- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: British Museum Press (April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0714121657
- ISBN-13: 978-0714121659
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14.8 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
129,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Books > History > Archaeology > By Period > Celtic, Saxon, Viking & Nordic
- #71 in Books > History > Political History > Nationalism
- #92 in Books > History > Archaeology > By Region > European
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Product Description
The Celtic peoples of the British Isles hold a fundamental place in our national history, but some archaeologists are arguing that the ancient Celts of these islands never existed. This book examines ancient and modern ideas about the Celts.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book presents a largely convincing case for the theory that the pre-Roman inhabitants of the British Isles were not a united Celtic race that had invaded the Isles, nor indeed were they necessarily ethnically connected to Celts in mainland Europe. The term "Celt" as applied to Scots, Welsh and Irish was not used before the eighteenth century and is posited as a reaction, based on over-zealous linguistic and historical research, to the growth of the concept of Britain as a political entity in that century. The author also raises some very interesting points about pre-historic society and how archaeologists and historians often seek to explain any changes in that society by reference to invasion from overseas, due to an instinctive belief that such societies are primitive and unchanging. The archaeological evidence from Iron Age Britain does not for the most part match that from the Celtic areas of the continent.
The author also makes the same anti-invasion argument with respect to the Saxon invasions of the 5th and 6th centuries, though I remain as yet much less convinced by it in this case. He argues that modern notions of national ethnic identity started to rise only as a response to the mass threat from Vikings in the 9th century and, even then for centuries thereafter, that the masses of the population remained largely unaffected.
The author's style is quite academic and this is not a particularly easy read, though short at 144 pages. He has a tendency to make the same points repeatedly in a slightly didactic way. But his central thesis is worthy of debate and should not be dismissed as mere anti-Scottish/Irish/Welsh politicking.
The author also makes the same anti-invasion argument with respect to the Saxon invasions of the 5th and 6th centuries, though I remain as yet much less convinced by it in this case. He argues that modern notions of national ethnic identity started to rise only as a response to the mass threat from Vikings in the 9th century and, even then for centuries thereafter, that the masses of the population remained largely unaffected.
The author's style is quite academic and this is not a particularly easy read, though short at 144 pages. He has a tendency to make the same points repeatedly in a slightly didactic way. But his central thesis is worthy of debate and should not be dismissed as mere anti-Scottish/Irish/Welsh politicking.
30 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Simon James vividly and expertly sketches the clash between on the one hand the sense of Celticness perceived by many people who live in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany - and which is to an extent the basis of a reawakening nationalism - and on the other the growing perception of archaeologists and anthropologists that the Celts as a race never existed at all and that the idea of an ancient Celtic culture is a modern construct. He is good at finding striking and convincing evidence to support his case. The word Celt was apparently not used by anyone in the British Isles before 1700. It was used by the Greeks and Romans as a pejorative label for some of their barbarian neighbours on the European mainland. The idea that people living out on the islands of the Atlantic fringe might call themselves Celts came much later - and in effect involved the adoption of an imaginary ancestry and heritage. This is strong stuff, and some, especially readers who have grown up believing themselves to be Celts, may find it offensive, but James presents his arguments with winning suaveness and simplicity. It is a very easy book to read, and I found it very persuasive. The Atlantic Celts is not just another book about the past. It demonstrates how a perception of the past can shape the present and the future. It also shows that some deeply-cherished beliefs and prejudices are poorly founded, yet they are being allowed to steer the political future of the British Isles. This is a book that everyone living in these islands should read.
34 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is well-written and I had no trouble getting through it at one sitting. I bought it in part because I'd seen the BBC series The Celts (or whatever it was called) in the 1980s, which had presented the Celts as a single people united by language and culture. I had some problems with this idea. For one thing, if Gaelic had been brought to Scotland by huge numbers of conquering continental Celts, why did they leave their trousers, and much else, behind? If Celtic languages had been spread through the isles by mass population replacement, how to explain the new DNA evidence for overwhelming continuity? This book outlines an alternative view which, although more complex, I found persuasive. My only quibble is that the chapter explaining how the Celtic invasion hypothesis arose in the first place needed to be longer. It also needed to be at the start of the book so the reader would know what was being examined. It's good to see these ideas finally being brought out of the academic closet.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Britons- but not as we knew them
The theory presented by Simon James in 'The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention?' is that the pre-Roman inhabitants of the British Isles were not a single people... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Peter Buckley
interesting but unconvincing
I enjoyed reading some of this book, but found the author's position that any idea of the Celts was a purely modern invention beginning in the 17th century too extreme. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2007 by D. A. Thomson
reflects the modern viewpoint
The whole subject area is tied up in politics and nationalism, as well as a whole lot of romantic nonsence. Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2000
Silly premise mars social history of British peoples
In his 1707 work "Archaeologia Britannica", Oxford scholar Edward Lhuyd proposed that similarities in the Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Irish, and Scots Gaelic languages were... Read more
Published on 9 Nov 1999
Diffuse and unfocussed; good material towards the end.
The author states openly at the start his desire to be a successful populariser. However, his attempt to communicate and dramatise recent understanding of the ethnicity of the... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 1999
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