A keen sense of history is a vital element in the Irish identity," writes British scholar Nathaniel Harris in gentle understatement. His oversize, lavishly illustrated book encapsulates key events in the island's history from the Ice Age to the present. Harris quite properly notes that there are many ethnic strains among the Irish, Celt, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman French among them, and that this commerce among different peoples has yielded a "long and tangled relationship," one that is often contested, as recent events in Northern Ireland attest. Harris writes appreciatively of Ireland's contributions to European culture as a sanctuary of learning and tradition after the fall of the Roman Empire; he gives a useful précis of the Tudor conquest of Ireland and the island's total subjugation under the reign of King William a century later; he describes the political conditions that led to the so-called Ascendancy, when the Episcopalian Church of Ireland supplanted Catholicism and Presbyterianism alike; and he gives an intelligible account of the confusing politics of the 20th century in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. In the latter pages of the book, Harris surveys Irish culture, ranging from medieval illuminated manuscripts to contemporary manifestations like the Lord of the Dance and U2. It all makes for an easily read, enjoyable survey. --Gregory McNamee