Ireland in the 20th Century

by Tim Pat Coogan

Book Overview

Ireland's bestselling popular historian tells the story of contemporary Ireland - controversial, authoritative and highly readable. Tim Pat Coogan's biographies of Michael Collins and DeValera and his studies of the IRA, the Troubles and the Irish Diaspora have transformed our understanding of contemporary Ireland, and all have been massive bestsellers. Now he has produced a major history of Ireland in the twentieth century. Covering both South and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0099415224
• ISBN13: 9780099415220
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Arrow
• Length: 880 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Very Informative

If you're looking for a comprehensive history of modern Ireland: you've found it! Coogan is thoroughly knowledgeable in this area and any reader who makes it through the book leaves with concrete answers to much of Ireland's modern history. However, Coogan is also a rather tedious writer and the massive book can be a lot to swallow. Incredibly informative but I do suggest digesting the book in bite size pieces!

Complete (modern) history of Ireland to 2003

A thorough, highly detailed account of the current history of Ireland, especially political. While an extremely long book (750+ pages not counting indices) and you have to get used to Coogan's writing style that no sentence shall be less than 50 words long with multiple phrases embedded), this is an excellent account of the evolution of modern day Ireland. Coogan knows the internal political scene well and gives considerable weight to detailing it. This tends to take away somewhat from the readability since as a North American, I'm not familiar with the multitude of names that I'm sure are second nature to an Irishman like Coogan. Nevertheless, I feel that I came away with a better understand of how the Irish situation has developed and it did give me new and better background in which to frame my thinking. Recommended reading but only for true, non-fiction, history buffs.

Complete (modern) history of Ireland to 2003

A thorough, highly detailed account of the current history of Ireland, especially political. An extremely long book (750+ pages not counting indices) and you have to get used to Coogan's writing style that no sentence shall be less than 50 words long with multiple phrases embedded. This is an excellent account of the evolution of modern day Ireland. Coogan knows the internal political scene well and gives considerable weight to detailing it. This tends to take away somewhat from the readability since as a North American, I'm not familiar with the multitude of names that I'm sure are second nature to an Irishman like Coogan. Nevertheless, I feel that I came away with a better understand of how the Irish situation has developed and it did give me new and better background in which to frame my thinking. Recommended reading but only for true, non-fiction, history buffs.