How the Irish Saved Civilization
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4.0 • 78 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • 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. • The perfect St. Patrick's Day gift!
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, Ireland, according to the author, ``had one moment of unblemished glory''-when Irish monks copied almost all of Western classical poetry, history, oratory, philosophy and commentary. But this book is more than the story of monks preserving manuscripts; it is an irreverent look back at how Ireland came to be. Celts who had traversed Europe, Irish warriors and their women were primitive and blatantly sexual. Next came a taming of the land with the help of St. Patrick, who hated slavery and loved scholarship. Patrick was followed by St. Columcille, a great lover of books who became embroiled in a war and, as penance, exiled himself to the island of Iona, off Scotland. It was here that Ireland became ``Europe's publisher,'' as other warrior-monks followed Columcille's example and began to colonize barbarized Europe. They put Ireland in the vanguard of intellectual leadership, a position the Irish would not surrender until the Viking invasion of the 11th century. Cahill (A Literary Guide to Ireland) has written a scholarly, yet cheeky, book that will have strong appeal to Celtophiles. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Customer Reviews
Celtic stars
How did the Irish save civilization? Monks like Columella and Columbanus in the sixth century, as the Huns and Avars poured across the Rhine and Danube sacking all libraries and nascent monasteries in Western Europe, these Irish Christian monks were thoroughly but idiosyncratically preserving not only the Judeo-Christian texts and teachings in their monasteries but pagan or Greco-Roman learning as well and were sharing all texts with believers and non-believers; the Irish monasteries of the Early Middle Ages seemed like university towns or Buddhist retreats.
Once the barbarian raids had settled a monk like Columbanus is credited with starting perhaps as many as 60 monasteries in Gaul and Lombardy. Thr organization of these monasteries were far less hierarchic than later Benedictine ones like Monte Cassino were. In fact, Cahill argues that the Irish offered a different conception of Christianity.
Entertaining Read
This book wasn’t meant to be an exhaustive - or even overly serious - take on medieval history or the value of the Irish. Instead, it’s an author in love with his subject, whipping through the waning of the classical world. Does he overstate his case? Of course, but it’s still an entertaining read!
How the Irish Saved Civilization
This book has impacted me. It has helped me put context to my faith and to realize how little I am in the grand scheme of things and yet see how Christ can use me not inspire of that but purely because of that! Awesome book. MUST READ