How Long to Read We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland

How Long Does it Take to Read We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland?

It takes the average reader 13 hours and 33 minutes to read We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

“[L]ike reading a great tragicomic Irish novel.” —James Wood, The New Yorker “Masterful . . . astonishing.” —Cullen Murphy, The Atlantic "A landmark history . . . Leavened by the brilliance of O'Toole's insights and wit.” —Claire Messud, Harper’s Winner • 2021 An Post Irish Book Award — Nonfiction Book of the Year • from the judges: “The most remarkable Irish nonfiction book I’ve read in the last 10 years”; “[A] book for the ages.” A celebrated Irish writer’s magisterial, brilliantly insightful chronicle of the wrenching transformations that dragged his homeland into the modern world. Fintan O’Toole was born in the year the revolution began. It was 1958, and the Irish government—in despair, because all the young people were leaving—opened the country to foreign investment and popular culture. So began a decades-long, ongoing experiment with Irish national identity. In We Don’t Know Ourselves, O’Toole, one of the Anglophone world’s most consummate stylists, weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary “backwater” to an almost totally open society—perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. Born to a working-class family in the Dublin suburbs, O’Toole served as an altar boy and attended a Christian Brothers school, much as his forebears did. He was enthralled by American Westerns suddenly appearing on Irish television, which were not that far from his own experience, given that Ireland’s main export was beef and it was still not unknown for herds of cattle to clatter down Dublin’s streets. Yet the Westerns were a sign of what was to come. O’Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish, women in particular. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism. In O’Toole’s telling, America became a lodestar, from John F. Kennedy’s 1963 visit, when the soon-to-be martyred American president was welcomed as a native son, to the emergence of the Irish technology sector in the late 1990s, driven by American corporations, which set Ireland on the path toward particular disaster during the 2008 financial crisis. A remarkably compassionate yet exacting observer, O’Toole in coruscating prose captures the peculiar Irish habit of “deliberate unknowing,” which allowed myths of national greatness to persist even as the foundations were crumbling. Forty years in the making, We Don’t Know Ourselves is a landmark work, a memoir and a national history that ultimately reveals how the two modes are entwined for all of us.

How long is We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland?

We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole is 788 pages long, and a total of 203,304 words.

This makes it 266% the length of the average book. It also has 248% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 18 hours and 30 minutes to read We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland aloud.

What Reading Level is We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland?

We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland?

We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.

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