Amazon.com
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 treasury. When stability returned in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning, becoming not only the conservators of civilization, but also the shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on Western culture.
Book Description
The perfect St. Patrick's Day gift, and a book in the best tradition of popular history -- the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe.
Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars" -- and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians.
In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization -- copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost -- they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task.
As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.
In the tradition of Barbara Tuchman's
A Distant Mirror,
How The Irish Saved Civilization reconstructs an era that few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. But it conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.
Download Description
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.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable reading.......2007-09-28
I enjoyed this book and am somewhat surprised by the nasty reviews. I wasn't looking for a historical textbook or I would surely have looked elsewhere. As an introduction to the role Ireland played in history, I found it a scratching of the surface that made me want to go out and learn more. And I loved Cahill's rather lighthearted amusing writing style. I'm intrigued enough to want to read more in the hinges of history series and I find myself wanting to study Irish poetry from the middle ages.
An enjoyable read!
An ok book about the Irish.......2007-08-27
An ok book about irish civilization. I cannot say that I loved this book. It was a general read about the Irish. I was not overwhelmed by this.
Heavy reading.......2007-07-18
This book is an interesting intellectual history of the fall of Western classical civilization, and how its literary works and ideas were preserved and then brought back to life through Irish monasteries. Cahill begins with an analysis of why the Roman Empire collapsed, which he supports by drawing heavily on classical writers, from Plato to Cicero. He also examines the state of Irish society at the time, using the Tain as an example. He then traces the history of Saint Patrick bringing Christianity to Ireland, and how the new Christian monasteries came to be the institutions that preserved the ancient classical texts and brought them back to mainland Europe in future centuries.
I found Cahill's approach to history quite interesting, in his heavy use of contemporary literary works to exemplify his descriptions. He argues that it was the special nature of Irish intellectual society, in which the monks were interested in reading and preserving all classical works without censoring them, which enabled many classic Greek and Roman texts to be preserved. Without such broad interests in preserving all ancient texts, Cahill argues they would have been lost for good with the looting and burning of the great European libraries, and the ideas in them would not have been available to fuel the renaissance. The book is quite thought-provoking, and would make a good choice for book discussions.
Wonderful Book.......2007-06-14
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Like many of Thomas Cahill's books the author spends the first few chapters on background history (which can be a slow read for some - myself included), but once he sets up the time and place it is a smooth enjoyable ride that leaves you inspired and enriched.
Not scholarly literature.......2007-06-13
I thought Cahill's premise was fascinating. The book was interesting, too, but it's not a scholarly work. Cahill tells a story. I admit that I have not read enough in this area to be able to fully critique his work, but like any work the reader should not blindly accept everything he or she reads.
I was disappointed by the vagueness of much of Cahill's text. Much of it seemed irrelevant. Ausonius and Augustine and Plato are nice, but I don't know if they're really the greatest cross-section of classical civilzation to cite. I was confused by the way in which the story was told. I felt cheated by the layout, which seems to indicate that events happened in this order: 1) Rome is great, 2) Rome is overrun by barbarians, 3) Ireland becomes civilized, 4) Ireland enlightens the world, 5) the world is saved. However, if you look at the chronology in the back, these events are intertwined and one is not necessarily the result of another. This book seems to be the bones of the story - but it's not fleshed out. Please note that Cahill's credentials are as a religious scholar, not a historian.
Cahill's arguments are interesting, and he did illuminate an aspect of history that was previously a shadow of the Dark Ages. The time between the fall of the Roman empire and Charlemagne seems to be a black hole in history. Cahill does make the usual error of assuming that the people of his society are the only people in the world - but anyone who knows anything about history knows that the world was never empty. I may give Cahill another chance, but I have my reservations.
Book Description
Ancient greek sholarship constitutes a precious resource for classicists, but one that is underutilized because graduate students and even mature scholars lack familiarity with its conventions. The peculiarities of scholarly Greek and the lack of translations or scholarly aids often discourages readers from exploiting the large body of commentaries, scholia, lexica, and grammatical treatises that have been preserved on papyrus and via the manuscript tradition. Now, for the first time, there is an introduction to such scholarship that will enable students and scholars unfamiliar with this material to use it in their work. Ancient Greek Scholarship includes detailed discussion of the individual ancient authors on whose works scholia, commentaries, or single-author lexica exist, together with explanations of the probable sources of that scholarship and the ways it is now used, as well as descriptions of extant grammatical works and general lexica. These discussions, and the annotated bibliography of more than 1200 works, also include evaluations of the different texts of each work and of a variety of electronic resources. This book not only introduces readers to ancient scholarship, but also teaches them how to read it. Here readers will find a detailed, step-by-step introduction to the language, a glossary of over 1500 grammatical terms, and a set of more than 200 passages for translation, each accompanied by commentary. The commentaries offer enough help to enable undergraduates with as little as two years of Greek to translate most passages with confidence; in addition, readers are given aids to handling the ancient numerical systems, understanding the references found in works of ancient scholarship, and using an apparatus criticus (including an extensive key to the abbreviations used in an apparatus). Half the passages are accompanied by a key, so that the book is equally suitable for those studying on their own and for classes with graded homework.
Customer Reviews:
Enormously helpful.......2007-07-21
I dare say that currently there is no other book like Eleanor Dickey's Ancient Greek Scholarship (AGS) available. Being truly one of a kind, AGS provides a much needed aid to aspiring classicists.
AGS is not a history or survey of Ancient Greek scholarship. Rather it is a guide to the resources with which every student of classics must become familiar in order to become a professional in the field. Thus, although it is very much written for beginners, it is not a book primarily for the beginner: It is written in a clear and accessible manner for someone who is not yet acquainted with the resources introduced in the book, and it does not assume any philological training on part of the reader and in that sense it is aimed at beginers. But beginners in classics, who have their hands full learning Latin and Greek and some Ancient History, will not have an urgent need for this book yet. Once they are ready to begin their gradual transformation into professionals AGS will be there to nurture and support them. Upper level college students and 1st and 2nd year graduate students will cherish this book.
The first chapter contains a general introduction. The second chapter surveys the available scholia (i.e. ancient comments, notes, and glosses found in ancient and medieval commentaries and in the margin of manuscripts) to archaic and classical poetry, classical prose, and Hellenistic literature. Dickey explains why some scholia are important while others are hard to use and diligently points out good editions of the texts. Chapter three is devoted to other scholarly works, such as various ancient grammatical treatises and lexica. Chapters 2-3 are not least valuable for Dickey's comments and tips to the reader, but also for the unique assembly of information.
Chapter 4 contains an introduction to the actual language and conventions of scholarly Greek. This chapter is invaluable because nowhere else can one find such an introduction. But a student who has mastered Ancient Greek ought to be able to read the comments of later commentators, right? Maybe, but it's still made difficult by certain conventions with which the student will most likely not be familiar. Chapter 5 has examples which the student can use to practice. A glossary of grammatical terms in chapter 6 is very helpful too, as well as the two appendices on how to find works on ancient scholarship in library catalogues and how to use facsimiles, the annotated bibliography and the three indices at the end of the book.
Whether you are a student of classical literature, ancient history, classical archaeology, ancient philosophy, or linguistics, if you are a person who would study antiquity professionally then this book will be incredibly helpful to you.
Customer Reviews:
Very useful.......2006-11-05
This book is very useful. Mainly I was looking for a book that contained the score of trobadours songs: I found it. Inside I found most of the songs I was looking for.
Dealing with music.......2003-11-05
I liked very much this book because of its scholarly yet plain approach to the troubaudor's music (not trouvères). It deals with every important aspect of troubaudor music; history, biographies, sources, influence of oral tradition, philological problems (notation, rythm, textual variants, etc.), genres, musical analysis, form, theoretical writtings, performance, etc.
There should be more books like this!! Muy recomendable!!
Book Description
This magisterial book provides an analysis of the course of Western intellectual history between A.D. 400 and 1400. The book is arranged in two parts: the first surveys the comparative modes of thought and varying success of Byzantine, Latin-Christian, and Muslim cultures, and the second takes the reader from the twelfth-century revival of learning to the high Middle Ages and beyond, the period in which the vibrancy of Western intellectual culture enabled it to stamp its imprint well beyond the frontiers of Christendom.
Customer Reviews:
Dry and uninsightful, but somewhat useful nevertheless.......2005-01-01
My interest in obscure and esoteric subjects frequently leads me to read books written by academics, with whom I am sympathetic, since I am one myself. So it is unpleasant for me to concede that most academics can't write for beans. The current author's work is a nearly perfect example of this very sad fact, which says so much about the waning intellectual vigor of our age. The title provides a sufficient clue that this is a dry and plodding tome, and this impression is confirmed by each and every page, on which lengthy and opaque sentences coil about one another in pointless complexity without ever giving birth to a new idea or an important insight. The most challenging aspect of this book is not the subtle but intriguing new ideas its author places before us - since there are none of these to think about. Rather, the difficulty arises from the fact that the author's style is as unappealing as a cardboard sandwich.
Instead of new insights, she gives us only an exhaustive (and exhausting!) summary of the major books and intellectual traditions of the Middle Ages. And although she provides a slim but marginally satisfactory historical context, she never places medieval influences in new relationships that clarify their importance. Instead, this book grinds on like some college term paper on steroids. It is full of citations, paraphrases and summaries, but it is completely unstained by original thought. This underscores the dark side of academia's culture: "publish or perish".
Among its flaws, the book reflects a surprisingly poor understanding of the world that preceded 500AD, and the author's grasp of Christianity -- an omnipresent medieval theme -- is brittle and impoverished. Oh, the facts are there, all right, but there is no deep understanding of them. Also, the visual arts are not discussed at all -- a major flaw that must reflect the author's failure to recognize their relevance. And although science is mentioned, the author does not understand it well, so she can not fully appreciate its effects. This is an extremely serious shortcoming.
Still, the book has value. Having read it, I feel much better prepared to delve into the source material, whose scope I now better understand. And the author's summaries of medieval literature are among her best. She has an authentic gift for appreciating literature and for sharing her enthusiasm with her readers. As a result, I look forward to reading these works, which would not otherwise have interested me.
Finally, do not be deceived by the fact that a few commercial "reviewers" have said that this book is an "important intellectual achievement". These claims tell us more about the publishers' need to recoup their costs than about the book's merits. There is absolutely nothing in this book that will noticeably alter the world of ideas. And the alleged "central thesis" -- that our modern age stands upon the Middle Ages more than on the preceding Roman world -- must surely be a joke. To her credit, the author devotes almost no attention to this preposterous claim, and so I doubt that the reviewers actually read the book. After all, no thoughtful person can fail to see that the ancient world profoundly influenced the Middle Ages, which in turn influenced the Europe that emerged from them. As a result, these influences are intermingled, and there is no conceivable method by which the modern influence of Cicero, for example, can be separated from that of Ockham. In fact, the metaphor underlying this "thesis" is broken. Intellectual traditions do not stand upon a foundation as a building does. Instead, they are a river whose water inseparably mixes the contribution of its many enriching tributaries. We can appreciate them all, without pretending that one is the "foundation" and the others are not.
Fascinating and well-researched work.......2001-03-07
Colish's book is a tour-de-force in the Yale Intellectual History of the West. Her thesis, that the foundation of the Western intellectual mindset and tradition really began in earnest in the Middle Ages rathern than Greek antiquity is an interesting one, and one for which I beleive she gives good arguments. The way she suggests that the ideals of Greece were filtered through Rome and Latin Christianity befire they reached "Euorope" as we know it today comes off convincingly. For her, it is a matter of the development of ideas counting for more than their sources; as a historian, she knows that things didn't have to turn out the way that they did. Colish fleshes this out very nicely in the section of the book where she gives an evenhanded and scholarly account of the parallel cultures of the Latin West, Byzantium, and Islam. Her work in this volume shows that she has thought long and hard about these issues, and her conclusions deserve close attention.
In addition to her excellent discussion of European Medieval intellectual thought, Colish goes into the vernacular literature and day-to-day culture of the Medieval world and proves again that the "Dark Ages" were anything but in some very important ways. Her treatment of theology in dialogue with Medieval law, science, and literature is nothing less than inspired: as a theologian, I found myself wondering how Colish, a historian, had found the time to track down all the relevant arguements, and how she had been able to explain such byzantine issues as the Nominalist controversy and lay-investiture in so clear a manner. Read this book (not really for beginners) in conjunction with or immediately following Cantor's Civilization in the Middle Ages, and you will have a firm grasp of the entire span of the Medieval era, its ideas, culture, politics, religion, and heritage. A wonderful book.
well-written and informative overview.......1999-01-04
As an amateur history-enthusiast I greaty enjoyed reading this book (twice) for its well-written and generally clear overview of how Western thought developed throughout early and later medieval periods. Starting with brief discussions of the Apologists and the Latin Church Fathers, the topics raised are discussed in a even-handed manner, although i cannot really judge the treatment of the theological debates. I found the latter (for instance on the Trinity) quite hard-going but that is not necessarily the authors's fault. After all, the subject is complex and deals with theological and philosophical subtleties that now hardly seem to merit the passionate debates and the importance attached to it then. At the same time it is clear that these discussions did have a major impact on European foundations and deeply shaped the further course of Western intellectual thought. The part on vernacular literature (Celtic, Old Norse, German, French and English) i enjoyed very much and i think it really added value. Interesting and useful also was the comparison with Byzantine and Islamic cultures. A very good point was the discussion on diversity that became the hallmark of European civilizations. I sometimes missed the economic/political/social context in which these intellectual developments took place, but again that is not necessarily meant as a criticism. Here one would need to take some other studies which would complement this one. The book sets out to show Medieval roots of Western thought and, i think, it does so very well. Useful and not only for beginners.
Book Description
Concise essays by 29 performers and musicologists give solid guidance on various vocal repertories, instruments, and performance-practice issues. Contributors include Alejandro Planchart, Benjamin Bagby, and Herbert W. Myers.
Customer Reviews:
I'm enthusiast!.......2006-06-28
This book is really useful: I play the medieval lute and the 'ud and I found very interesting and helpful the chapters about improvisation and basic theory of the modes.
I really recommend it!
Begin here.......2003-06-26
I agree with the other review of this book, the
Bagby article is wonderful in its insight and also
its discouraging the adoption of riffs from contemporary
cultures (a la "world music") while finding inspiration and advice in them. Non-western musical traditions have has its own genius and integrity witout insulting them by pasting them onto western practice. They should be studied for their own worth.
The articles about theory and practice in this book are the most practical I've ever seen in a book on the subject. Following Margriet Tindemans' advice in chapter 34 will definitely get you somewhere.
If you are going to buy only one book on the subject it should be this one. If you are going to buy several, this one should be the first.
Sheep guts, neumes, and poetic imagination.......2001-01-05
This collection of essays attempts to give a fairly complete overview of things we need to know to do a credible job of recreating medieval music, including poetic and dramatic forms, modes, tunings, the ever-elusive question of notation, and specifics about the instruments. This last is particularly helpful when one is moving sideways out of one's own area of expertise (eg, singers wanting to know more about how to direct the instrumentalists in suitable accompaniment textures, lutenists seeking to create a repertoire out of 14th and 15th c vocal forms, sensible people curious about the hurdy gurdy's fall from grace, etc.). Within any given essay are plenty of challenges to commonly received knowledge, with abundant references and citations. Illustrations, though sparing, manage to make departures from the ones usually given. In all, this book is bound to serve as a standard reference for years to come.
For a taste now, if nothing else, anyone involved in recreating medieval music simply must read Benjamin Bagby's essay "Imagining the Early Medieval Harp." He presents a quest, and captures many hints to point to a truly passionate and organic reconstruction of authentic performance practice. Why do we go to such efforts to assemble these hints and scraps of the past? Why would we even think of limiting ourselves to musical instruments barely exceeding an octave? Imagine, with Mr Bagby, the legend of Tristan with his 8-10 stringed harp, described in a 13th c account as "playing such sweet tones and striking the harp so perfecly... that many who stood or sat nearby forgot their own names." This is a possible ideal even today: Read on!
Even more is given in the late Barbara Thornton's interview "The Voice," wherein very specific techniques are shared for cultivating a medieval imagination. Like a language itself, this imagination is also a receptivity to many emotional nuances and inflections that are simply not communicated by any other kind of music.
As Ms Thornton reflected, it was just as hard for a medieval person to gain mastery of medieval tradition as it is for us today. "The building blocks in medieval tradition are known and available." You'll find a treasury of them here.
Product Description
Manchester's marvelously vivid popular history humanizes the tumultuous span from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance.
Customer Reviews:
Kaleidoscopic.......2007-09-11
At last an author who has "joined the dots" and filled gaps in my knowledge that have puzzled for years. A truly sweeping historical kaleidoscope of the "47 generations" from the fall of Rome to the rise of Humanism, together with brief sketches major historical figures, which adds perspective and insight to a tumultuous period of man's history
Amazon.com
It speaks to the failure of medieval Europe, writes popular historian William Manchester, that "in the year 1500, after a thousand years of neglect, the roads built by the Romans were still the best on the continent." European powers were so absorbed in destroying each other and in suppressing peasant revolts and religious reform that they never quite got around to realizing the possibilities of contemporary innovations in public health, civil engineering, and other peaceful pursuits. Instead, they waged war in faraway lands, created and lost fortunes, and squandered millions of lives. For all the wastefulness of medieval societies, however, Manchester notes, the era created the foundation for the extraordinary creative explosion of the Renaissance. Drawing on a cast of characters numbering in the hundreds, Manchester does a solid job of reconstructing the medieval world, although some scholars may disagree with his interpretations.
Book Description
It speaks to the failure of medieval Europe, writes popular historian William Manchester, that"in the year 1500, after a thousand years of neglect, the roads built by the Romans were still the beston the continent." European powers were so absorbed in destroying each other and in suppressingpeasant revolts and religious reform that they never quite got around to realizing the possibilities ofcontemporary innovations in public health, civil engineering, and other peaceful pursuits. Instead, theywaged war in faraway lands, created and lost fortunes, and squandered millions of lives. For all thewastefulness of medieval societies, however, Manchester notes, the era created the foundation for theextraordinary creative explosion of the Renaissance. Drawing on a cast of characters numbering in thehundreds, Manchester does a solid job of reconstructing the medieval world, although some scholars maydisagree with his interpretations.
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-08
When I saw this book I couldn't believe that it was written by my William Manchester - but it was. What was he doing in Medieval times and not World War II or post war America? I enjoyed the book. I see that it has brought a lot of medieval critics and experts out of the catacombs. I'm no medieval expert. For me it was a fun a interesting read. It was Manchester throughout and I had no trouble keeping up an interest. When I finished I said to myself, This guy can make anything interesting. He had a great knack. He was a darn good writer.
The Essence of the Dark Ages.......2007-08-18
A World Lit Only by Fire is a fascinating study of the end of the Middle Ages in Europe and the beginning of the Renaissance. Originally intended as an introduction to a biography of Ferdinand Magellan, A World Lit Only by Fire is an engaging introduction to medieval and Renaissance cultures.
Not a scholarly study based on first hand research, the work is intended for the general audience. However, Manchester is an accomplished historian and biographer of prominent 20th Century figures. This is arguably a strength in writing this book. Manchester brings both a professional historian's critical eye and a fresh outlook to examine a pivotal historical period.
The book contains two chapters only: a 25-page overview of the Middle Ages and a 264-page portrait of the pivotal people and ideas responsible for destroying the medieval (primarily Roman Catholic) world view.
Manchester begins by examining what made the Dark and Middle Ages so dark and so middling. His answer is: the death of classical civilization and the subsequent dominance of the Catholic Church. He captures this stifling dominance when he writes, "the entire medieval millennium took on the aspect of triumphant Christendom....the life of every European, from baptism through matrimony to burial, was governed by popes, cardinals, prelates, monsignors, archbishops, bishops, and village priests."
Manchester's general descriptions of the Medieval period's darkness are particularly interesting in the various sad, fascinating, and little known details he provides. For example, "in the year 1500, after a thousand years of neglect, the roads built by the Romans were still the best on the continent." He describes a Yorkshire gravestone that attests to the reality of Robin Hood, and he provides some details behind the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who was more a sadistic pedophile than a fairy tale enchanter.
The author captures an essential aspect of Medieval world in describing the lack of individuality among most Europeans: "The most baffling, elusive, yet in many ways the most significant dimensions of the medieval mind were invisible and silent. One was the medieval man's total lack of ego. Even those with creative powers had no sense of self." He notes that most Europeans of the time had no surnames, and that the builders of Medievaldom's most famous creations, the soaring gothic cathedrals, were anonymous.
The ugliness and brutality of medieval life, Manchester argues, was made possible by an institutionalized mindless. The people and their leaders considered most worthwhile knowledge to be already known - and since much of that knowledge was based on religious authority, to challenge it was usually considered heresy. He quotes Saint Vincent of Lerins saying the Church was, "a faithful and ever watchful guardian of the dogmas which have been committed to her charge. In this secret deposit she changes nothing, takes nothing from it, she adds nothing to it." Manchester quotes another cardinal who asserted, "The Church is not susceptible of being reformed in her doctrines. The Church is the work of an Incarnate God. Like all God's works, it is perfect. It is, therefore, incapable of reform." Thus, to "appeal from the living voice of the Church," was "a treason.' "
The absolute authority of the medieval papacy resulted in its abuse of power, as exemplified by the Borgia popes. Their political and religious corruption was matched only by their sexual depravity. These pontiffs would hardly be recognized by today's masses of Catholics who adore the papacy.
Both in spite of and because of the Church's disgraceful behavior during this period, the seeds of the Renaissance were planted by prominent Catholics. With the rediscovery of classic Greek and Roman literature, many Renaissance artists and intellectuals became prominent within the bosom of the Catholic establishment itself. Manchester covers several, including such illustrious figures as Di Vinci, Copernicus, Michelangelo, Thomas Moore, and Erasmus.
Manchester also provides a vivid portrait Martin Luther, depicting him as both a conservative and a radical individual - driven by a devout religious idealism and tormented by demons from his abusive childhood. This young German theologian would come to change the face of Christianity by his obstinate refusal to accept the absolute power of the Vatican. The tremendous bloodshed resulting from the subsequent Protestant Reformation occurred not only between Catholic and Protestant, but within each group. Protestant sects became ever more zealous in trying to purify their lives and faiths, leading to absolutist Christian religious theocracies, such as that in Geneva led by John Calvin. On the other side, the Catholic counter-Reformation and the Inquisition became infamous for their wide-spread practices of torture and murder of anyone suspected of being a heretic or a Jew.
In the end, Manchester returns to Ferdinand Magellan, presenting an inspiring portrait of the man whose story was the impetus for this book. We see Magellan as a microcosm and culmination of the age. A mariner of almost unbelievable fortitude and courage, Magellan's iron will forced his tiny armada of five ships onward and onward, covering vast stretches of the world's oceans, overcoming mutinies and horrific living conditions. Though Magellan did not survive the journey, due to an overzealous evangelistic streak, the historic first circumnavigation of the globe he made possible forever shattered the medieval world view by providing European society with visceral, convincing evidence - lacking in more theoretical demonstrations - that the Earth is a sphere. This feat was instrumental in destroying the mindless inertia that was the essence of the medieval mind. In fracturing the Church's philosophic dominance, Magellan achievement directed men's eyes outward toward the horizon and the promise of life on this Earth, instead of upward or downward toward the mysteries of the next life.
A World Lit Only by Fire provides an engaging view of the death of the medieval world and the rebirth of Western civilization. Manchester thereby demonstrates the power of ideas to significantly change the course of history. Excellent reading.
Full of falsehoods and totally biased........2007-08-16
This book is completely irresponsible. It is full of falsehoods, some of which are slanderous. And it is extremely biased.
For example, early in the book, Manchester accuses St. Augustine of holding that sex was evil. On the next page he goes even further and says that Augustinians considered even procreation to be evil! This couldn't be further from the truth. Augustine was so clear in recognizing the goodness and legitimacy of sexuality that he wrote an entire treatise entitled "The Good of Marriage." In this treatise he defends the legitimacy and goodness of marriage AND the sexuality and procreation associated with it.
The bias of the book is apparent in every way, although by the title of the book this should not be surprising. In his own introduction to the book, Manchester notes that he is not a medieval historian, and prior to writing the book, had only a typical educated man's familiarity with the time period. And he notes that the real medieval historians that he had look over his work took an enormous number of exceptions to what he wrote. There's a shocker!
If you want to learn about the history of the middle ages, try The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History. If you want to read a tabloid, they're available at your local grocery store.
William Manchester.......2007-08-13
If you like history, you'll love this. Manchester has a wonderful approach to discussing the medieval peoples and how they thought and acted. A great read.
A good, wrong read!.......2007-08-03
I'm a medievalist. Yes, Manchester got a lot of the Middle Ages stuff wrong, or at least very distorted. He doesn't make facts up, but he presents some *highly* selected facts and bases fairly wild conclusions on that selection.
He says, for instance, that no technological progress happened in the Middle Ages, but reading even the title of the book "Horsecollar, Waterwheel, and Cathedral" proves otherwise. For another instance, he professes to believe that medieval man had no sense of self, "a total lack of ego," because there are no signatures or records of those who built the cathedrals. Yet if we look at any modern construction project -- bridge, skyscraper, or jet plane -- we likewise find no signatures, no egos except those of the corporation which built it. Are we modern people, then, also without ego? Not exactly.
Furthermore, it's true that Manchester seems to thoroughly enjoy the R-rated aspects of the medieval church, so much so that's it's hard to believe this is the same man who wrote the somber, dignified "Death of a President" or most of Churchill's biography, "The Last Lion." I can only assume that, having survived the serious illness that he mentions at the start of this book, Manchester was in a "what the hell!" mood, and just let 'er rip.
For the record, medieval society did make advances in the lives of common folks; for just one example, the invention of the horse-collar, which sounds mundane now, enabled animals to pull loads and heavy plows so much more easily that whole areas of Europe were opened up for agriculture for the first time.
And the medieval church, while it surely had its bad apples, also kept literacy and science alive and provided all the social services that governments struggle to provide today.
Furthermore, the great Renaissance men he admires weren't always all that great. Manchester here uses the familiar trick of criticising the "enemy" for what he *does," while praising the "good guys" for what they *think.* For instance, Galileo's science was indeed wonderful, but the way he treated his two young daughters -- forcing them unwilling into a convent at ages 12 and 10, so that the younger went insane -- might be reasonably set alongside the antics of rotten old Pope Alexander VI as a way *not* to treat your children.
So, yes, Manchester's wrong about a lot of things. But he has so much fun with it that I, for one medievalist, don't grudge him his pleasure. The book is lively and entertaining, which most medieval histories are not. Those readers who go away thinking that the Middle Ages was stagnant and the popes were evil will at least have learned a few things about Renaissance advances in science. Other readers may be tempted, by this spicy taste of history, to look further and deeper. Either way, it's good.
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The Times of Bede: Studies in Early English Christian Society and Its Historian
Patrick Wormald
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
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ASIN: 0631166556 |
Book Description
Written over a 30-year period by the late Patrick Wormald, one of the leading authorities on the Early Middle Ages, this book is a collection of studies on Bede and early English Christian society. Its central concern is the establishment of a Christian community within a warrior society, and the way this was charted, not always sympathetically, by Bede and other writers of his time. A subsidiary theme is the emergence of a self-consciously English Church, which was in turn the foundation of an English state. An appendix considers Bede 's treatment of St. Hilda, the first great English female saint.The book will be welcomed for its systematic integration of the religious, intellectual, political and social history of the English in their first Christian centuries.
Book Description
The period c.1250-1450 ("the later Middle Ages") was seminal for the values of the modern world. State sovereignty, the separation of church and state, representation, the popular origin of government, and property rights are just a few of the ideas formulated during this time. Political Thought in Europe provides a lucid and accessible introduction to the period in the round, covering both major thinkers such as Aquinas, Marsiglio, Ockham, Wyclif and Cusa, and prevalent notions of church and state, empire and local sovereignty, civic and communal self-government, kingship, "the people", parliament, the law and experts ("the wise"). This is the first overall account to use recent advances in the methodology of the history of ideas.
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