How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill
How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill
33 Rating(s)
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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

Author: Thomas Cahill

Narrator: Liam Neeson

Abridged: 3 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/05/2000


Synopsis

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.

About The Author

Thomas Cahill is the author of How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Gifts of the Jews. He divides his time between New York City and Rome.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Dutch on 2008-10-06 17:07:56

Cahill has only one point to make: Irish monasteries developed a talent for copying texts and did so during the early Dark Ages, thereby saving many classical texts from oblivion. There. That's the book. But Cahill needs to pad it out, so he spends many, Many pages telling us what is in the books copied by the monks and why those texts were worth saving. So if you want to hear a treatise on classical and early Christian philosophy, you may find this less tedious than I did.

AudiobooksNow review by Debra on 2009-05-01 09:16:21

This may be an excellent book on CD for all I know but honestly, I didn't give it a chance. I found myself bored from the start. zzzzzzzzzzz Returned before I finished the first disc.

Goodreads review by Mark on September 15, 2008

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 neve......more

Goodreads review by Wealhtheow on January 08, 2014

As the Roman Empire crumbled, so too did literacy and libraries suffer. By the seventh century, however, Patrick had converted enough men into being Christians and scribes that many ancient Greek and Roman books were preserved in Ireland, even as the originals crumbled elsewhere. The preservation of......more

Goodreads review by David on February 14, 2012

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'......more

Goodreads review by ladydusk on June 16, 2018

Own. I'm going to actually give it 3.5 because the first half of the book was so good. I started this on the beach and read for about 4 hours straight (ish) what with watching kids and people and dogs thrown in. I did manage to sit there and get sunburned though. I found the chapters interesting and......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on May 04, 2021

If you ever wondered who pulled Europe out of the Dark Ages, wonder no more. It was the Irish, led by St. Patrick. So he didn't drive the snakes from Ireland nor is there evidence of his using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (although he could well have). What he did was to gather the work......more


Quotes

"Charming and poetic ... an entirely engaging, delectable voyage into the distant past, a small treasure." —The New York Times

"A lovely and engrossing tale ... Graceful and instructive." —Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

"Cahill's lively prose breathes life into a 1,600-year-old history." —The Boston Globe