J. C. Beckett Books

This book is a masterly achievement: the collection, sorting, selecting, and balancing of material has meant an immense amount of hard and highly skillful work. The presentation is not only learned but cool, objective, unimpassioned, and yet almost always alive and compassionate as well. As a reference book alone, it is immensely valuable. As an example of a humane, scholarly, expert history, this book will be difficult to surpass. The author has brilliantly succeeded. The book is admirably constructed and written with clarity and economy, which carry the narrative unflaggingly through to the end. This excellent book supersedes all previous histories of modern Ireland.

This book is a masterly achievement: the collection, sorting, selecting, and balancing of material has meant an immense amount of hard and highly skillful work. The presentation is learned, cool, objective, unimpassioned, and yet almost always alive and compassionate. As a reference book alone, it is immensely valuable. As an example of a humane, scholarly, expert history, this book will be difficult to surpass. The book is admirably constructed and written with clarity and economy, which carry the narrative unflaggingly through to the end. This excellent book supersedes all previous histories of modern Ireland.

Book