SHANE NAGLE Bloomsbury £91.80 ISBN 9781474263764 Reviewed by Angus Mitchell In 1954 the Cambridge historian Herbert Butterfield inaugurated the Wiles lecture series at Queen’s University, Belfast. In his opening address, titled‘The history of historiography’, he argued that German historians had much to answer for: ‘In their function of eliciting or discerning the essential traditions of … Read more
THEO FARRELL Bodley Head £25 ISBN 9781847923462 Reviewed by Lar Joye A story is told of a British Army regimental commander in the early 2000s meeting a group of Afghan elders who gave out to him for burning down their local market-place. Returning to his HQ, he demanded to know what idiot had burnt down … Read more
PAUL O’BRIEN Collins Press €19.99 ISBN 9781848893061 Reviewed by Eamonn T. Gardiner Although painting a vivid picture for readers,Paul O’Brien’s latest offering falls short of thepromised ‘balanced examination’ promised. With this work O’Brien, who has previously established himself as an authority on military strategies during the Anglo-Irish War, dips his toe into the morenuanced world … Read more
MATTHEW STOUT Wordwell Books €35 ISBN 9781999790905 Reviewed by Pat Wallace So much progress has been made on so many levels by so many specialists over the past half-century that there is now an ocean of data available on Ireland’s first historical millennium. Material culture is only part of this ocean and its specialities range … Read more