Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10063 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 896 pages

Synopsis
"The Green Flag" stands as the most comprehensive and illuminating history of Irish Nationalism yet published. For many years available as three separate volumes ("The Most Distressful Country", The Bold Fenian Men" and "Ourselves Alone"), this outstanding history is now available as a single volume.

Customer Reviews

Quite Good
This is a good book which focuses on events rather than providing analysis. I would have much preferred the book to come from a more human, emotional perspective though.
I didn't feel as though the book was written with the passion that a subject like this deserves. Normally a partisan view of things is not warranted, but a subject like this without a measure of passion ultimately falls flat. It just lacked feeling, and the description of events became monotonous and perfunctory. The fact that Kee is English, not Irish , probably had something to do with this. His sense of reserved detachment never falters but alas this provides little piquancy for the reader.

Most of the books 750 pages are confined to the 19th century and consequently you become lost in all the events that took place in that period of time. Little is written before or after this period. Why just this century in a book that claims to be a whole history of Irish Nationalism? Kee would say that this is the century that everything changed, but still it would have been nice to be partial to things that led up to the events that took place. It would give the reader a more panoramic view of things.

I often felt like I was being placed in the deep end without knowing why things were taking place. It is not just on events that there is little background info but also more needed to be said on the participants of the events.
Given that the book centres on people rebelling due to their grievances, it would have helped me to understand, more about what those grievances were. You would then be able to sympathise with their plight, drawing you more into their story and really willing them on to succeed. But Kee's stand-off approach served to dehumanise the characters and you failed to empathize with them to any great extent.

One other minor grievance is that I would have like a few more maps in addition to a solitary map of Ireland at the front of the book. They would have helped to bring the book alive. Also maybe a few photos of the various main players wouldn't have gone amiss too.

Having said all this I will give Kee his due: this is a very well researched book and the information is all there, it's just how Kee put that information across that wasn't to my particular taste, but it may be to others.

Erin-Go-Bragh
Kee has written a book that is clear, lucid and interesting over about 750 pages (discounting the appendices). He only just fails to hide the ridicule he feels for the noble sacrifice of 1916, when brave Irish souls fought for their own people, instead of giving their lives for nothing in a capitalist-imperialist war, dying for a country that had oppressed them for over 400 years.
However, if you can ignore that, this book is still a must-have if you wish to learn about a subject that has never been taught in English schools.

A MUST READ BOOK ON IRISH NATIONALISM
Robert Kee's "The Green Flag" is near 900 page superbly written history of Irish nationalism from its early roots, the Wolf Tone rebellion, the Catholic Emancipation and Repeal of the Union campaign, the early Fenian activity, the rise of the IRA and UVF, the Easter Rising, the Civil War and the Creation of the Irish Free State, the impact of Collins and De Valera, the beginning of the Irish Republic in 1949, and the early beginnings of the troubles in 1969. The detail of the book is awesome and offers insight into the history of Ireland in a totally unbiased way. Its only failing is that it fails to keep up with history. Written in the early 1970s Kee has kept himself to concentrating on an history up to 1922 and the Irish Free State. This misses alot of history since, but surely an updated version of the book with a couple of extra chapters to bring it up to date would make Kee's book the ultimate for any person interested in Irish History. A MUST READ BOOK!!!!