List Books Conducive To How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History #1)
| Original Title: | How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe |
| ISBN: | 0385418493 (ISBN13: 9780385418492) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Hinges of History #1 |
| Setting: | Ireland |
Thomas Cahill
Paperback | Pages: 246 pages Rating: 3.81 | 38006 Users | 1659 Reviews
Commentary Supposing Books How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History #1)
From the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagne - the "dark ages" - learning, scholarship, and culture disappeared from the European continent. The great heritage of western civilization - from the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian works - would have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland.In this delightful and illuminating look into a crucial but little-known "hinge" of history, Thomas Cahill takes us to the "island of saints and scholars, " the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells. Here, far from the barbarian despoliation of the continent, monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly, even playfully preserved the west's written treasures. With the return of stability in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning. Thus the Irish not only were conservators of civilization, but became shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on western culture.
Itemize About Books How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History #1)
| Title | : | How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History #1) |
| Author | : | Thomas Cahill |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 246 pages |
| Published | : | February 1st 1996 by Bantam Doubleday Dell (NYC) (first published February 15th 1995) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Cultural. Ireland. European Literature. Irish Literature. Historical. Religion. European History |
Rating About Books How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History #1)
Ratings: 3.81 From 38006 Users | 1659 ReviewsCritique About Books How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History #1)
I'm Irish. Don't let my last name (Zimmerman) fool you. I'm the proud son of a guy whose surname unfortunately obscures the fact that my mother (of whom I'm also a proud son) is 100 percent Irish, so assuming my dad has a little Irish in him (who doesn't?) I'm at least 50 percent. Not sure why that's so important to me, but it is. There's a mystique to Irishness that simply isn't there with other countries of distant origins. Ireland is ever green, it's charmed and charming, thick with thinThough not exactly news to anyone who went to school in Ireland (Cahill seems to have an Irish-American readership as his target audience, particularly given-away by his repeated and annoying generalizations about the 'Irish Spirit' and such like: what does he mean, Jameson or Bushmills?), this nevertheless has lots of good stuff in it and the overall argument is strong.I particularly liked the early material contrasting the moribund writing of Roman Gallic poet Ausonias with St. Augustine, and
An idea, thats a little stretched at times, but still fun to think about. By the end, my inner Irish nationalism has risen to the top. Warriors monks who loved to read had me dreaming of Ireland. Here are a few gems about my Irish family. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was heard to say that to be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart. Respect for differences was written into the rule books of Irish monasteries. Wherever they went, the Irish brought with them their books. How
My first Cahill and it just didnt resonate with me. Im sure it was engaging for some, but I was never very interested in his content or his writing style. He took two chapters of Rome to finally get around to mentioning the Irish, and the whole book still never felt very much about the Irish. He constantly quotes songs and poems and stories, drops names, but nothing was very... tied together? I wont say it was a disappointing book, but I was disappointed in my experience of it.Read John's 5-star
An entertaining little history of Irish scholarship, culture, and monk/saint heroes of antiquity who greatly respected early learning, writing etc. This very much has a catholic bias but still well written and worth reading if you are interested in Irish history.
Here Cahill provides a popular-level history of the early middle ages with mixed success. His greatest asset is a suprisingly strong prose style, which allows him to effortlessly, and even peotically, lead his readers through a complicated and fuzzy period of history. No doubt this is the reason the book was a bestseller. But it also proves to be his downfall in that his efortless sentences ellide the complexity of his subject matter. Perhaps this is the fate of all popularizers, but I found
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