A WATERSTONES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2022’Simon Jenkins, as ever, writes with clarity and insight’ Times’One of the liveliest commentators in Britain, always worth reading and pleasingly contrarian’ Jeremy Paxman, GuardianWho were the Celts? Were they a people, a civilisation, an empire, or a fiction of historical imagination? They flit as ghosts through Europe’s ancient past, purported ancestors of the Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish and Bretons.Yet they have never been identified with any one land, or with any one history or language.Simon Jenkins argues compellingly that the ‘Celts’ is a misleading concept, bundling together quite distinct peoples. The word keltoi first appears in Greek, applied generally to aliens or ‘barbarians’ – and theories of Celticism continue to fuel many of the prejudices and misconceptions that divide the British Isles to this day. Fascinating and increasingly relevant, who the Celts were – or weren’t – goes to the heart of the ongoing argument over the future of a dis-United Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The history of the Celts is the history of a misnomer. There has never been a distinct people, race or tribe claiming the name of Celtic, though remnants of different languages and cultures remain throughout Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall. The word keltoi first appears in Greek as applied generally to aliens or ‘barbarians’ – and theories of Celticism continue to fuel many of the prejudices and misconceptions that divide the peoples of the British Isles to this day. Often seen as unimportant or irrelevant adjuncts to English history, in ‘The Celts’ Simon Jenkins offers a compelling counterargument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[75],"product_tag":[1562],"class_list":["post-98415","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-history","product_tag-european-history","pa_book_author-jenkins-simon","pa_cover-paperback","pa_dewey-940-04916-edition23","pa_imprint-profile-books","pa_language-english","pa_pages-xiv-290-8-unnumbered-of-plates","pa_publisher-profile-books","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","onbackorder","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n