History Ireland

This tab is a direct link to the ‘History Ireland’ online magazine. With over 18 volumes of publications, it is an invaluable resource particularly to Leaving Certificate students when researching RSR topics and material.

http://www.historyireland.com/volumes/volume1/issue1/features/

Book Reviews

The following books have been chosen by individual students for review.

Their focus will be on reliability, clarity, interest and accessibility. They will rate each book also on accuracy and comment critically on apparent strengths and weaknesses of these works as historical sources.                             

Postcards of Political Icons – Leaders of the 20th Century

Andrew Roberts, 2008, Bodleian Library (UK)

Political Icons

The time range of the book stretches from the mid 18th to the 20th Century. The book progresses alphabetically in a chronological order. It is very precise and together it compromises a truly comprehensive view of modern political iconography.

The author, Andrew Roberts, has a clear objective to show how ‘Political Icons’ progressed throughout the years. From Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1888 to Ronald Reagan in 1989 this book is a truly great collection of political leaders from every era.

The author writes a brief description of every leader, he also includes a picture and postcard of every leader. The postcards show features and personalities of people in history. This book can be used as a great source of information for Juniour & Leaving Cert studnets as it gives an excellent description of a person in history. Also, the historical accuracy is brilliant. It also gives a fascinating insight into each individual’s political power.

Overall I am awarding this book 9/10.

The main reason I didn’t give this book full marks was because I think it lacked more information on certain leaders, such as Nikita Khrushchev & john F. Kennedy, two very important global figures during the Cold War. The book was, however, a very enjoyable read and I would recommend for anybody interested in history.

Review by Kevin Early, 4.3P History (2011)