Brilliant and evocative, a classic account of life in ancient Ireland. ""If you're Irish enough to feel haunted by the place in any nook or corner of your heart, you will want to read the book and see the pictures""--Boston Globe. ""Roy explores early Irish history from the island's first inhabitants around 7000 B.C. to the Norman invasion of A.D. 1169. This beautifully written, highly evocative work takes an innovative approach to Irish history, one that is fitting for a land where the past never dies. Roy combines scholarship with personal reminiscence and contemporary interviews to give a well-rounded portrait of the Celtic past and its hold on the present. Each chapter focuses on a particular geographical or archaeological site and examines the entire historical period the site represents....The black-and-white photographs are wonderfully brooding and ghostlike....Part history, part journal, part travelogue, this exquisite book should find a wide audience""--Booklist. ""To read this handsomely designed book with its sensitive (mostly scenic) photographs is to accompany the author on an erudite yet companionable ramble through several millennia of Irish life from Neolithic to the 12th century...A compassionate book, as well as a work of passion. Richly anecdotal, yet intellectually disciplined and honest, it shares with readers both the specific complexity of early Ireland and a more general joy of learning""--LA Times.

The Road Wet, The Wind Close: Celtic Ireland

History

Roy, James Charles

Europe

Dufour Editions

An account of the spiritual, intellectual, and material lives of early monks who lived at the edge of the world. Appealing-both an engaging travelogue and a splendid history of early Irish monasticism. James Charles Roy takes us to the desolate Irish islands of Inishmurray and Inishkea and the Scottish island of Iona, as he explores the roots of Celtic Christianity-A marvelous achievement-and wonderful entertainment""-Book-of-the-Month Club News. ""These islands are here visited both intellectually and physically by a writer who is both erudite and insightful.""-Brian Moore. 1994, biblio, index, maps notes, 32 photos, 320pp.,

Islands of Storm

An account of the spiritual, intellectual, and material lives of early monks who lived at the edge of the world. ""Appealing-both an engaging travelogue and a splendid history of early Irish monasticism. James Charles Roy takes us to the desolate Irish islands of Inishmurray and Inishkea and the Scottish island of Iona, as he explores the roots of Celtic Christianity-A marvelous achievement-and wonderful entertainment""-Book-of-the-Month Club News. ""These islands are here visited both intellectually and physically by a writer who is both erudite and insightful.""-Brian Moore. 1994, biblio, index, maps notes, 32 photos, 320pp.,

Islands of Storm: Eileain Annraidh

Twice in this century, Germany initiated wars of unimagined terror and destruction. In both cases, defense of the Prussian” realm, the German homeland, was the perceived and vilified perpetrator. Few today understand with any precision what Prussia” means, either geographically or nationalistically, but neither would they deny the psychic resonance of the single word. To most, it means unbridled aggression, the image of the goose-stepping Junker .But what was once Prussia is now a significant portion of Eastern Europe, a contested homeland first won by Christian knights of the Teutonic Order. For centuries thereafter its terrain has been crisscrossed by war and partitioned by barbed wire. In its final catastrophe of 1945, nearly two million German refugees fled the region as Russian armies broke the eastern front, perhaps the greatest dislocation of a civilian population at any time during World War II. With the Berlin Wall now a memory and the Soviet Union in a state of collapse, this remains a geography in shambles. Modern travelers can now, for the first time in decades, see and ponder for themselves what Prussia really was and now is.James Charles Roy and Amos Elon, two writers noted for their inquisitive natures, have gone to search through the rubble themselves. They intermingle present-day observations with moving vignettes from the German and Prussian past, sketching a portrait of the Europe we know today. The story is spiced with interviews and reminiscences, unforgettable in their sadness, of people looking back at a life now gone, a life full of turmoil and heartache, memories both fond and tragic. The final result: a far deeper understanding of the tattered lands of today's Eastern Europe.

The Vanished Kingdom: Travels Through The History Of Prussia

Americas

Westview

Twice in this century, Germany initiated wars of unimagined terror and destruction. In both cases, defense of the Prussian” realm, the German homeland, was the perceived and vilified perpetrator. Few today understand with any precision what Prussia” means, either geographically or nationalistically, but neither would they deny the psychic resonance of the single word. To most, it means unbridled aggression, the image of the goose-stepping Junker.But what was once Prussia is now a significant portion of Eastern Europe, a contested homeland first won by Christian knights of the Teutonic Order. For centuries thereafter its terrain has been crisscrossed by war and partitioned by barbed wire. In its final catastrophe of 1945, nearly two million German refugees fled the region as Russian armies broke the eastern front, perhaps the greatest dislocation of a civilian population at any time during World War II. With the Berlin Wall now a memory and the Soviet Union in a state of collapse, this remains a geography in shambles. Modern travelers can now, for the first time in decades, see and ponder for themselves what Prussia really was and now is.James Charles Roy and Amos Elon, two writers noted for their inquisitive natures, have gone to search through the rubble themselves. They intermingle present-day observations with moving vignettes from the German and Prussian past, sketching a portrait of the Europe we know today. The story is spiced with interviews and reminiscences, unforgettable in their sadness, of people looking back at a life now gone, a life full of turmoil and heartache, memories both fond and tragic. The final result: a far deeper understanding of the tattered lands of today's Eastern Europe.

Basic Books

In The Fields of Athenry , James Charles Roy leads us through the Irish past and present with the central theme of his own personal experience with the renovation of a run-down castle -- really a crumbled tower -- that he purchased more than thirty years ago. Moyode Castle, located near the County Galway market town of Athenry, was built in the sixteenth century by the Dolphins, an Irish-speaking family directly descended from French-speaking Norman adventurers who had invaded Ireland four centuries earlier. This old tower house and the rich agricultural lands it guards has witnessed every strand of Irish history, from the heroic exploits of Celtic warriors long celebrated by Yeats and Lady Gregory, through the Easter Rising of 1916 when IRA insurgents used the building as a lookout. It stands today as a powerful, timeless symbol of the tumultuous ebb and flow of fortune, both good and bad, that characterizes Irish history.Roy weaves his personal story of the purchase and renovation of Moyode into a wide ranging historical conversation, leading us to a topic of real interest to Ireland today and our sense of history more broadly: the historical nostalgia we attach to Ireland and the fact that our romantic image flies directly in the face of development and boom times in the "Celtic Tiger" of the twenty-first century. Few know, for example, that today Ireland produces and ships more software abroad than any other country in the world with the exception of the United States, though we all know the story of Angela's Ashes. With this theme in mind, Roy leads us to question what attracts us -- or perhaps more aptly him -- to the rubble of a castle from Irish days long past.

The Fields Of Athenry: A Journey Through Irish History

James Charles Roy, a noted authority on Irish history and travel, escorts a disparate group of Americans through the lonely backwaters of ancient Ireland. Visions of a glorious enterprise evaporate as he sees a dejected and weary handful of aged American tourists disembark at Shannon Airport. Fortified by Guinness, Roy hurls himself into sharing with them the joys and wonders of Ireland€™s twisted byways.Determined to avoid cliché, Roy leads his group to obscure Celtic coronation sites, monasteries, and remote abbeys as he spins a narrative that pulls Ireland€™s chaotic story into coherence. His unsuspecting charges begin to shed their hesitancies, relishing their guide€™s idiosyncratic approach to Ireland. Black comedy aside, Roy touches an emotional chord: how the economic phenomenon known as the Celtic Tiger has transformed Old Ireland into a high-tech power. At the tour€™s end, Roy embarks alone for the inaccessible Ardoilean, a seventh-century Celtic hermit

The Back of Beyond: A Search for the Soul of Ireland

In The Fields of Athenry, James Charles Roy leads us through the Irish past and present by way of his own personal struggles and misadventures in renovating Moyode Castle, an old tower house that he purchased more than thirty years ago. While he pieces together its four-hundred-year-old past, the castle becomes a powerful symbol for Roy – it is battered by waves of history, yet timeless and resilient. Roy's personal struggles with the land and its people open for him a wide-ranging historical conversation on Ireland today and our sense of history more broadly. How do we reconcile the historical nostalgia attached to Ireland with the boom times that the "Celtic Tiger" enjoys today? With this question in mind, Roy searches for the answer of what attracts us – or, perhaps more aptly, him – to the rubble of a castle from Irish days long past.

The Fields Of Athenry: A Journey Through Ireland

In The Back of Beyond, James Charles Roy, a noted authority on Irish history and travel, escorts a disparate group of Americans through the lonely backwaters of ancient Ireland. Visions of a glorious enterprise evaporate as he sees a dejected and weary handful of aged tourists disembark at Shannon Airport. Fortified by Guinness, Roy hurls himself into sharing with them the joys and wonders of Ireland's twisted byways.Determined to avoid cliché, Roy leads his group to obscure Celtic coronation sites, monasteries, and remote abbeys as he spins a narrative that pulls Ireland's chaotic story into coherence. His unsuspecting charges begin to shed their hesitancies, relishing in their guide's idiosyncratic approach to Ireland. Black comedy aside, Roy touches an emotional chord: how the economic phenomenon known as the Celtic Tiger has transformed Old Ireland into a high-tech power. At the tour's end, Roy embarks alone for the inaccessible Ardoilean, a seventh-century Celtic hermitage in County Galway. His vision is one of an Ireland lost forever.

The Back Of Beyond: A Search For The Soul Of Ireland

While battles and wars and 'the clash of civilizations' are as old as time itself, there is little doubt that the conflagration of 1914-1918 was something unique and terrifyingly new. There was not a corner of the globe that did not feel its effects, some more than others, but the scope of its impact on economies, populations, food supplies, the character of governments in general and the day-to-day lives of numberless ordinary people, were such as the world had never experienced, nor expected.Little did anyone dream that the assassination of relatively minor figures of the Habsburg royal family, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, carried out by an unknown Serbian teenager on the street corner of an obscure town called Sarajevo that few had ever heard of, could possibly provide a spark that would plunge the entire European continent into an industrialized war of catastrophic destruction. But it did: the two shots that youth fired were surely 'heard around the world', and several million people would perish or be maimed as a result.The story of World War I has been told by many different writers, historians and participants in many different ways, especially so before and during the centennial of its events that just concluded. All the World at War stands apart from many of these standard studies. It presents a familiar story from points of view that many readers might find surprising: unexpected details, different perspectives, atypical and generally insightful observations from contemporaries (often obscure to modern readers), who witnessed the events and personalities that pushed the war along from phase to phase. The narrative is chronologically arranged, beautifully written, with something new or intriguing on every page. This is a unique and finely paced account of 'The War to End all Wars' that didn't.

All the World at War: People and Places, 1914–1918

Military

Pen and Sword Military

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Roy, James Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Roy, James Charles

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Roy, James Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Road Wet, The Wind Close: Celtic Ireland

Islands of Storm

Islands of Storm: Eileain Annraidh

The Vanished Kingdom: Travels Through The History Of Prussia

The Vanished Kingdom: Travels Through The History Of Prussia

The Fields Of Athenry: A Journey Through Irish History

The Back of Beyond: A Search for the Soul of Ireland

The Fields Of Athenry: A Journey Through Ireland

The Back Of Beyond: A Search For The Soul Of Ireland

All the World at War: People and Places, 1914–1918