Akenson weaves ironic and playful historical miniatures of Irish misery, folly, and glory. Like the archetypal stories in the Talmuds, the artful fictions in An Irish History of Civilization are universal, big truths that require a big canvas. Akenson follows his chosen peoples on their odyssey around the globe in a story like no other, the lines between history and fiction irretrievably lost in the mists of Irish time.