From the New York Times–bestselling author of Intellectuals: “All the highlights of Irish history . . . useful and informative.” —Irish Echo

Drawing from a wealth of historical and scholarly sources, Paul Johnson, acclaimed for such works as A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity, traces the important social, religious, and political development of Ireland’s struggle to become a unified, settled country. Johnson describes with accurate detail Ireland’s barbarous beginnings, Oliver Cromwell’s religious “crusade,” the tragic Irish potato famine, the Ulster resistance, and the outstanding fact of the constant British-Irish connection and the fearful toll of life it exacted. Among the anonymous multitude who are part of the story are also such famous names as “Silken Thom” Kildare, Thomas Wentworth, Archbishop Plunkett, and Lord Frederick Cavendish—and great men who marshaled their energies and wits to settle Ireland: Sir Henry Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, Churchill, and others.

“[Paul Johnson] is wonderfully adroit at condensing history in an interesting way.” —Kliatt

“A lively, intelligent, sometimes provocative but always stimulating account.” —Sunday Telegraph