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How The Irish Saved Civilization
The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe
This narrative tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, this transition could not have taken place. Irish monks and scribes maintained records of Western civilization and brought their uniquely Irish world-vie...more
This narrative tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, this transition could not have taken place. Irish monks and scribes maintained records of Western civilization and brought their uniquely Irish world-vie...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
April 28th 2010
by Anchor
(first published 1994)
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Mind-numbingly written, building up to a nearly inconsequential conclusion on how Irish monks might have helped preserve some of Europe's classic literature. I'm descended from the Irish and was looking forward to a little nationalist pride, but this failed by underdelivering from its title and being nearly unreadable from the first chapter. It hurts even worse to hear that the claims may have been false.
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Amy
rated it
Recommends it for:
Irish, Irish lovers, travelers, historians, dreamers, lovers of literature
Recommended to Amy by:
my dear dad
Shelves:
past-read
I spent a semester studying on the rugged west coast of Ireland, utterly immersed in the culture.
My college owns a line of houses in a tiny village in Ireland, and for nearly 40 years they've paid the villagers to keep it in good condition for the yearly crop of foreigners who descend on it, like me, for four months every year.
The experience itself was wonderful, but preparing for it and the anticipation were almost MORE fun. I read this book with that spirit in mind. I l...more
My college owns a line of houses in a tiny village in Ireland, and for nearly 40 years they've paid the villagers to keep it in good condition for the yearly crop of foreigners who descend on it, like me, for four months every year.
The experience itself was wonderful, but preparing for it and the anticipation were almost MORE fun. I read this book with that spirit in mind. I l...more
Though 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. Aug...more
I particularly liked the early material contrasting the moribund writing of Roman Gallic poet Ausonias with St. Aug...more
It seems to me that the basic thesis of this book is absurd. The "Irish" didnt save civilization - a few scholarly monks set to work on preserving the classics, all very noble, but meanwhile the rest of the Irish were cavorting around not being like fucking Romans or Greeks and living a different kind of anti-state and somewhat anti-authoritarian "civilization".
This from wikipedia -
Celtic Ireland (650-1650)
In Celtic Irish society of the Middle Ages an...more
This from wikipedia -
Celtic Ireland (650-1650)
In Celtic Irish society of the Middle Ages an...more
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 mys...more
This was awful. Many reviews say things like "charming" and "pleasant," but I thought it was tedious and meandering. Not all history has to be chronological; there's interesting stuff in here but it's too long with details of Roman society. Also, the author writes like a blow-hard, and interjects things like "Alas!" and "Dear Reader" and "It is up to the reader to decide." That kind of stuff irritates me to no end.
Searching for in...more
Searching for in...more
The title may be a slight exaggeration, but it's a good read for students of western history. Lots of good Middle Ages as well as the expected Irish background.
Multiple readings pull out a wealth of details and insights.
Multiple readings pull out a wealth of details and insights.
3.5 stars
This is an entertaining and informative book, and the audiobook is winsome and sparkling, courtesy of 'performer' (not credited merely as 'narrator') Donal Donnelly. The personality of the subjects is amply shown by the texts quoted, and the story is interesting and definitely underknown, if not unknown. What really gives me pause is the suffusion of Cahill's own biases in the text. This isn't a scholarly work, but even for a popular history, the degree to which Cahill's op...more
This is an entertaining and informative book, and the audiobook is winsome and sparkling, courtesy of 'performer' (not credited merely as 'narrator') Donal Donnelly. The personality of the subjects is amply shown by the texts quoted, and the story is interesting and definitely underknown, if not unknown. What really gives me pause is the suffusion of Cahill's own biases in the text. This isn't a scholarly work, but even for a popular history, the degree to which Cahill's op...more
(If you’re curious about the life of St. Patrick, this book contains an excellent account.)
Some books have titles so awesome that the text can’t possibly live up to it. Here is a book whose title does just that. Whether “How the Irish Saved Civilization” lives up to its self-imposed challenge is up to the reader. Lovers of all things Irish will buy it and be filled with pride. Skeptical historians will find errors and omissions to criticize and debunk it.
During Euro...more
Some books have titles so awesome that the text can’t possibly live up to it. Here is a book whose title does just that. Whether “How the Irish Saved Civilization” lives up to its self-imposed challenge is up to the reader. Lovers of all things Irish will buy it and be filled with pride. Skeptical historians will find errors and omissions to criticize and debunk it.
During Euro...more
After the fall of Rome Europe descended into the "dark ages" but you already know that right. But did you know that a lot of literature and culture would have been completely lost if it was not for the Irish. Yes that’s right the Irish. They contributed more than just shamrocks and a killer holiday were we get to drink green beer. Ireland was left unbothered while the "barbarians" were descending on the rest of Europe. Allowing the works collected there to be saved and p...more
I read this book as background for my trip to Ireland in Sept. It was recommended by a friend. It is very early Irish history, pre-middle ages. The title is accurate, it tells the story of how the Irish monks were busy copying the Greek and Roman books during the Dark Ages of Europe when the pagan illiterate barbarians were sacking libraries and burning books. These barbarians did not quite get to Ireland to do their damage there. It also tells of how Irish monks went forth into Europe i...more
I hope I'm not the first to tell you that we have more to thank the Irish for than Saint Patrick's Day. During the dark ages of Europe, the holy men and women of Ireland preserved many of Western civilization's classic texts... and in telling the story of how that came to pass, the author takes us on a determined romp through history illuminated by characters from Irish myth, legend, religion and of course, Saint Patrick himself, who is a bit of all those in one!
It's a quick enough ...more
It's a quick enough ...more
A fun biography of St. Patrick, and the impact he had, not only on Ireland, but indirectly, upon all European history and the preservation of Christianity through the Dark Ages. Really quite fun. I will warn that the author comes from a more liberal perspective, and has a section towards the end, commenting on issues of morality and sexuality with a perspective that I disagree with. But I thought that his overall portrayal of St. Patrick was warm, insightful, and very enjoyable to read. This aut...more
In college I took a class entitled "Christianity in History." It turned out to be merely a church history class.
This book is everything I wished that course had been, but wasn't. It does an amazing job in pointing out how Christians have impacted history, summed up best in it's final sentence:
If our civilization is to be saved -- forget about our civilization, which, as Patrick would say, may pass "in a moment like a cloud or smoke that is scattered by the...more
This book is everything I wished that course had been, but wasn't. It does an amazing job in pointing out how Christians have impacted history, summed up best in it's final sentence:
If our civilization is to be saved -- forget about our civilization, which, as Patrick would say, may pass "in a moment like a cloud or smoke that is scattered by the...more
Yeah. They did, really. The idea is that when the goths and visigoths and, hell, pick an army of unwashed savages, sacked civilization in the form Rome and Rome's outposts a long LONG time ago, it fell to monks and holy men in Ireland to transcribe the earliest writing and histories, thereby saving a record of the world to that point. I'll totally buy that based on the scholarship of this book. As for this read, it rambles. Three stars for the scholarship and research that went into its mak...more
Jacob Aitken
added it
I think Cahill is correct on his arguments, with a few exceptions. His knowledge of late Roman culture appears sound. His assertion that Rome fell from internal decay appears accurate. There are more factors, of course, but this seems to cover the details. His other argument, and main point, that the Irish preserved civilization by copying down manuscripts in monasteries is true for the most part. The Irish, unlike the Britons or the Gauls, did not have to worry about outside invasions. Th...more
Benjamin
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ireland,
nonfiction,
2010-read,
rome,
christianity,
mythology,
monastarey,
history,
first-edition,
edition
I really wanted to like this book, but ultimately I was unimpressed with Cahill's argument that "the Irish saved civilization". He almost gets there, and maybe he would have if he had dedicated a hundred pages or more to this overall short book, but he keeps it brief and spends a lot of his space on making a poor case for how civilization ended. [return]Cahill's argument on Rome's fall is quite short and a little disappointing since he brushes aside a lot of the existing scholarship th...more
The first in Cahill's Hinges of History series, this book explores the little-known fact that Christian monks in Ireland preserved the great works of Greek and Roman literature in an era when much of the western Roman Empire had lapsed into illiteracy. Later, the books--which were stored in monasteries and libraries across Europe--became the foundation texts of what we now consider Western society. The book's light tone makes it a very easy and quick read, but anyone with a background in this su...more
Fascinating, instructive and easy to follow factual look at what happened to all the Western (Roman) literature upon the fall of the Roman Empire about 400AD. Who would have guessed that wild warrior people of Ireland would be the ones to save the Western culture's written word?
We all think of St. Patrick's Day as shamrocks and green beer, but this presents how Patricius (later cannonized as St. Patrick after his death in 461AD), born in Roman Britain became an Irish shepard-slave ...more
We all think of St. Patrick's Day as shamrocks and green beer, but this presents how Patricius (later cannonized as St. Patrick after his death in 461AD), born in Roman Britain became an Irish shepard-slave ...more
I bought this audio book purely from browsing titles at the book store, not knowing what to expect. Overall I was very pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the content.
History was one of my least favorite subjects in school, but I've recently been drawn to books that explore it and thought this one sounded interesting. I had never learned about world history during the transition from classical times (ending in the fall of the Roman empire) and medieval times. The book takes y...more
History was one of my least favorite subjects in school, but I've recently been drawn to books that explore it and thought this one sounded interesting. I had never learned about world history during the transition from classical times (ending in the fall of the Roman empire) and medieval times. The book takes y...more
It's March, I thought, why not read a book about the Irish? Cahill's account of the fall of Rome and how the Irish subsequently preserved, copied and disseminated its literature is erudite without being dense, is witty, anecdotal, and thought-provoking. For example, he comments that to be considered a heretic in the church's early centuries, one would need to reject some matter of doctrine, like whether Jesus was both human and divine, and so on. By the seventh century, when Roman Christianit...more
I've noticed that history books on Goodreads are often given lower star ratings by people who are upset to find that the author was using information to present a cohesive thesis rather than providing an unbiased account. Although it is right to bring up slant in evaluating the truth of a thesis, it's somewhat sad to see these complaints for Cahill's defense of pre-Joycean Irish civilization when one of Cahill's major arguments is that biased English historians prevented any appreciation of Iris...more
Cahill focuses on Augustine when talking about the dying Western Civilization, and on Patrick, Columba and Columbanus when talking about how the Irish saved Western Civ. Ireland is place removed from Romanized Christianity, and, like the Assyrian Church, or the Copts, it demonstrates the provincial outlook of a Roman Christianity that tries to proclaim itself as "Catholic" and the center of the Christian world.
A few interesting facts:
Irish monks wrote fun and rando...more
A few interesting facts:
Irish monks wrote fun and rando...more
This book fills an important gap to the way western history is commonly taught. It restores the truly catholic view of the contribution of Christianity to western civilization.
The concluding paragraph is an excellent summary of the book's message:
"Perhaps history is always divided into Romans and Catholics - or, better, catholics. The Romans are the rich and powerful who run things their way and must always accrue more because they instinctively believe that there will never be en...more
The concluding paragraph is an excellent summary of the book's message:
"Perhaps history is always divided into Romans and Catholics - or, better, catholics. The Romans are the rich and powerful who run things their way and must always accrue more because they instinctively believe that there will never be en...more
This is an extraordinary book. It is a slice of history understood through literature, approached from a very compelling angle, and narrated beautifully.
Cahill constructs historical character portraits built upon a firm grasp of the concept that human feeling (i.e. "nature") remains constant even as human thought and culture continually shift. It seems a simple idea, indeed one necessary to the search for truth in literature, but the clarity with which the author applies ...more
Cahill constructs historical character portraits built upon a firm grasp of the concept that human feeling (i.e. "nature") remains constant even as human thought and culture continually shift. It seems a simple idea, indeed one necessary to the search for truth in literature, but the clarity with which the author applies ...more
I've had this sitting on my shelf for a long time, and I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. But it turned out to be a delightful, informative, accessible read; an overview of the history of the Roman empire, Christianity, and Irish Christianity. Which was neat, because I previously had some vague notion of the saints as mythological-type rumored people, and I didn't realize how much concrete information exists about their actual existence. I didn't realize how literate early Ireland w...more
Every time I walk in my grandparent's house there's a 50-50 shot I'll be offered a copy of this book or a DVD of Bill Gaither. Now, if you aren't a Gaither fan, don't make immediate judgments about the merits of this book.
This is the story of St. Patrick the lover, the saint, and the savior of literature. It is the story of Ireland (the only country where Christianity was introduced without bloodshed) and of the saints deemed more likely to save civilization than the Romans.
...more
This is the story of St. Patrick the lover, the saint, and the savior of literature. It is the story of Ireland (the only country where Christianity was introduced without bloodshed) and of the saints deemed more likely to save civilization than the Romans.
...more
I'm sorry to say, I was actually rather disappointed by this book. Perhaps it was the big build up many people had given it. Perhaps it was that I just have too much of a love for history and for Ireland. Hard to say really but given the chance to do it all over again I'd pass on it. I think my main problem is that I've been longing for a book to explain exactly what life was like for people of various ranks during the peek of the Roman Empire. I want to know how life changed during the fal...more
what an interesting read, illuminating a piece of history whose generalities are well-known, but whose details are not. i enjoyed cahill's presentation of history. in particular, i really liked the bits about how the irish catholic church was initially incredibly pluralistic, uninterested in focusing on sexuality, and who may have had female abesses, priests and even bishops! how fantastic and a shame that this part of the society did not formally survive. that said, perhaps my favorite part of ...more
Whether you are Anglo-Saxo-Irish-Scots-English or not, you can appreciate the work of the Celt monasteries in preserving the great literature of Western Civilization from the fires of barbarian hordes during the dark ages.
The only objectionable thing is that the book is mis-titled, it is more accurate to say that the Christian faith delivered to the Celts by St. Patrick is what saved Western Civilization. If it were not for the interest in reading the Good Book that sprang up amongs...more
The only objectionable thing is that the book is mis-titled, it is more accurate to say that the Christian faith delivered to the Celts by St. Patrick is what saved Western Civilization. If it were not for the interest in reading the Good Book that sprang up amongs...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| It's interesting--and true! | 8 | 47 | Dec 09, 2011 07:54am | |
| Goodreads Ireland: November Read | 17 | 16 | Dec 02, 2011 07:24am |
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Born in New York City to Irish-American parents and raised in Queens and the Bronx, Cahill was educated by Jesuits and studied ancient Greek and Latin. He continued his study of Greek and Latin literature, as well as medieval philosophy, scripture and theology, at Fordham University, where he completed a B.A. in classical literature and philosophy in 1964, and a pontifical degree in philosophy in ...more
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“In becoming an Irishman, Patrick wedded his world to theirs, his faith to their life…Patrick found a way of swimming down to the depths of the Irish psyche and warming and transforming Irish imagination – making it more humane and more noble while keeping it Irish.” (161)”
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“The Irish innovation was to make all confession a completely private affair between penitent and priest - and to make it as repeatable as necessary. (In fact, repetition was encouraged on the theory that, oh well, everyone pretty much sinned just about all the time.)”
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