A New History of Ireland, Volume I: Prehistoric and Early Ireland [Paperback]

Dï¿1/2ibhï¿1/2 ï¿1/2 Crï¿1/2inï¿1/2n (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0199226652 | ISBN-13: 978-0199226658

A New History of Ireland is the largest scholarly project in modern Irish history. In 9 volumes, it provides a comprehensive new synthesis of modern scholarship on every aspect of Irish history and prehistory, from the earliest geological and archaeological evidence, through the Middle Ages, down to the present day.

Volume I begins by looking at geography and the physical environment. Chapters follow that examine pre-3000, neolithic, bronze-age and iron-age Ireland and Ireland up to 800. Society, laws, church and politics are all analysed separately as are architecture, literature, manuscripts, language, coins and music. The volume is brought up to 1166 with chapters, amongst others, on the Vikings, Ireland and its neighbours, and opposition to the High-Kings. A final chapter moves further on in time, examining Latin learning and literature in Ireland to 1500.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`Review from previous edition this volume will be an essential source book for many years. The essays are distinguished, well written and well documented, and the bibliography is excellent. ' The Historical Association

`contains valuable sections on all aspects of the Irish diaspora, as well as on the economy, the arts and music. ... ' Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

D�ibh� � Cr�in�n is Associate Professor of History at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1219 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199226652
• ISBN-13: 978-0199226658
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #209,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but dated, August 5, 2009

By 

Fr. NEIL O'DONOGHUE (Kearny, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and Early Ireland Volume I (Hardcover)

OUP's New history of Ireland is a very good series and the publication of Volume 1 is to be welcomed. However this particular volume was plagued by extremely long delays. This means that some of the articles were written decades before this volume was published, for example Kathleen Hughes wrote her contributions in 1974! Hughes was a great scholar and the chapters do merit publication, but the field of the Church in pre-Norman Ireland has undergone a lot of development in the last 35 years. At the very least the older articles should have been given a postscript, but it would have been better to have commissioned new articles by those who are experts in the field today and to make the older articles available in some other form. Other articles such as those by Hilary Richardson, Nancy Edwards, Roger Stalley and Ann Buckley are very valuable (these deal with art, archaeology, architecture and, very interestingly, music) . But the problem remains that if the core articles in the narrative are so out of date then the modern student will have an incomplete narrative on which to "hang" the newer supplemental articles. The book is well worth consulting by anyone doing serious work in Pre-Norman Ireland, but one would do well to also consult other works, such as, Colmán Etchingham, Church Organisation in Ireland AD 650 to 1000 (Maynooth: Laigin Publications, 1999); Thomas M. Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Pauline Stafford, A Companion to the Early Middle Ages: Britain and Ireland c.500-1100. Blackwell Companions to British History (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).