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Celts: Origins and Re-inventions: Origins, Myths and Inventions
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| List Price: | £19.99 |
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Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #176844 in Books
- Published on: 2003-11-01
- Format: Illustrated
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
Customer Reviews
If you are serious read this.
If you are seriously interested in Celtic subjects then this is the book you must read before all others. If you are interested in the "Celts" as what in the last 200 years or so has become an attempt at creating a Celtic Master Race then this is not the book for you.
John Collis has thoroughly deconstructed the mythology surrounding the Celtic speakers. At the beginning of the book he quotes Ferguson, "Thus in the groves of Academe do the blind often trustingly follow the purblind". He looks at many early sources such as those of, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Hescateus, Himilco, Herodotus through to more well known names such as Pliny, Ptolemy, Caesar, Cicero, Livy and many more. He looks at the subject through Archaeology, Anthropology and Linguistic and asks many thought provoking questions as to why this subject has become so popular. He leaves no stone unturned and even looks at Religion. In my inexpert opinion anything I have read previously about the "Celts" must now be treated with suspicion. A thoroughly good read but not a book to be read from cover to cover.
I would also recommend The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story" by Stephen Oppenheimer if you want to get up to speed on this subject. Part 1 of this book is entitled "The Celtic myth: wrong myth, real people." So that will give you a few clues. The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story
