Book 17: A Traveller's History of Ireland

A Traveller's History of Ireland
Peter Neville

I am eagerly looking forward to traveling to Ireland this summer, and I figured it would be worth my while to seek out a quick and more or less easy history of Ireland to supplement my existing knowledge of Ireland. Neville's ambitious volume, which seeks to present Irish history from the first known settlements through the early 2000s in approximately 225 pages, accomplishes a readable and fairly comprehensive history of Ireland that strikes a good balance between hitting the important events and going into sufficient depth to prevent the book from becoming a list of places, names, and key events. That said, however, Neville does not always give sufficient definitions for the people and political parties he describes, which can get lost between chapters and even paragraphs; the book would benefit greatly from a glossary to supplement its useful timeline and lists of Irish monarchs, presidents, and prime ministers. Neville also suffers from a truly horrendous plague of exclamation points that belittle the factual credibility he attempts to gain with the transparency given to areas of contention. These small flaws ensure that A Traveller's History of Ireland is not perfect, but they do not overwhelm the utility of the text, which is clearly written and which covers enough points of Irish history with sufficient breadth and depth to provide readers with an accessible history of the island. Neville is able to present the particularly difficult history of religion in Ireland with tact, only slipping a bit as the history winds its way into the present period. The book itself is arranged into small, tidy chapters with plenty of headings and sub-headings to orient readers who may be looking at the book on the fly. Overall, A Traveller's History of Ireland is an excellent short general history of Ireland that will provide a solid base of historical understanding to its readers.

Grade: B