Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

'Medieval Ireland', Volume 1 in the 'New Gill History of Ireland' series, overviews Irish society from the coming of Christianity in the 4th century to the Reformation in the 16th. It reveals how, for all the complexity of political developments, Irish society remained basically stable, withstanding the onslaught of both Vikings and the English.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Richter's small book is packed with surprises, novel insights that enlarge understanding of both medieval and contemporary Ireland. For example, a hunger fast for justice's sake can be found as far back as the eighth century. Most histories exhibit a pronounced English or Irish bias, but this one is written from a cosmopolitan European perspective. Richter (University of Konstanz) demonstrates that medieval Ireland was not a strange distant isle, and that its energies were never wholly monopolized by British threats. Instead, Ireland was different in that it enjoyed a longer, more vibrant intellectual tradition than most other lands; it persistently lacked any centralizing government; and its vernacular literature appeared earlier than elsewhere. It also had an amazing capacity to absorb foreigners, e.g., Celts, Vikings, and Anglo-Normans. Only the absentee English landlords proved resistant. From about 500 to 900 CE, Ireland was the intellectual powerhouse of Europe, largely through its native scholars and traveling missionaries. Students, traders, and pilgrims, however, continuously came to Ireland right through the 15th century. The glory of this book is that it attempts to restore Ireland to its place in all medieval Europe. Volume 2 of A New History of Ireland, ed. by Art Cosgrove (CH, Jan '88), weaves a richer, far more detailed tapestry, but Richter has here produced an exceptionally thoughtful study. College, university, and public libraries. -E. J. Kealey, College of the Holy Cross