A Brief History of the Celts (Brief Histories) by Peter Ellis (PDF)

Description

For centuries the Celts held sway in Europe. Even after their conquest by the Romans, their culture remained vigorous, ensuring that much of it endured to feed an endless fascination with Celtic history and myths, artwork and treasures. A foremost authority on the Celtic peoples and their culture, Peter Berresford Ellis presents an invigoration overview of their world. With his gift for making the scholarly accessible, he discusses the Celts’ mysterious origins and early history and investigates their rich and complex society. His use of recently uncovered firnds brings fascinating insights into Celtic kings and chieftains, architecture and arts, medicine and religions, myths and legends, making this esesntial reading for any search for Europe’s ancient past.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐First, the positive:1. This book is loaded with fascinating information. To say that Ellis has an excellent command of his topic is an understatement; indeed, he appears to have spend his entire scholarly life on the topic of the Celts.2. The topics covered are well chosen — chapter titles such as “Celtic Warriors,” “Celtic Women,” “Celtic Myth and Legend,” and “The Druids” are sure to pique the interest of anyone investigating the Celts.Now, the negative:1. Within chapters, the book suffers greatly from a lack of organization. Each chapter reads like a “brain dump” on the topic of that chapter. Some chapter subheadings would have helped immensely.2. Amidst this deluge of information, Ellis does a poor job of signaling to the reader something about the significance of each fact he relates. As you read, you constantly wonder: Is this a mere interesting tidbit, known only by specialists? Or is this a centrally important fact from which we derive much of our information about the ancient Celts? Sometimes, you don’t find out about the relative significance until you have been reading about that topic for a while; other times, you don’t find out at all.3. Most chapters of the book, whatever their topic – architecture, art, roads, medicine, etc. – have a particular thesis: the Celts were not the “barbarian savages” that the ancient Roman writers made them out to be, and were indeed more advanced than many modern people think of them as having been. True as this may be, having so many chapters framed around “refuting the myth of Celtic barbarism” got very tiring after a while.I would characterize this as a fascinating, but intermittently frustrating, read. A good editor could have pushed Ellis to do some extra organizational work on the book and made it a truly great read.

⭐Brief in a relative way, this book covered a wide range of subtopics on the Celts. It is informative and interesting, I highly recommend it.

⭐In this book I learned that, contrary to popular belief, the Celts were indeed a literate people. However, because their tradition emphasized the oral transmission of knowledge, they left behind few documents before the Christian era. As a result, most of what we know about them comes from archaeology and what the prejudiced Greeks and Romans wrote about them. Given the paucity of information we have about them, it seems a bit surprising to me that scholars like Dr. Ellis can devote their careers to studying them. Much of this kind of research seems to me rather speculative in nature, although what little is known is certainly interesting. The story of the Celts, like that of the Aztecs, Mayans, and the Byzantine Empire, has always seemed to me like a cautionary tale of how great civilizations can vanish suddenly, leaving very little behind. Yet much of the modern Caucasian race is indisputably descended from this great people, attesting that they did not live, love, and war in vain.

⭐Having been born in a Celtic area I was keen to study the origin of my forebears. This tome gave a great insightinto Celtic origins and the development of resettlement groups including my particular interest in Wales. Recommended.

⭐Very interesting and detailed info. Does a good job of putting many geographical details into time context. If you’re interested in finding out about your Celtic roots, I recommend it. Keep in mind, it’s not like reading historical novels (like Pillars of the Earth).

⭐Liked it all; one minor quibble. I wished the researchers knew more about the Indo part of the Indo-European roots of the Celts, so that critical part of the story could have been better explained.

⭐An impressive piece of work, especially noteworthy is the author’s careful identification of myths, legends and what is in dispute, as well as the potential issues with various sources. Highly recommended.

⭐Very informative and easily absorbed by the non academic like myself. I would recommend it and the seller.

⭐This is exactly what the title suggests, a brief introduction to the Celtic people.The book is separated into topical chapters, e.g. “Celtic Women”, “Celtic Warriors”, “Celtic Farmers”, etc. so basically gives a few pages overview on each of these areas, and more.The writing style is interesting and doesn’t feel dry, or like a textbook.If you are looking for a general book on Celts, I would recommend this, at least as a starting point.

⭐A well argued case for the Celts. Quite poignant. Interesting ,but a little too heavy on lingusitics for my taste. Still worth buying and reading though.

⭐Having enjoyed reading Peter Beresford Ellis’ book on the druids I found his book on the Celts equally interesting.

⭐very satisfied

⭐An excellent, clear and concise introduction to the Celts. Well-written and accurate. The best book I’ve read about the Celts so far. strongly recommend it.

Keywords

Free Download A Brief History of the Celts (Brief Histories) in PDF format
A Brief History of the Celts (Brief Histories) PDF Free Download
Download A Brief History of the Celts (Brief Histories) 2013 PDF Free
A Brief History of the Celts (Brief Histories) 2013 PDF Free Download
Download A Brief History of the Celts (Brief Histories) PDF
Free Download Ebook A Brief History of the Celts (Brief Histories)