Customer Reviews

A History of Ulster

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Though originally a bit daunted by the length of the book, it is a very fine history and covers a tremendous amount of material. Ancient Ulster and its settlement through the Elizabethan Plantation, the United Irishmen, the Great Famine, and right into the early 1990's are well researched and written in a wonderfully readable style. Mr. Bardon covers all nine counties of the province of Ulster, not just the six counties comprising Northern Ireland, giving the entire region its full due. The best single-volume history of any of the four provinces of Ireland I've ever read.

Bardon presents the history of Ulster in bite-size segments. Back in Belfast, I used to read a few subchapters a night--even skipping around between centuries and subjects, I've still learned plenty from this book. If you are really interested in Irish history/politics, get this book. But you may want the hardback edition. My 914-page paperback version hasn't reacted well to travel and frequent reference use. And the index is fantastic.

Although this is a work of history, Bardon has made the book very readable and highly interesting all the way through. It is a difficult and complicated subject, yet he is objective and balanced, especially in the years from 1969 through 1992. Research and attention to detail as well as some interesting maps all contribute to making this the one of the best available books on Ulster to date.

This is a very comprehensive reference book, describing the history of Ulster from about 7000 BC to 1992 AD. Jonathan Bardon has put the emphasis on contemporary quotations, which give a good flavour of the events being described. Because the book is over 900 pages long, he is able to deal with subject material in a considerable detail - for example, 200 pages are devoted to the troubled years from 1969 to 1992.

This is indeed a comprehensive and engaging work--at times it is written with the thrilling verve of a novel, though it is rigorous history.

However, like the earlier edition, this 2001 edition stops in 1992, so you would be just as well served buying the earlier editions or reprints, which you can find used at much more reasonable prices. If you need a little more recent history, Bardon's "Shorter Illustrated History of Ulster" continues through 1996, so it provides a bit more of his typically insightful writing.

Marc Mulholland's "Northern Ireland: A Very Short Intro" is current to 2001, and is a pretty good book. Brian Rowan's "The Armed Peace" brings the reader up to late 2003; he is a BBC reporter who has lived in No. Ire. for years, and he is rigorously knowledgeable of the province's recent history--very informative, but not organized with the same linear simplicity that the non-expert may need. While it may be a bit sensational, his account is no more so than the area's actual history.

Ulster has been at the center of conflicts between Ireland and Britain for centuries: that's why a book such as Jonathan Bardon's A History Of Ulster is so important to understanding the origins of conflicts. Nine thousand years of social, political and economic changes from the Viking invasions to modern times are documented in a title first published in 1992 and here updated to add events since. A 'must' for any collection serious about Irish history.