the Catholics: England, Ireland, and the Fight for Religious Freedom, 1780-1829 by Antonia Fraser. She does an excellent of job of creating a context for the era in terms of the politics and personalities and shows the dynamism O'Connell in lobbying for the Repeal.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    Manach wrote: »
    I'm finishing off the book, The King and the Catholics: England, Ireland, and the Fight for Religious Freedom, 1780-1829 by Antonia Fraser.

    She is a daughter of the previous Lord Longford, if I remember correctly.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Hi all,

    I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for pre-twentieth century Irish history. I don't mind about scope but there seems to be very little about the initial conquest of Ireland by the English, the plantations, 1641, 1798, etc. I have Robert Kee's Green Flag which I've not read but I'm really looking for something predating 1900.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭dubhthach


    Hi all,

    I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for pre-twentieth century Irish history. I don't mind about scope but there seems to be very little about the initial conquest of Ireland by the English, the plantations, 1641, 1798, etc. I have Robert Kee's Green Flag which I've not read but I'm really looking for something predating 1900.

    The Nine Years War, 1593-1603: O'Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution
    (James O'Neill back dates to 1593 having the actions against Maguire been part of proxy war been fought by Hugh O'Neill)
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nine-Years-War-1593-1603-Revolution/dp/184682754X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=nine+year+war&qid=1574075166&s=books&sr=1-1
    71DjAKo2d1L.jpg


    Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages (2003 reprint/paperback -- kindle version very good value)

    51phQImquwL.jpg

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaelic-Gaelicized-Ireland-Middle-Ages/dp/1843510030/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=9781843510031&linkCode=qs&qid=1574074789&s=books&sr=1-1


    Early Christian Ireland (Paperback)
    51uLSW0iFIL.jpg
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Christian-Ireland-T-Charles-Edwards/dp/0521037166

    Chunks of which can be read on Google Books, Charles-Edwards deconstruction of origin of both Uí Néill and the Airgialla is a Tour-de-force.
    https://books.google.ie/books?id=g6yq2sKLlFkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false


    Medieval Ireland (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks)
    71SAC1MTGmL.jpg

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Medieval-Ireland-Cambridge-Textbooks/dp/1107651654/ref=pd_sim_14_5/262-0306847-9174579?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1107651654&pd_rd_r=0eeca8ca-3400-4997-a2f2-24e46bad1e1d&pd_rd_w=W3gRq&pd_rd_wg=wTC9m&pf_rd_p=32ad4a08-4896-4172-a2ea-821c9be00310&pf_rd_r=B1EZGCFZMM6PQA5FPVA3&psc=1&refRID=B1EZGCFZMM6PQA5FPVA3

    Early Medieval Ireland 400-1200 (2nd Edition)
    51GfrgPhvcL.jpg
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Medieval-Ireland-400-1200-Daibhi-Croinin/dp/1138885436/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/262-0306847-9174579?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1138885436&pd_rd_r=252e2e5d-d6bd-4e75-8a99-a8b9bbf06dbd&pd_rd_w=uJj9q&pd_rd_wg=IRZAG&pf_rd_p=cc188cba-1892-42b3-956f-6c67d0ab7a00&pf_rd_r=4H5E7PXVHHNN0Y6HCF5F&psc=1&refRID=4H5E7PXVHHNN0Y6HCF5F

    The 'Mere Irish' and the Colonisation of Ulster, 1570-1641 (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series)

    71SEOwO5CmL.jpg
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colonisation-1570-1641-Cambridge-Imperial-Post-Colonial/dp/3319593625

    Google book preview mode: https://books.google.ie/books?id=iHg5DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=colonisation+of+ulster&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin956t0PPlAhVBrHEKHa9jDSoQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q&f=false


    The Roots of English Colonialism in Ireland (Critical Perspectives on Empire)

    516rtwBkILL.jpg

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Colonialism-Ireland-Critical-Perspectives-ebook/dp/B0075D1V9O/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Roots+of+English+Colonialism+in+Ireland&qid=1574075952&sr=8-1

    Chunks can be read on Google books:
    https://books.google.ie/books?id=L5IgAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Appreciate that, dubhthach. I'll have a look at some of those.

    I was hoping to avoid textbooks but I'm sure they're fine.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,639 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    Going through a French course so getting some background info from the following:

    Age of Napoleon by A. Horne - Some Short Corsican bloke
    Metronome by L. Deustsch - Modern history of Paris
    History of France - J Bainville - Overview of French history up till 1930s


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 11,391 Mod ✭✭✭✭Captain Havoc


    Manach wrote: »
    Going through a French course so getting some background info from the following:

    Age of Napoleon by A. Horne - Some Short Corsican bloke
    Metronome by L. Deustsch - Modern history of Paris
    History of France - J Bainville - Overview of French history up till 1930s

    What French course are you doing?

    https://ormondelanguagetours.com

    Walking Tours of Kilkenny in English, French or German.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,639 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    An Open University language course on French Language and Culture. So far, so good - it provides insights and a overview of various Francophone countries but I would recommend doing a Duolingo in parallel to get the full benefit of the language. Metronome is available in French as well as an English translation, so reading both is a good practical exercise.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2 wgman


    I've become very interested in the Irish War of Independence recently so I'll post some of books on that subject that I've obtained in the last couple of years.

    "Kerry's fighting story, 1916-21 : told by the men who made it : with a unique pictorial record of the period"


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