Irish History For Dummies

When Shakespeare referred to England as a "jewel set in a silver sea," he could just as well have been speaking of Ireland. Not only has its luminous green landscape been the backdrop for bloody Catholic/Protestant conflict and a devastating famine, Ireland''s great voices-like Joyce and Yeats-are now indelibly part of world literature. In Irish History For Dummies, readers will not only get a bird''s-eye view of key historical events (Ten Turning Points) but, also, a detailed, chapter-by-chapter timeline of Irish history beginning with the first Stone Age farmers to the recent rise and fall of the Celtic tiger economy.

In the informal, friendly For Dummies style, the book details historic highs like building an Irish Free State in the 1920s-and devastating lows (including the Troubles in the ''60s and ''70s),