Book Description

This rock 'n' roll Angela's Ashes begins in County Wexford, Ireland, in the late 1950s, a now unrecognizable, priest-fearing backwater suffocating in superstition and strangled by sexual fevers. After an escape to the Bronx, Larry finds himself, like a musical Zelig, side by side with the Ramones and Blondie at CBGBs; the brothers McCourt, Lester Bangs, and Nick Tosches at The Bells of Hell; the Guinness soaked regulars of Paddy Reilly's; Cyndi Lauper while she ascends and burns; Joe Strummer, Rick Ocasek, Neil Young, and Shane McGowan. The shootings at the Academy and the tragic death of soundman Johnny Byrne punctuate the revels and excesses and presage the gloom cast by 9/11 and the loss of Father Mychal Judge and so many friends. Green Suede Shoes remembers three decades of a lost New York, and celebrates the music and song in which it now lives. ... Read more

Book Description

The stylish little books in our new Compact Design Portfolio series put great classic and contemporary design within everyone's grasp. Launching with four leading designers of the twentieth century--Richard Sapper, Michael Graves, Eileen Gray, and Jean Prouve--these exciting new books defy the idea that design is inaccessible. Each book contains an introductory essay addressing the designer's life and work, penned by a distinguished design writer with real knowledge of and fresh enthusiasm for the designer at hand. Subsequent pages dynamically illustrate numerous key works in photographs and sketches--from Sapper's famous Tizio lamp to Graves's Target line, Prouve's pioneering metal furniture to Gray's Rioli desk. This series will extend into future seasons with more titles featuring an eclectic mix of international design heroes. In an irresistible small format packed with images and useful information, the Compact Design Portfolio books are affordable enough to collect the entire series. At long last, here's the perfect introduction to the influential designers who changed the face of contemporary design. ... Read more

Book Description

Nan Donohoe was an Irish Travelling woman, one of Ireland's indigenous gypsies or "tinkers." Traditionally, they traveled the countryside making and repairing tinware, sweeping chimneys, selling small household wares, and doing odd-job work. Today, they live on the roadside in trailers and in government-built camps. Told largely in her own voice, Nan's saga begins in 1919 with her birth in a tent in the Irish Midlands; it follows her life inIreland and England, in countryside and city slums, through adversity and adventure. Gmelch brings to her task not only the resources of anthropology, but the skill of a sensitive writer and a warmth that allows her to see Nan as a person, not a subject. What emerges is a human story, filled with cruelty and compassion, sorrow and humor, bad luck and good. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman
I have used this book several times in anthropology classes I teach and this coming fall I am going to use it again. I think of it as a classic because it addresses so many important aspects of a good life history. First, it represents the everyday life of a person living in poverty, an area worthy of academic study. It is also a close study of how women are sometimes, and in some societal situations, subject to abuse and have little recourse. Then, this study is also an interesting look at how historical changes influence the lives of people, in this case the travellers who used to make their living as tin smiths and horse traders and are now forced to adapt to an urban and highly technical world. The book is beautifully written and has always been well received by students

A well-written story about a fascinating destiny
This books gives an excellent insight in the life-style of the Irish travellers, as well as it is an enjoyable read. The main character, Nan, is a woman from a travelling family, living like nomads in the developping Ireland that is becoming more and more modern around them. Her life is very harsh, and harsher than the normal life of a travelling person, as the author points out. Nonetheless, or maybe just because of that, it is a gripping story and its contains are very interesting. You don't only get a good read, you also get a good and interesting lesson in the subsociety of the Irish travellers, a group that to a large extent maintains their nomadic lifestyle up to this day. ... Read more

Book Description

Long before Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes)and Nuala O'Faolain (Are You Somebody?) reminisced about the hardships and humor of their Irish childhoods, acclaimed novelist Edna O'Brien captured the soul of Ireland and its people in her 1976 memoir, Mother Ireland. Long out-of-print, Plume is reissuing this emerald gem so that it will take its rightful place among contemporary Irish classics.Mother Ireland includes seven essays seamlessly woven into an autobiographical tapestry. In her lyrical, sensuous voice, O'Brien describes growing up in rural County Clare, from her days in a convent school to her first kiss to her eventual migration to England. Weaving her own personal history with the history of Ireland, she effortlessly melds local customs and ancient lore with the fascinating people and events that shaped he young life. The result is a colorful and timeless narrative that perfectly captures the heart and soul of this harshly beautiful country.Rendered with grace and beauty, resonating with emotion and passion, Mother Ireland is an ode to a time, a place, and a people that one can leave, but never leave behind. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Like seeing Ireland through tears
Excellent book. A warm intellectual stream, poetry really. O'Brien writes impressionistically of the history, and her memories of Ireland. Have a glass of wine, and read it through once: a very pleasurable task.

Heritage
This is my second book by Edna O'Brien, and it only confirmed my high opinion of this talented writer. Snip: (...).

Step mother Ireland
very flowery, slow moving not up to the level of many other Irish writers, not suited to my taste such as history or amusing recollections

unique addition to an Irish tradition
Ireland is a woman-- womb, cave, bride, harlot, hag-- so, paraphrased, does Edna O'Brien begin her memoir. It is hard to believe this vibrant, lyrical reminiscence of growing up Irish has been out of print for years. O'Brien has created a personal odyssey in seven episodes out of the mystery and mists of Irish life, weaving it into its history and its mythology. Mother Ireland is comparable to Joyce's little books, Dubliners and Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man, in its command and integration of language and spirit. It dances with words, sensuality and the wondrous imagery, juxtaposed against the ever prevalent and monolithic Church and violence in this society. This is a treasure that imbues a unique touch and colouration -- feminine and mystical, earthy and spectral-- into the literary tradition of Ireland's small books. ... Read more

Book Description

Tom Hayden explores the losses wrought by Irish American conformism, in his own life and beyond.

When David Trimble claimed recently that Irish republicans needed house-training, I felt the echo of my master's voice down through the ages, that of the Vikings, the British, and the WASPs, and knew why I am Irish. Now and then someone has to defecate on the master's rug.

Tom Hayden first realized he was 'Irish on the inside' when he heard civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland singing 'We Shall Overcome' in 1969. Though his great-grandparents had been forced to emigrate to the US in the 1850s, Hayden's parents erased his Irish heritage in the quest for respectability. In this passionate book he explores the losses wrought by such conformism. Assimilation, he argues, has led to high rates of schizophrenia, depression, alcoholism and domestic violence within the Irish community. Today's Irish-Americans, Hayden contends, need to re-inhabit their history, to recognize that assimilation need not entail submission. By recognizing their links to others now experiencing the prejudice once directed at their ancestors, they can develop a sense of themselves that is both specific and inclusive: 'The survival of a distinct Irish soul is proof enough that Anglo culture will never fully satisfy our needs. We have a unique role in reshaping American society to empathize with the world's poor, for their story is the genuine story of the Irish.' ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Great work of nonfiction
I just finished reading Dan Sheehan's novel Irish American Hero. I wanted to learn more about Northern Ireland and picked up a copy of Irish On the Inside. It is a great book and I'd suggest that people pair up the two books to get a real feel for what has been going on in Northern Ireland!

The Politics of Northern Ireland Made Understandable
I read Hayden's book as I travelled through the northwest of Ireland, in the Republic and in Northern Ireland, and found great insight within. Hayden takes a tremendously complex political and social quagmire and illuminates without oversimplifying. The people who hate this book are likely people who simply dislike everything about the social movements of the 1960s in which Hayden was so deeply immersed. But for those who still believe in fighting for what is right, and care about Ireland, Irish On The Inside will be a refreshing read that will have an impact.

Cultural String theory.
I come from the same people as the author and see things quite diferently.The book impressed me as a very windy and preachy screed of self-adulation and pseudointellectual posturing.Filled with nonsequitors,gushing kudoes to his liberal friends and the Kennedys,and all based on this laboriously contrived theory that
Irish-Americans possess cultural and personality traits that have their origin with the Potato Famine.There are a few.The dont tread on me attitude is one but then most people who have been oppressed(and that is most people)have the same trait.I admit to a certain bias.While Mr. Hayden was sleeping with Jane Fonda and getting arrested in Chicago in the 60s becoming somewhat of a political celebrity,I was starting a medical career on the southside of that city while raising 5 very young children.Nice try Tom but Robert Emmet your not.

Hayden on Ireland
This is a particularly good time to read Tom Hayden's Irish on the Inside, due to the gathering conflict between America's role in the war against terrorism and the Irish perception of that role. The book deals with the exodus of Irish people from their homeland following the Famine in the mid-19th century, and the efforts of the newly arrived immigrants to adjust to American cultural attitudes which were frequently anti-Irish. The resulting desire to become immersed in the anglo protestant population led to increasing political conservatism and greater distance from the more radical viewpoints common among the native Irish. Hayden believes that there is a suppressed liberalism among Americans of Irish descent which should emerge at this point to form a bond with oppressed and disadvantaged people throughout the world, but especially in Ulster.

The first part of the book traces Hayden's family's journey from Ireland to Michigan, where he was raised in a parochial school surrounding prior to graduating from the University of Michigan. The author attributes his conversion to radical dissent during the '60's to that vein of revolutionary thought which characterized the Irish struggle against the British for centuries, culminating in the uprising of 1916 and the subsequent Irish Civil War. The second part describes the time of the troubles in Ulster and the fate of those who participated in the political and paramilitary efforts to free the northern counties. The history outlined here is factual and will explain much in terms of not only the violence of the Bloody Sunday era, but the sacrifice on both sides which led ultimately to the Good Friday agreement.

Finally Hayden looks to the future and discusses the question of retention of native identities in the face of onrushing globalism. Are populations like that of Ireland, small and insular, going to be absorbed in the whole as Europe eliminates borders and moves to a common currency? He argues convincingly for renewed efforts to preserve traditions and languages while working to make the international community a place where justice and understanding prevail. Key to that aim will be the resolution of human rights issues in the world at large. Hayden suggests that a vital first step in that process would be an admission by the United States and Britain that arms are not the solution to every problem, and that it is long past time to bring peace to Northern Ireland. ... Read more

Book Description

In this intimate account of the remarkable cultural flowering of Elizabethan England, Susan Watkins takes us to the heart of one of history's most extraordinary tales: how Queen Elizabeth I set out to capture the hearts of her people. In plays and pageants, in cameos, medallions, and portraits, in great country houses, their furnishings, and their gardens, the royal image was specifically tailored to evoke devotion. To love Elizabeth was to love England, and the queen personified both an era and a national style. It had begun precariously: the birth of Elizabeth, on September 7, 1533, instead of a male heir was a bitter disappointment to Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Watkins paints a brilliant picture of young Elizabeth's life, punctuated by insecurities and conspiracies, and endangered during the period of rule by her Catholic half-sister, Mary, whom she succeeded in 1558. It gave her an enduring sense that to remain on the throne she needed the love of her people, a romance kept alive by continuous regeneration in many forms--virtuous queen, chaste goddess, mighty imperial monarch. The author skillfully recreates court life, not only in the great palaces along the Thames from Greenwich to Windsor but also in the nearly sixty royal houses that were Elizabeth's inheritance. An important part of the spectacle was the royal progress to the great country houses of her subjects, from Sir Francis Willoughby's fairytale castle, Wollaton Hall, to Lord Burghley's Theobalds. An Elizabethan house was not just an architectural achievement; it was often the literal embodiment of a relationship--real or wished for--with the monarch. Throughout this book, the inspired photography of Mark Fiennes, together with portraits, paintings, tapestries, and personal objects of the period, gives the perfect visual expression of the nation's evolving love affair with its queen. Little wonder that Elizabeth's personality, so vividly memorialized here, captivates both the imagination of Hollywood and the tens of thousands of visitors to the surviving monuments of her era. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Elizabeth I by Watkins
This work has a wealth of information about Elizabeth I and
the era itself. She is portrayed as an elegant monarch, dressed
in silk and other fine clothing. A portrait of Elizabeth
depicts her stately appearance as a Tutor. Elizabeth liked to
stroll in the area of the Great Hall at Hatfield. A personal
astrolobe is depicted-a fine personal item created circa 1560.
Her coronation was a stately affair depicted in a personal
portrait considered to be priceless today. This work is perfect for historians and others interested in the period of Elizabeth. The full color portraits are valuable
in their own right.

Interesting Read!
Excellent, excellent book for anyone who is interested in Quenn Elizabeth I or the Elizabethan era. Interesting little tidbits of knowledge about court life, politics and Elizabeth's private life. The pictures are absolutely beautiful and go along so well with the the written text. Definate A+!

A wonderful book for those who love Elizabeth I
The Public and Private Worlds of Elizabeth I is a nicely written look into her personal and private life. It is very informational; from the workings of Elizabethan politics to the fashion of the time. It is informative with out getting overly academic. It is great for anyone wishing to research and/or recreate aspects of that time period. I encourage anyone who is intererested in Elizabeth I to purchase this book. One of the greatest features of this book is the full color pictures. Definitely a must have!!! A wonderful coffee table book too. ... Read more

Book Description

A memorable account of a forgotten chapter in American history

If you think that America’s western expansion began on the banks of the Mississippi, think again.In West from Shenandoah, Thomas A. Lewis tells the powerful and inspiring story of America’s first westerners, the fiercely independent Scotch-Irish immigrants who flocked to America in the early eighteenth century.Arriving too late to claim land along the coast, they settled in the rich and peaceful Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia and, in less than a generation, began moving west into the uncharted Appalachian wilderness, which had been ignored by the English for more than a century.

Focusing on the exploits of one remarkable family, Lewis examines the reasons for this remarkable migration, explores relations between the settlers and the Native Americans they began to displace, and reveals why the American Revolution could not have been won without the indispensable contribution of these Scotch-Irish pioneers.

Praise for Thomas A. Lewis

Guns of Cedar Creek

"Brutally realistic . . . rich in political and military relevance for our time."
–– The New York Times

For King and Country

" A rare narrative skill.Lewis writes the kind of history that reminds us that history has a muse, that it is an essential human art."
–– The Los Angeles Times ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Must Read for American Historians
I don't know how much professional historical training Tom Lewis has had, but, he has written one of the most interesting works of Colonial American histography that I have ever come across in "West from Shenandoah".

The beauty of "West from Shenandoah" is that it is part histography and part personal journal.

One of the most interesting aspects is early in the book when Lewis raises the possibility of genetic memory in a very deft way, so as not to come off as kookie, or trite as in the sense of deja vu.

I do have some very minor quibbles with Thomas Lewis, but, they have to do with my viewpoint as a Pennsylvania Dutchman.

For example, a few years ago, I was standing on an overlook in the Blue Ridge above the Shenandoah Valley, when I was approached by another Dutchman. This gentleman says to me, pointing down into the valley, that's my farm down there, and in my 64 years, I've never been up here before.

Lewis does characterize the "Dutch" as Lutheran, which he would have a tough time proving, because there were no Luthern churches that I know of on the Virginia frontier which would have included modern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. The "Dutch" mostly subscribed to that odd blend of Calvinism & pietism that we today know as Methodists or Presbyterians.

In the final chapter of the Journal Lewis names some folks of Scotch-Irish ancestry---I'm sure this was a little add on suggested by his publisher for the Scotch-Irish audience. It probably can't help commercial sales, but, it does detract from the histography.

I have always thought that I would love to do, what Lewis has done for the Scotch-Irish, for the Pennsylvania Dutch on the Virginia frontier. Although, there was so much early inter-marrige between the two groups that who's who today might be difficult in my opinion. ... Read more

Book Description

The Encomium Emmae Reginae is, as its title suggests, a political tract in praise of Queen Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy, wife of King Ethelred the Unready from 1002 to 1016, and wife of the Danish conqueror King Cnut from 1017 to 1035. It is an important primary source that transports us into the heart of eleventh-century politics. This edition contains a new introduction that places the Encomium in the historical context in which it was written, and traces the career of Emma, a woman who was twice queen and who sought to preserve her position of power as queen-mother. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A great read!
If you are interested in the life of Emma of Normandy, wife of King Canute, then this book will captivate you.It is a fascinating, contemporary look at the legendary events of 11th century England.

Terrific book!
This is a detailed, fact-filled book on Queen Emma of the 11th century.It is a fascinating portrait of a queen who lived through a lot of tragedies.Not for the light reader, though. ... Read more

Book Description

Using state papers and manuscripts of the period, Anne Chambers reveals the woman behind the legend and presents one of history's most remarkable women against the turbulent political environment of her time. What emerges is a woman who challenges our predisposed sense of convention, who, over four hundred years ago, was one of the first women to break the mold and make a unique contribution to history. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Badly written, but it's the only game in town.
If you want to learn about Granuaille, this is THE only accessible source that pulls together the various threads of research. So -- forgive the writer her stylistic inadequacies. Forgive the inferences and the gaps left by the record, and learn about this incredible pirate-warrior-patriot-lover-mother-wife IRISH WOMAN.

Remarkable Story of a 16th Century Irish Woman
As the author, Anne Chambers states, Granuaile (Grace O'Malley) "broke the mould" for women of Western Europe in the 16th century. For all of the achievements and acclaim accorded to Elizabeth Tudor (Queen Elizabeth I), Granuaile's story is even more remarkable. Elizabeth might be famous for unleashing her infamous "sea dogs" (e.g., Drake and Hawkins), but Granuaile was a "sea dog" in a man's world, plying her craft on the western shores of Ireland (Galway, Connemara). Granuaile did not just order men into battle from the safety of a castle, she actually led men into battle herself. And, she did not, like Elizabeth, forgo marriage and children. She became a notable Gaelic chieftan in a time when the old Gaelic order was under assault and in decline.

This biography is scrupulously researched and well written. I found it to be most compelling because the author does not romanticize Granuaile and the troubled era she lived in. Chambers avoids the presentist trap into which many authors fall, when they search through history to find antecedents of Irish/Celtic/Gaelic nationalism. Life was more complex than the simple duality of Gaelic twilight versus English colonization. Granuaile played both sides against the middle in a deadly battle for survival which she won for her self and her descendents. The book's climatic meeting between Grauaile and Elizabeth shows that the Irish chieftaness was able to out maneuver the brutal English overlord Bingham, Gloriana, and her master of wily statecraft, Lord Burghley.

Granuaile's true story is more compelling than any fictional account of pirate queens. She was a great woman whose foresight, strength, daring, seafaring ability, and political acumen provide us all, men and women, Irish and non-Irish, with a fascinating glimpse into one woman's struggle to prevail between the English monarchy and the lords of Ireland in the 16th century.

A powerful writer, brings true events to life .
If you're interested in the women who lived in the 1500s in Ireland, you'll enjoy this book. Grace O'Malley was known in her times as the "Queen of the Sea", the queen of pirates. This was the first of Anne's books which I read while in Ireland, last summer. After finishing Grace O'Malley, I was hooked on her books. Her writing style of the history of Ireland is easy for any reader, at any level, to understand. The story comes to life and you soon find yourself, there, back in time" with the characters in this book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

There are several biographies of the great Irish poet to choose from, and the one you'll prefer depends on how much biography you want. Subtitled "The Apprentice Mage, 1865-1914," this is the one for completists (though they'll have to wait for Volume Two to get through Yeats's death in 1939). The author, a noted Irish historian, renders Yeats's life almost day to day, giving a particularly lively sense of the helter-skelter nature of his early years and a nice depiction of his tumultuous engagement with the Abbey Theatre. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Informative biography of a complicated man
William Butler Yeats offers a life of contradictions. Born in Dublin to a middle-class Protestant family, Yeats went on to become one of the premier poets of the twentieth century. As a writer and member of the Irish literary community, he also helped to forge Irish national identity through his words and his deeds. In this biography, the first of two volumes, Roy Foster offers an account of Yeats' development into one of the leading figures of the Irish literary scene.

This is not an easy book. Foster recounts Yeats' life in what is sometimes excruciating detail, covering every movement and literary battle the poet undertakes. Moreover, as he does so he assumes the reader's familiarity with both the background of late nineteenth century Ireland and the members of the Irish literary community. People appear in his narrative with little introduction, creating a confusing jumble of names that limits the appreciation of their role in Yeats' life.

Such problems aside, this is a first-rate biography. Foster does a great job examining Yeats' life, in a text that while long is never dense. His coverage of Yeats' occult interests is particularly good, as is that of the poet's involvement in nationalist causes - both integral aspects of his poetry. Foster's argument that Yeats' involvement in the mystical was a reaction to the declining position of Protestants in Ireland, an effort to cope with the sense of dislocation by asserting psychic control, is a compelling one that helps to fit more of his poetry into the context of his times. Foster helps this process; while he asserts that his biography is about what Yeats did rather than what the poet wrote he does offer a perceptive commentary on aspects of Yeats' work, which helps us better appreciate the connection between the man and his writings. The result is a book that is essential for understanding such a complicated literary figure and the role he played in his times.

The Lighthouse and the Anteater
For the first 100 pages or so, this book had me completely. Roy Foster writes with elegant brio and has a historian's eye for the wider events and contexts that shaped Yeats's early years. Where previous biographers like Ellman take a sort of lighthouse approach to their subject, treating the passions and conflicts of Yeats's day as fuel for the poetry that was destined to outshine them, Foster is more like an anteater, eagerly snuffling up the everyday bits of information that give the flavor of Yeats's multifaceted life as he actually lived it, before his later fame and incessant revisions smoothed it into a pattern.

After a while though, the book tends to bury Yeats in a mass of trivia that include everything from the menu at one of his literary dinners to the prices he charged for his lectures. This level of detail could be enlightening if Foster stopped for breath more often to tell us why these things are important. Too often though he keeps his head firmly down with the ants, cataloging the day-to-day intrigues of a very complicated life without linking them to any kind of larger interpretation of Yeats's personality or development. Instead, Foster spends his 500+ pages introducing new names at the rate of one or so per page, most of them disappearing by the end of the chapter never to be heard from again. We get the intrigues of various Irish nationalist factions, potted bios of minor figures on the Dublin and London art scenes, humorous sketches of Yeats's fellow-travellers in his sundry mystical societies. It was hard to see Yeats after a while with all these minor figures crowding the stage.

If Foster does have an interpretation of his own, as far as I can tell it's a revisionist one. Where Ellman or Jeffaries saw Yeats's life as a drama of painful self-creation, Foster sends to see an ambitious man on the make, an aggressive networker who wasn't beyond bending the truth if it helped his own advancement. Even his life-long passion for Maud Gonne, one of the key sources of his poetry, was, according to Foster, in part a self-conscious realization that a great poet needed a great passion to write about. In trying to bring Yeats back down to earth, I think Foster overcompensates by making him more canny and worldly than the sexual naivete, table rapping, faery talk and aesthetic posturing of these years suggest. Worst of all, Foster shows almost no interest in Yeats's poetry, the reason we're reading the biography in the first place. I put down the book admiring Foster's energy and mastery of such a huge anthill of facts, but I couldn't shake the feeling that a lot less would have told us a lot more.

Surprises!
This is loaded with surprise after surprise. Foster's insights into the poetry, through historical and social readings, are often revelatory. My only complaint is that many of the tales he tells tend to have the same emotional architecture due to a descirptive repetition: this makes it a little monotonous at times. But this is a quibble. This book is great. When is Vol. 2 going to be published?

The Definitive Yeats Biography
R.F. Foster's two-volume biography (second volume to come in 2000) is a model of articulate and knowledgable scholarship, arguably comparable to the great biographies of Joyce and Wilde written by Richard Ellman. Foster's work leaves nothing to be desired. It easily excels previous Yeats biographies written by Cootes, Jeffares, etc. ... Read more

Book Description