Genre: History
Jenkins provides a very top-level analysis of The Celts history and links to Britain and British/UK History.
I had seen this book, and kept seeing this book, online and in bookshops for a little while, and I was very excited to get my hands on it and to delve deep into it. I recently got it from my local library.
My excitement and anticipation of this book was regarding the clan structures across Britain, the development of the Celtic speaking languages and how this affected everyday/common people.
Disappointingly this book did not live up to my expectations, and I was left feeling deflated, which is very sad indeed.
This book provides a very top-level overview of the histories of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales - and sometimes involving Cornwall - but it lacked depth, providing insights into aristocracy and politics does not go to show the impact on the people and the societal influences throughout history, and how these are linked together and influence the lives of all across history.
Also, the author is obviously Irish and I felt, whilst reading this book that there was a strong bias towards the Irish, and this dominated the discourse throughout, which skewed the overarching intention of this book. Predominantly looking at the politics, policies and treaties of the times, rather than the people.
One thing I also noted was that a significant proportion of the book (56%) was allocated for the last 450-550 years of history, which again skewed the intention of this book, by only exploring more modern history in more detail.
A solution to this is Jenkins could have covered each 'Celtic' country individually as a stand alone book, or if the desired intention was to show comparisons between them then have a book centred on particular periods of history, i.e. medieval, Tudor, modern, etc., either way this would allow the author to delve into much more required detail, which was missing in this book.
I generously gave this book three stars as it has provided a good top-level 'overview' of what history between the British Celtic nationalities and the part they have played in British History, however, I wanted more. I definitely think this is an opportunity lost.
Jenkins provides a very top-level analysis of The Celts history and links to Britain and British/UK History.
I had seen this book, and kept seeing this book, online and in bookshops for a little while, and I was very excited to get my hands on it and to delve deep into it. I recently got it from my local library.
My excitement and anticipation of this book was regarding the clan structures across Britain, the development of the Celtic speaking languages and how this affected everyday/common people.
Disappointingly this book did not live up to my expectations, and I was left feeling deflated, which is very sad indeed.
This book provides a very top-level overview of the histories of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales - and sometimes involving Cornwall - but it lacked depth, providing insights into aristocracy and politics does not go to show the impact on the people and the societal influences throughout history, and how these are linked together and influence the lives of all across history.
Also, the author is obviously Irish and I felt, whilst reading this book that there was a strong bias towards the Irish, and this dominated the discourse throughout, which skewed the overarching intention of this book. Predominantly looking at the politics, policies and treaties of the times, rather than the people.
One thing I also noted was that a significant proportion of the book (56%) was allocated for the last 450-550 years of history, which again skewed the intention of this book, by only exploring more modern history in more detail.
A solution to this is Jenkins could have covered each 'Celtic' country individually as a stand alone book, or if the desired intention was to show comparisons between them then have a book centred on particular periods of history, i.e. medieval, Tudor, modern, etc., either way this would allow the author to delve into much more required detail, which was missing in this book.
I generously gave this book three stars as it has provided a good top-level 'overview' of what history between the British Celtic nationalities and the part they have played in British History, however, I wanted more. I definitely think this is an opportunity lost.
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