Customer Reviews

Ireland in the Age of the Tudors 1447-1603: English Expansion and the End of Gaelic Rule (Longman History of Ireland)

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Has your reviewer actually seen the book? It has a colour picture of Cahir castle, Co. Tipperary on the dust jacket. It includes seven maps, three tables, a glossary of terms, and a guide to further reading. It is a revised version of the standard work on the subject used in universities in Ireland and Britain since the publication of the original work, TUDOR IRELAND, in 1985. The reason for this new edition was precisely the popularity and continuing sales of the original. Perhaps your reader wanted a more romantic, simplistic view of Ireland's past.

I've been using Ellis' book in some recent research into the fiscal history of the Irish Lordship. I'm afraid I agree more with the first reviewer -- remember, the popularity of a book often varies inversely with its quality. Yes, the book contains a great deal of useful information, but it is confusingly arranged. Dr. Ellis gets a few facts wrong, although it doesn't seem too critical except when he attributes certain actions of Richard III to Henry VII. Overall, however, the reader had better already have a working knowledge of the subject before using this book. A large number of assumptions are made concerning the identity of individuals; Ellis seems to take for granted the reader already knows who they are. For a foreigner such as myself reading this book, these lacunae make for irritating diversions from the flow of the narrative. No, it is not a book for beginners, nor an adequate introduction. What the second reviewer hints, however, is correct also -- there isn't much else in the way of material from which to choose, and this book does a better job than most.

Ellis' book is too complex and extremely difficult to read. It certainly is not a good starting point for reading up on the Tudor History of Ireland. It contains absolutely no pictures or illustrations of any kind re-emphasing its difficulty.