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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Well-founded and not at all dry!, 15 Oct 2004
Being a learner of Scottish Gaidhlig, and wanting to find out more about the life and history of the Gaelic speaking people of Scotland, I decided to order Dr Michael Newton's book. I was rather dismayed, I must admit, on receiving a book with 300 pages of text and just a couple of black-and-white pictures bunched up in the middle. The first impression the book makes is unfortunately one that made me wonder whether I would ever be able to wade through all that stuffy, dry information...
But let me correct this impression: "A Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World" has turned out to be an extremely interesting read. Dr Newton has succeeded in combining his wealth of information with an accessible style of writing. The chapters are "Thinking about Culture", "A Gaelic History of Scotland", "Gaelic Oral Tradition", "The Organization of Society", "The Operation of Society", "Nature and Ecology", "Landscape and Culture", "Language", "Belief, Tradition, and Science" and "Past and Future Prospects". Not only are all the facts well-founded (the bibliography stretches over 11 pages!) and substantiated by numerous quotations and excerpts from original Gaelic poems, but the author also incorporates his personal thoughts about issues like the meaning of culture in general, changes in language, modern society and technology and its consequences for the individual and the community, to name but a few.
Let me conclude this review by saying that Dr Newton's book is at the same time informative, interesting and thought-provoking, and absolutely recommendable to anyone seriously interested in Scottish Gaelic culture.
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