A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age
by William Manchester

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age
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Book Summary Information

Author: William Manchester
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1992-04-30
ISBN: 0316545317
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Book Reviews of A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age

Book Review: Read and test everything
Summary: 4 Stars

Once I got over the missing end notes and misleading fact-bending throughout, I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through Europe 500 years ago. "Tabloid History" [as one other reviewer calls it] indeed.

Christians be wary of taking offense at Manchester's many jabs. I prefer to think he is scaring us out of our demonizing tendencies. In the end, you will have a better view of the reformation than most college courses in the subject provide AND you may even wonder how the same popes that appreciated Michelangelo could get their politics and economics so badly wrong.

Read "Pillars of the Earth" for a slightly darker view and "Van Loon's Lives" for an even better take on Erasmus. However, Manchester's Luther is worth the price of the book.

Summary of A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age

The noted historian and biographer chronicles the collapse of the Dark Ages and the achievements of thought and imagination that constituted the Renaissance, profiling the age's leading figures and noting key events and accomplishments. 60,000 first printing. $60,000 ad/promo.
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.

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