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Recommended Reading

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  • #272
    Mick Tator
    Registered Users Posts: 651 ✭✭✭Mick Tator


    bobbyss wrote: »
    Great stuff. It's good to get feedback. Will give her another go on that one. Currently reading life of George 111 by Janice Hadlow.


    A very good read, highly recommended, is 'Dublin under the Georges' by Constantia Maxwell. It flows very well and is interlaced with interesting 'obscure' details. She was the first female lecturer in TCD.


  • #273
    Rmulvany
    Registered Users Posts: 214 ✭✭Rmulvany


    I'm looking to do some reading into Dál Riata / Dalriada.
    If anyone can recommend any decent books I can add to my list that would be great :)


  • #274
    dubhthach
    Registered Users Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭dubhthach


    Rmulvany wrote: »
    I'm looking to do some reading into Dál Riata / Dalriada.
    If anyone can recommend any decent books I can add to my list that would be great :)

    Alot of the issues with regards reading about Dál Riata/Riada is that their Irish territories basically got swamped by expansion of the Dál nAraidi -- as a result by the 7th century onwards it's mostly restricted to Western Scotland.

    As a result most books are gonna be context of Scottish history. "Early Christian Ireland" by TM Charles-Edwards (University of Cambridge press) has a section on the wider North-East that can be read on Google Books:

    https://books.google.ie/books?id=g6yq2sKLlFkC&lpg=PP1&dq=early%20christian%20ireland&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q&f=false

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Christian-Ireland-T-Charles-Edwards/dp/0521037166/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Early+Christian+Ireland&qid=1620233548&s=books&sr=1-1


  • #275
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,659 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    For those who enjoy Classical history, I'd recommend the following recent reads/listens:

    Philip and Alexander by Adrian Goldsworthy
    The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus (on audiobook)


  • #276
    ancapailldorcha
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 37,001 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Manach wrote: »
    For those who enjoy Classical history, I'd recommend the following recent reads/listens:

    Philip and Alexander by Adrian Goldsworthy
    The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus (on audiobook)

    I impulsively bought the Goldsworthy book as a bit of an impulse. Glad to see someone else approves of it.

    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



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  • #277
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,622 ✭✭✭eire4


    bobbyss wrote: »
    Has anybody read Anne Chambers' Grace O'Malley book?
    I tried but just could not get past the first few pages with unrecognizable and unpronucable names. I thought the writer should be aware of how off putting this might be. Surely there's a story to be told? I just wonder if anyone has read this book and their thoughts. Any orher books on her?

    I have read it and thought it was excellent. Would recommend it for sure. I also read her The Geraldine Conspiracy which I though was very good as well.


  • #278
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,622 ✭✭✭eire4


    Amtmann wrote: »
    On general European history:

    Norman Davies, Europe: A History.

    ***

    On witch hunts:

    B.P. Levack, The witch-hunt in early modern Europe; Kramer and Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum.

    ****

    On the Black Death, see Ziegler's book of that title; for the BD in Ireland, see the book by Maria Kelly.

    ***

    On the emergence of twentieth-century forms of scientific racism - and I'm talking primary sources here - see

    Gobineau, Essay on the inequality of the human races (1853);
    HS Chamberlain, Foundations of the nineteenth-century 2 vols (1899);
    M. Grant, The Passing of the Great Race, or, the racial basis of European History (1916);
    Stoddard, The Rising Tide of Color against White World Supremacy;
    Hitler, Mein Kampf; see also

    Coon, The Races of Europe (1939);
    Ripley, The Races of Europe (1899);
    Deniker, The Races of Man (1899).

    ***

    Biographies

    Bainton, Here I stand: a life of Martin Luther;
    Guy, My Heart is my own: Mary Queen of Scots;
    Jenkins, Churchill.

    ***

    Irish interest

    For medieval-early modern, see anything by:

    Hiram Morgan;
    David Edwards;
    Brendan Bradshaw;
    J. Ohlmeyer;
    N. Canny;
    K. Nicholls;
    Simms;
    Ellis;
    D. O'Corrain.

    Of course, for modern Irish, see Roy Foster's Modern Ireland 1600-1972.

    ***

    I could go on...!

    I liked Norman Davies History of Europe very well done as was the History of Wales by John Davies.


  • #279
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,622 ✭✭✭eire4


    edolan wrote: »
    Rebels by Peter De Rosa is the best novel i've read about the 1916 rising.

    I enjoyed that. You should try Morgan Llewelyn's Irish century series as well which includes the rising they are excellent as well if you like historical ficition. The books in that series go: 1916, 1921, 1949 and 1972. All very good.


  • #280
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,622 ✭✭✭eire4


    GRMA wrote: »
    The famine plot by Tim pat coogan. Terrific.

    Although it will haunt you.

    Great read but I know what you mean.


  • #281
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,622 ✭✭✭eire4


    Thomas_I wrote: »
    How was that book in regards to its chapters? I mean what is the main topic he´s concentrating by each decade. I´m considering to evtl. buy that book some time, but still I don´t know whether it is not just merely a repeating of most events also to find in T.P. Coogans book about Ireland in the 20th Century.

    I have both books and they are both well worth the read IMHO. I enjoyed both very much. I am especially an avid Tim Pat Coogan reader.


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  • #282
    eire4
    Registered Users Posts: 6,622 ✭✭✭eire4


    BalcombeSt4 wrote: »
    Peter Taylors book on the IRA, "Provos: Behind The Mask" - I thinks that's the best book written on the Provisional IRA. Peter Taylor unlike a lot of other authors really understands the the Republican movement & it's culture, and he has a great insight into it.

    "Big boys Rules: The SAS and the Secret Struggle against the IRA" by Mark Urban is briliant. Again I love the little details he goes into, for example like explaining the IRA's digger bomb attack on The Birches, from planning stages, right up until the IRA Volunteers got back to safety, explaining how man men were used & how they were used, that a small bomb attack on Pomperoy barracks wa just a diversion, how the IRA vols escaped into Belfast b boat through Lough Neagh which is only about a mile from the Birches. Details like that in it were great.

    Anne CadWallader's books "Lethal Allies: Britih Collusion in Ireland" is a great book on the activities of the Glenanne Gang from 1972 - 1978.

    And both Don Mullan's & Joe Tiernan's books on the Dublin & Monaghan bombings are both very good.

    I thought Anne Cadwallader's book Lethal Allies was stunning and a great read. If you liked that you should look up Sean McPhiley's The Committee overlaps to an extent with Lethal Allies.


  • #283
    thway14
    Registered Users Posts: 6 ✭thway14


    If you want something more controversial try anything by Niall Ferguson. I found his book on the British Empire very good, albeit flawed.


  • #284
    ancapailldorcha
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 37,001 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    thway14 wrote: »
    If you want something more controversial try anything by Niall Ferguson. I found his book on the British Empire very good, albeit flawed.

    John Darwin seems to be the go-to man on the British Empire. He has two books I've seen, Unfinished Empire and The Empire Project. I've the former but not read it yet. He seems to be well regarded as an author on the subject.

    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



  • #285
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,659 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    Two books I'd qualified recommend:

    The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power, 1898-1918 by Sean McMeekin. It gives a good background into the Ottoman's entry in WW1 as well as other events such as the Armenian Massacres and Gallipoli.

    The Great Betrayal: The Great Siege of Constantinople by Ernie Bradford. The author takes a somewhat jaundiced viewpoint and is not in line with latter historical research, but still the quality of the writing is excellent.



  • #286
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117324667#Comment_117324667

    Yea, I have the Sean McPhiley book as well, another very interesting look at RUC/Loyalist collusion and state controlled "terrorism" in the west.



  • #287
    silliussoddius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭silliussoddius


    Any recommendations on the British/Chinese Opium wars?



  • #288
    growleaves
    Registered Users Posts: 7,683 ✭✭✭growleaves


    Is there an obvious best book on the Greek Civil War 1946-49? I want to read about it but not really sure where to start.



  • #289
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,659 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    For those interested in the current Ukrainian War and a historical background:

    1 - Red Famine by Applebaum. This provides context on why some Ukrainian Nationists are against Russia due to Soviet times.

    2 - War in 140 Characters by Patrikarakos. How modern war is full specturm, fought as much on social media as on the battlefield. One of the chapters deals with Ukraine.

    3 Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder : An excellent book but rather grim.



  • #290
    Stephen_Maturin
    Registered Users Posts: 1,042 ✭✭✭Stephen_Maturin


    Has anyone got any recommendations for good quality historical reading on Rhodesia and the Bush War?

    Had my interest in the topic piqued after reading about the historical context of the country in Thomas Packenham’s excellent “Scramble for Africa”



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