Northern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction 1st Edition

An interesting and balanced introduction to the Northern Irish Troubles. Obviously this book focuses on the Troubles, and any pre-20th century history is given as background and context. For earlier histories of Ulster, you will have to go to general Irish history sources or more specialized accounts.

I just got it for a class. I still got a lot out of it though

I had to read this book for a history of Northern Ireland class. I found it very disappointing because it assumed that you had a strong base knowledge of politics in N.I. I would have appreciated a break down of the political parties and the various groups. Without it I felt like I was reading the footnotes without the actual text.It did however, use much clearer diction that the other books I had to read for my class. I appreciated that.

Bought for a class on Modern Irish History and this book offered a good starting point for many conversations in class and for papers.

This was my textbook for Anthropology 199, Irish Studies. It's a very small book and I realize that by abbreviating the subject so much that something is bound to be lost. However, it's not for lack of detail but rather lack of cohesiveness that makes this book so difficult. Time frames jump around, the sentences are long and awkward, and the author seems to delight in his thesaurus. Rather than making the subject understandable, the awkward phrasing and unnecessarily difficult vocabulary make it unwieldy.

This isn't bad.

This book is incredibly dense and certainly not for the introductory reader. If you are interested in knowing very specific details about the conflict is northern Ireland (like how many votes were cast in a given election between each party or how many injuries there were in a particular bombing), then this is the book for you. But if you are looking more for a "big picture" type intro to NI, then seek your info elsewhere.

It’s brief and fair-minded, but the writing is awful. I found it nearly unreadable, and I’m an English professor, so I’m accustomed to making sense of difficult texts. I would often read a sentence three or four times and still be uncertain exactly what it was trying to communicate. The organization of the book is also quite confusing.

This is the sixth or seventh book I’ve read in this series and for the most part the writing has been exemplary. Not so with this volume. Such an intriguing history, such poor penmanship. There are typos, quite a few for such a short piece. And it’s Oxford, yeah? My goodness, where was the editor? Even where there aren’t typos, there is mechanical, clumsy, clunky language. I think I’ll have to look elsewhere to learn about Northern Island. Perhaps you should, too. Troy Parfitt is the author of War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada, and Why China Will Never Rule the World.

An excellent explanation of the origins of the troubles in Northern Ireland.-at helps to explain the current background.-in thehistorical sense

I found this extremely informative. I have an irish family, although I am English, so it was useful to learn more about my heritage.

Really helpful to read before a trip to N.Ireland. Easy to read, pretty dense but very helpful.

Useful book, objective view of the history of Northern Ireland. Well written and easy to dip in and out of.