How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)
by Thomas Cahill
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thomas CahillEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-02-01
ISBN: 0385418493
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)
Book Review: Putting the "Story" back in "History"
Summary: 5 Stars
History is the story of the world, people, civilizations, and cultures. It is an intricate, complex, and beautiful epic, but it often fails to appear this way. History has become a generally dull series of dates, names, and facts to memorize and promptly forget. It is a rarity anymore for any work to make historical information interesting or memorable. Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization, however, is a gem of a book that tells the story, not just the facts, about the rise of Christianity and literacy in Ireland after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Once upon a time, there were the greatest of the ancient civilizations, Rome and Greece. Each had its own set of great writers, thinkers, and philosophers, and each had a strong since of order. Told through exploring the lives of a series of important characters, the story begins here when an intellectual young man in search of meaning, Augustine, finds startling similarities between the writings of the revered Greek Plato and the "crazy" Christian named Paul. After a nervous breakdown, Augustine becomes a devoted Christian and eventually causes Christianity to become the religion of the entire Roman Empire.
Later, after the Roman Empire falls to disorder and eventually the Dark Ages, another young Roman comes onto the scene. A slave trade develops between the barbarians outside of the formerly roman territories. The Roman, Patricius, is kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the land that will become Ireland. Patricius, later known as Saint Patrick, survived the abuse and hunger of his captivity by praying during every moment of the day. His religious fervor pays off as he hears a voice one night telling him that it is time for him to go home. Patrick makes it back to his family, but his work is not yet done. He is far behind his peers in Latin education and he feels compelled to go back to Ireland and bring the word of God to the unruly Irish. Saint Patrick not only brought Christianity to Ireland, he also brought relative peace and literacy.
Since Patrick was able to convert Ireland to Christianity in a gentle, bloodless way, the Irish lacked martyrs and this saddened the people, who were fond of tale tales and battle. Thus, a new form of martyr was born. The Green Martyrs were people who moved out into the forests and uninhabited areas of Ireland to study, read, and copy Roman and Greek literature, as well as writing down the stories passed down orally among the Irish people.
Patrick's successors would become another type of martyr, the White Martyrs, people banished from Ireland who left the island for the European continent where they became founders of numerous monasteries in the future territories of France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. These monasteries would become the safe houses for the books that otherwise would have been lost as Europe was in transition from the order of the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages.
Cahill tells the story of these men who saved the fountain of knowledge and literature from the Roman Empire in a compelling and insightful voice that makes history a story instead of a chore. The tale that Cahill tells is unique and interesting and brings light to a portion of the past that is rarely spoken of, even in a dull manner.
Summary of How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)
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.
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.
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