Customer Reviews

Land, Politics, and Society in Eighteenth-Century Tipperary

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2 star:		(1)
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A terrible narrative that can best be described as typographical mumbling. Has the literary flair of middle-school book report. Plenty of research went into this very scholarly book but only one map and not a single illustration. If you're looking for a book from which to draw factoids, you might order a copy as any page is likely to have several. An example from page 127:

"The lettings on the Smith estate in and near Tipperary and Cashel (estimated to contain 13,468 acres) between 1729 and 1745 comprised 41 three lives leases, 10 31-year leases (to Catholic farmers) for rural farms, and longer terms (41, 61, 99 years) for town property in Tipperary."

I think this passage is representative of the book as a whole. Unfortunately, even as a scholarly study, the book seems unbalanced with too much focus on southernmost Tipperary and the Suir river valley. For instance, in the book's index, Nenagh gets 29 citations, Carrick 40 citations, and Waterford City (not even in Tipperary) 21 citations.

Because the book is currently in print and does take a comprehensive look at a county and time period not widely documented, I gave the book two stars.