The Origins of the British

by Stephen Oppenheimer

Book Overview

History has long maintained that the Anglo-Saxon overtaking of the Iron Age Celts was the origin of the British people. Celtic Britain reconstructs the peopling of Britain -- through a study of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1845294823
• ISBN13: 9781845294823
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Robinson Publishing
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Don't listen to the poor reviews

I read this book after reading another 'DNA' book, "Saxons, Vikings and Celts" by Brian Sykes and Oppenheimer wins hands down. Sykes seemed to have very little to say and had to pad out his DNA information with some rather poorly presented information from history and archaeology and a lot of the story of his project of collecting DNA in the field. Stephen Oppenheimer, on the other hand, was so comprehensive in his coverage of the study of the origins and migrations of peoples as traced through DNA that he left Sykes eating his dust back at the starting line. The book has everything from a really good explanation of the different types of DNA and how they are tested through to comprehensive information on all the DNA types that migrated into the British Isles, where they came from, what their migration path was on the way and when they entered the British Isles with a level of detail that left me stunned they could actually tell so much from DNA. There are many very clear maps and charts to help with visualisation of the information. The book also weaves in the archaeological, linguistic and historical evidence but as an adjunct to the DNA evidence and not a replacement like in Sykes book and a very accurate and detailed adjunct too. This is a big book but I sat enthralled and read it cover to cover very quickly, something that I could never do if it had been too hard, dry and academic or if it had been poorly written. It is academic, it is detailed, it does repeat itself at times (which I found useful), it brings together all the available research at the time of writing discussing the work of a wide range of researchers in the field, it is incredibly comprehensive and it does not deserve to have the three damning reviews given the top votes by you the viewers.

Celtic confusions

While we in North America have a distressing tendency to lump most of the inhabitants of the British Isles together, those living there are aware of their diversity. That awareness has been carried rather to extremes by some scholars and politicians. "What is a Celt?" has been a key question, as has been its follow-up "What really happened to the Celts?" Tied in with these queries is the problem of finding an origin for the Celts and just what language they spoke. Stephen Oppenheimer addresses these and related issues in a comprehensive "detective story" incorporating history, analytical genetics and linguistic studies. His conclusions, well depicted in this provocative study, will prove surprising to some, and perhaps distressing to a few. The British Isles, he begins, have the advantage of being invaders of a "terra nullius" [uninhabited land] some fifteen thousand years ago. As the Last Glacial Maximum retreated before the rise of a revived warm period, humans were able to enter a land they'd been driven from thousands of years previously. While this situation offers nothing to the historian, archaeologists and geneticists have a clear starting point for placing and dating the migration. Not an island then, Britain was a peninsula jutting out from the European land mass. That provided an easy route from the Mediterranean shoreline, around what is now Iberia to the southern and western coasts of Britain. Since "western" here now means Eire, it's clear the first adjustment of opinion must accommodate Ireland and Britain. Clearly, there were later population movements, but where did they originate, how long did they last and what numbers of people were involved? Most significantly, what languages did they speak? From his introductory survey, Oppenheimer proceeds to tease out the answers to these questions. The origins are traced back in time using genetic markers. Mitochondrial DNA, carried down the generations only through female inheritance factors provides one scenario. The Y chromosome, the genetic marker for men is analysed separately, then compared. In most, although not all cases, the matches are mutually supportive. Archaeological finds are used as further indicators which have the advantage of solid dating techniques to support them, unlike the DNA tests which rest on a calculation based on presumed mutation rates. The language question remains contentious. Oppenheimer links it with the spread of farming entering Europe from Anatolia introducing early forms of Celtic into Western Europe. The author's genetic analysis also overturns the idea that farmers "displaced" earlier hunter-gatherer societies in Europe and Britain. Instead, farming was adapted by the resident population and farmers' larger families added some population pressure, but hardly "displacement". The same holds true for the Roman occupation, which was more interested in social stability and tax collecting than genocide. The post-Roman era has

Great Britain as New Euskaria

An excellent book, like being back in college and taking a fun course with a witty, funny and knowledgeable professor. I appreciated the linear format with thesis backed with evidence approach. As a precaution, just like college, there were many terms and ideas that went over my head, which meant having to do some additional homework to catch up with text, but well worth the detour. To this regard, the appendix and glossary were extremely valuable. I have always been fascinated with the origins of the Basque; why would they be the only non Indo-European, Sub-Saharan or Semitic language in all of Europe and the Mediterranean and why stuck in the middle of Pyrenees? My other linguistic quandry was the lack of celtic words in the English language and the lack of consistency between English and Dutch/German/Danish. Finally the technology catches up with speculative history and paints a different picture of Western Europe. It is human nature to embelish, pander to the audience or just plain preach propaganda. But blood doesn't lie and for me all the pieces of the puzzle came together in Mr. Oppenheimer's book. I have no doubt the thesis will be seminal in the re-writing of British History.

Accessible, yet not dumbed down

For anyone interested in the early history of the British isles this book is a must! Oppenheimer gathered all the information concerning the genetic history of the British isles floating around on the internet, scholarly journals, and academic works, and having assembled it all, presents it in a serious, yet very readable fashion. Like Sykes and other genetic scholars, Oppenheimer uses cutsy names to represent specific genetic lineages, but he doesn't force the reader to have to deal with a fictional account of prehistoric lives. Instead, the names are easily remembered catch-phrases for the aforementioned groups. Oppenheimer also confirms earlier arguments about ancient regional divisions between populations in the British isles. Rather than beat the Anglo vs. Celtic drum, however, he argues that the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh all came out of the same prehistoric mix of Iberian, Near Eastern, and Eastern European migrants. Oppenheimer does not argue against the validity of "Celtic" as a lable representing certain populations in Western Europe. Rather, we need to rethink the way in which we use the term. Using a rational - if not 100% believable argument - based on linguistics, history, genetics and archaeology, Oppenheimer also contends that the roots of the English language in what is now Eastern England might predate the Roman invasion. In other words, the linguistic division between the Welsh and the English is not the result of the Anglo-Saxon invasion; instead, it is the result of prehistoric divisions.

Great Analysis

This book is incredibly insightful on a topic that few people know about. It accurately and convincingly dispels many rumors and genealogical cover-ups and gets right down to what is factual. That, in my opinion, is what is most important about a book that presents many important concepts in a objective manner. Forget about the fact that he happens to use "pet names," and that he can drone on a little. His contemporary Bryan Sykes, who wrote a book on exactly the same topic, does the exact same thing and comes to the same basic conclusions. In any case, the meat of the books, the facts, haven't been disputed as of yet.