“A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year”
“A History Today Book of the Year”
“An iconic people receive a scholar’s attention… . Definitive and encyclopedic.” * Kirkus Reviews *
“Stewart elucidates a clearer understanding of the Celts through disciplines such as linguistics and archaeology.” * Library Journal *
”[A] sweepingly authoritative study… . Readers will embrace so diplomatic an author, and this big, dense book will serve most of those readers not only as the grandest possible report on the current state of Celtic studies but as, one can only hope, a death-knell to the kinds of cheaply sentimental pseudo-histories that usually haunt this subject.”—Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review
“Stewart builds on recent scholarship to make a compelling case for the significance of modern Celticism, in all its paradoxical glory… . A big, ambitious, erudite book.”—Rhys Kaminski-Jones, History Today
“A fine piece of scholarship… Stewart’s exposition is clearer than many recent books on the subject and is thoroughly commended.”—Stewart Rayment, interLib
“Simultaneously intellectual and (very) readable, The Celts – A Modern History really is… . magisterial.”—David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews
”[A] vivid new book… Ian Stewart takes an imaginative, scholarly look at Celticism and its shifting interpretations.”—Linda Colley, Financial Times
”[A] radical and definitive study.”—David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer
“A scholarly and impressive book.”—Jody Joy, Current Archaeology Magazine
“A readable, engaging account of the ups and downs of an idea that has had a huge impact not only on British and Irish culture but on the world.”—James Holloway, Fortean Times
“Breathtaking… . The book displays an impressive maturity of judgment, an awe-inspiring panoramic breadth and granular depth of erudition, and a formidable capacity to organise a sprawling range of material.”—Colin Kidd, Intellectual History Review
“An engaging account of three distinct stages of Celtic studies… . Remarkable.” * Choice *
“A capacious survey of the idea of Celticism since the eighteenth century, exploring the contested concepts of race, nationalism, prehistory and cultural revival with scholarly verve and powerfully demonstrating the effect on the present of ideas about the past.”—Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement
”[A] magnificent book… .The Celts: A Modern History gives us an enormously impressive and often witty account of the development of Celticism. Ian Stewart manages to combine originality and insight with the ability to draw on the research of other scholars (especially linguists) with acuteness.”—Mark Williams, History Ireland
“Scholarly and very readable.”—Patrick Sims-Williams, Times Literary Supplement
“To examine and to understand the origins, interactions, and consequences of [Celtism], then, is the demanding task the author of this book has set himself. It can only be said that Ian Stewart has succeeded masterfully… . Without a doubt, Ian Stewart has written an excellent book that has placed the discussions around this complex topic on a much more historically informed, dispassionate, and sophisticated level: an impressive feat of arms.”—Alderik H. Blom, History of Humanities

Ian Stewart is an intellectual and cultural historian of modern Europe and a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

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