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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,417 ✭✭✭GRMA


    Felons Track my Michael Doheny, contemporary of Mitchel

    http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14468/14468-h/14468-h.htm

    Read the last conquest of ireland written by mitchel too, its excellent. (available free online too)


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,218 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Free to download until the end of March - A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.

    http://eu2013.ie/100objects/


  • Registered Users Posts: 215 ✭✭Liberalbrehon


    I read 1776 America and Britain at War by David McCullough,
    A brilliant insight into that seminal year in the American revolution. Well worth the read and has got me very interested in that couple of decades 70's and 80's as well as the subsequent war of 1812. Very interesting times and people.
    And that Paul Revere was not the hero he was made out to be post 1860's.


  • Registered Users Posts: 42 hardy buck salmon


    The Green Flag - A History of Irish Nationalism
    By Robert Kee.


  • Registered Users Posts: 53 ✭✭ECF


    Apart from Padraig Yeats' book can anyone recommend an accessible book on the Dublin lockout?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭the_monkey


    King Leopolds Ghost, I have heard this is excellent, I will give it a go.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,845 ✭✭✭Hidalgo


    the_monkey wrote: »
    King Leopolds Ghost, I have heard this is excellent, I will give it a go.

    Flicked through it in a bookshop last week, looks very interesting. Mainly told from the perspective of one Belgian young man who traveled the region (whose name escapes me.


  • Registered Users Posts: 368 ✭✭otterj


    Looking for a good book on the factors that caused world war 1.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,845 ✭✭✭Hidalgo


    otterj wrote: »
    Looking for a good book on the factors that caused world war 1.

    I'm sure bookshops will be stocking up on this theme and the war itself with the centenary upon us, most already have.

    The Origins of the First World War by William Mulligan might be worth your while. Book argues that the war wasn't necessarily a forgone conclusion.

    Hew Strachans The First World War is a very readable account of the war itself. Very good for an overview if the entire conflict


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,937 ✭✭✭Cool_CM




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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,121 ✭✭✭mossie


    Looking for recommendations on good books on ancient Greece and Rome - books giving an over view rather than specifics to start with. Also any good book on the Franco-Prussian war?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 164 ✭✭Thomas_.


    For what led to WWI and what happened during WWI:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Crisis-1911-1918-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141442050

    For the aftermath of WWI:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Crisis-1911-1918-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141442050

    Both books are written by Winston Spencer Churchill and it gives the views of an Insider who was himself involved in the politics of pre-WWI, as First Lord of the Admirality up to his resignation for the Dardanelles desaster. Serving in Flanders afterwards and returning to government posts.

    Both books are very interesting and I would highly recommend both of them, to those Irish Readers who can overcome their reluctancy towards the author. There are three chapters on Irish matters in the book "the aftermath" as to see via the second link.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14 Scraiclad


    Anyone know of some good books about early Christian/Gaelic ireland or a non biased book about the Troubles?


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


    Scraiclad wrote: »
    Anyone know of some good books about early Christian/Gaelic ireland or a non biased book about the Troubles?

    it may not be what you are looking for but Bernadette Devlin's autobiography is a valuable account for anyone who want's to understand why working class nationalists embraced armed republicanism.

    from civil rights to armalites by niall o dochartaigh, is a good academic book on the same period. It really helps explain how the troubles started

    toby Harnden's bandit country is a good account of the war in south armagh.

    mad dog, Johnny Adair's autobiography is helpful to understand the loyalists perspective.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14 Scraiclad


    Thanks they all look worth looking into, especially Bandit Country. Any ideas on Gaelic Ireland? Pre-1600s sort of thing.


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


    Scraiclad wrote: »
    Thanks they all look worth looking into, especially Bandit Country. Any ideas on Gaelic Ireland? Pre-1600s sort of thing.

    Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland by Kenneth Nicholas is a very good readable book on this period


  • Registered Users Posts: 883 ✭✭✭ilkhanid


    mossie wrote: »
    Looking for recommendations on good books on ancient Greece and Rome - books giving an over view rather than specifics to start with. Also any good book on the Franco-Prussian war?

    Anything by Michael Grant is good, but they might be OoP


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 233 ✭✭Thomas_..


    This is worth a reading for anyone who´s interested in the aftermath of the Easter Rising 1916:

    Easter Rising 1916: The Trials, by Seán Enright

    The book contains extracts from the files with the protocols on each of the tried by the Military Court which sentenced all of the signatories of the Proclamation to death.
    Quoted from the Website of the irishacademicpress (sorry, but I can´t post links yet):

    A pioneering study of the military trials of the Irish rebels following the Easter Rising. An engaging account of the rebellion drawing on recently released archives from the Public Records Office. Fascinating insight into the reactions of the British Government in dealing with the republican prisoners throughout the trials.


  • Registered Users Posts: 196 ✭✭Ascendant


    PDN wrote: »
    God's Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth's Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot by Alice Hogge. This is Hogge's first book, but she writes well and describes how the Jesuits sent missionaries to England during the anti-Catholic paranoia that followed the Spanish Armada. I was struck by the savagery of the persecution and the courage of the Jesuits. The missionaries slowly gained a foothold, helped by Nicholas Owen - the Oxford joiner who became a master architect of 'priest holes' and secret hiding places. The book skilfully builds up to the needless tragedy (for English Catholicism) of the Gunpowder Plot.

    A good 'prequel' would be The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I, by Stephen Alford, focusing on the early years of Elizabeth's reign, particularly the politics and international context, and the espionage and use of covert agents - both by the English state and the Catholic powers hostile to it.

    Am still halfway through it but so far, it seems to be arguing simultaneously that Tudor England was a paranoid police-state and that it had much to be paranoid about.

    Also, for a relatively 'light' read (in terms of length): Blood Runs Green, by Gillian O'Brien.

    Set a little earlier than my usual period of choice (early 20th c. Ireland/War of Independence) amidst the Fenians and Irish-Americans of Chicago, and the high-profile murder and subsequent investigation/trial that showed just how divided the community was.


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


    Started On Royalty by Jeremy Paxman. Very well written very fresh and very critical of the whole idea.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 233 ✭✭Thomas_..


    bobbyss wrote: »
    Started On Royalty by Jeremy Paxman. Very well written very fresh and very critical of the whole idea.

    Some time ago, I read Paxman´s book about Britain in WWI and I wasn´t that enthusiastic with his style.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,794 ✭✭✭Jesus.


    Thomas_.. wrote: »
    Some time ago, I read Paxman´s book about Britain in WWI and I wasn´t that enthusiastic with his style.

    Nor I Sir. But then again I'm not enthusiastic about any Loyalist adventurers.


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


    Mod Note:
    Please keep on topic and avoid uncivil responses.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭lizzylad84


    Recently finished the day michael collins was shot and half way through tim pat coogan michael collins book and am looking for other recommendations on collins/dev books


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 744 ✭✭✭Thomas_...


    lizzylad84 wrote: »
    Recently finished the day michael collins was shot and half way through tim pat coogan michael collins book and am looking for other recommendations on collins/dev books

    Everything by T. Ryle Dwyer is a good reading. I´ve read several books written by that author on Irish history especially Michael Collins / Dev and I prefer him over Pat Coogan.

    https://www.mercierpress.ie/authors/tryledwyer/


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


    lizzylad84 wrote: »
    Recently finished the day michael collins was shot and half way through tim pat coogan michael collins book and am looking for other recommendations on collins/dev books

    I have some books by Coogan and I have to say, even though he can be wordy, I really have enjoyed them. A great storyteller.


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


    bobbyss wrote: »
    I have some books by Coogan and I have to say, even though he can be wordy, I really have enjoyed them. A great storyteller.

    Coogan is a storyteller rather than an historian, but the successful writers usually are.
    I am ashamed to say that I have more books by this type of writer than serious historians. Especially when I am always telling people to check their stories with primary sources.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 744 ✭✭✭Thomas_...


    tabbey wrote: »
    Coogan is a storyteller rather than an historian, but the successful writers usually are.
    I am ashamed to say that I have more books by this type of writer than serious historians. Especially when I am always telling people to check their stories with primary sources.

    I wouldn´t say that a storyteller can´t match an historian so that one has the qualities of both. What often made it inconvenient to read his books are his small printed quotations. But I´m not like other readers who like to describe his works as being of a lesser value or merit, some even appear to hate him and that´s beyond any reason to me. I have his book about the Irish diaspora ("where ever green is worn") still left to read. Had an overview on the chapters and it promises some interesting parts, covering not just the usual continents where Irish People emigrated to in large numbers, but also parts of European countries.


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


    tabbey wrote: »
    Coogan is a storyteller rather than an historian, but the successful writers usually are.
    I am ashamed to say that I have more books by this type of writer than serious historians. Especially when I am always telling people to check their stories with primary sources.

    I wouldn't be ashamed at all. All writing is telling stories anyway. That's why I always love Dickens. But Coogan has a very easy style. I don't mind too much if he deviates. I enjoy that aspect of history and reading. There aren't many historians who can grab you. Antonia Fraser (?) is one such. Martin Gilbert too. People have a lot of good things to say about Anthony Beavor (?) and although i have his Spanish war book, I have still to read it. Dan Jones wrote some books on the Plantagenets which were good too.


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


    See this thread is a little dead.

    Anyway reading 'A Will To Power' a biography of Éamon De Valera. Written by the late Ronan Fanning (RIP).

    Has received great reviews from eminent historians of Irish history such as Roy Foster, Charles Townshend and Diarmaid Ferritter.


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