Favorite Books

[Ursus]

Name your favorite books on the Celts and Germans.

[Bripus Klmunus]

There are a few books by a fellow named Herwig Wolfram called History of the Goths and The Roman Empire and its Germanic peoples. I also liked Ancient Germanic Warriors by Michael Speidel (that one I do not own, as it's a wee bit more than I'd prefer to pay for a book - but I did loan one and liked it a great deal).

 

Barry Cunliffe wrote a book called The Ancient Celts, which I can really strongly recommend, as well as The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe.

 

The vast majority of these can be pretty dry reading, and aren't really for a casual nighttime read - unless that is your "thing".

[Ursus]

I read Cunliff's _Ancient Celts_ and loved it, actually. Pantagathus reviewed it in our book section. Also read Simon James _World of the Celts_ which was quite good.

[DecimusCaesar]

Barry Cunliffe's books are a great introduction to the ancient Celts. His scholarship is up to date; considering he's one of the leading experts on Pre-Roman Europe. Simon Berresford Ellis has published many books on the ancient Celts, although these are not up to the standards of Cunliffe's books. He does write about obscure subjects - Celtic women, Druids etc, yet most of his work is tinged with bias. He glorifies the Celts a bit too much, and is often unwilling to explore the darker sides of Celtic culture - human sacrifice, head hunting etc. He considers most of these as being slurs made by xenophobic Greeks and Romans. Still, a lot of his books are worth a look; as long as you take a lot of what he says with a pinch of salt. I enjoyed some sections of his 'Celts and Romans' that I read in the library.

 

Simon James' 'The world of the Celts' is also a good, short and colorful look at the Celts. The book is well illustrated with colour photographs and drawings. Although I suppose that Dr. James would disagree with a few things he's written in the book by today.