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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 | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas Cahill
Creator: Liam Neeson
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy Used: $0.78
You Save: $17.22 (96%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  259 reviews
Sales Rank: 1048495
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0553478095
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.501
EAN: 9780553478099
ASIN: 0553478095
Publication Date: February 3, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
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.
Product Description
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 barbaric wars that plagued the European continent, Ireland's monks and scribes laboriously and lovingly preserved the written treasury of the West. Many great pieces of Greek and Roman literature, almost sure to be lost in the chaos of the Middle Ages, were saved by the monks of Ireland. This brilliant audio edition of the bestselling book is read by acclaimed actor Liam Neeson.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 254 more reviews...
 I had avoided this book for 13 years September 16, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book came out in 1995. And I've avoided it since then.
I was wrong.
I'd been told the book is superficial. It is: any book of this length that tries to cover a subject of the length and breadth here is sure to be superficial.
And perhaps superficial is too harsh. "A good overview" might be a better way of describing it.
But this is an engaging, entertaining read. I found myself drawn into a subject I knew little about, the history, people, culture and faith of Ireland and the Celts. For those wanting more background, Cahill provides a useful bibliography at the end. Those wishing for more than this overview can find years of study in the books recommended in the bibliography.
An overview gets us started. It's not where we should stop, but it provides a means of seeing the big picture, and understanding how to fit in the necessary minutiae of history. This book is that good beginning for understand how the Irish were the bookmeisters at the end of the Roman empire.
Always on time September 10, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I purchased this book for my husband for his birthday. It arrived right on time and he loved it.
Nay-sayers knowe not what of which they speake August 19, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I listened to this audiobook on a four day road trip, and I had a wonderful experience with the substance of author Cahill's tales which in my mind substantiate the title's claims... that the Irish did indeed save civilization. Such as civilization is. You probably won't find a college course on this topic, however Cahill's conclusion based on the intertwined threads of history makes sense. I was so impressed by Thomas Cahill that I am listening to a second of his audiobooks, which I find just about as interesting. Being an Irish-phile, I favor this book. And I will listen to it again for my listening pleasure. A good read or listen.
Irish Literary and Religious History August 15, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found the content of this book nowhere near as profound as the title. At times the writing was dry and listless, but I found the history of St. Patrick interesting. All in all, an OK book.
 Salvation from the Irish July 5, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
When I first heard the title of this book I decided not to read it, despite my pleasure in Cahill's prior book, "The Gift of the Jews". After a couple of lukewarm recommendations from friends I respected, I picked up a copy through Amazon.com and put it on my shelf of books to read.
When I got around to reading the book, to my surprise, it was NOT about Irish Whisky, or even specifically about Irish history, but tends to focus on St. Patrick and the Irish monastery. In other words, it is more a book about faith and how that faith, spread predominately by Patrick and the centers of monastic learning and study that he founded, impacted an isolated island naton, and then continued to spread by the expansion of the Irish monasteries missionary work.
According to Cahill (and others), Patrick was not as close to Rome as he was to God, and this greatly influenced his peculiarly Irish way of building and directing his monastic orders. While the Benedictines were equally (some would say 'more') responsible for recording and keeping the history of the prior millenium, the Benedictine monasteries were focused almost as much on accumulating wealth and political influence as they were concerned about doing 'God's work' and thus suffered some dilution of their Christian tasks.
The Irish monasteries were rather austere in their goals, and while their scribes were busy copying the 'wisdom of the ages' along with the wisdom of the church, when they reached a critical mass, they sent out another set of monks who had planned and then built another monastery, spread the gospel in their new locale, and set about reproducing their efforts from prior monasteries.
When Charlemagne was beginning the process of turning the warring fiefdoms in the center of the European continent into an Empire of note, he called Alcuin, a monk who was at the time the head of the York cathedral school, to come and to teach the Emperor himself, his court, their children, and the priests and monks in the kingdom.
Much of Christianity by this time had become segmented and fraught with various heresies, and Charlemagne made Alcuin both his Minister of Education and his de facto 'overseer of church doctrine'.
Alcuin's education was from the ongoing branch of Irish monastic training, and many of the scholars he brought to France and Germany as Charlemagne's Minister of Education came from the Irish monasteries.
The Irish by 625 had founded 80 monastic centers in Ireland, Scotland, Northumbria and Wales. The most important were Bangor and Armagh in Ulster; Clonard in Meath; Glendalough in Leinster.
St. Columban was a spiritual heir of St. Patrick who promoted a great deal of the growth of the Irish monastery. Many scholars take pains to compare the Rule of St. Columban with the Rule of St. Benedict, but this devolves into meaningless theological argument that pleases scholars but proves almost nothing. The crucial difference between the movements is that the Benedictine movement is in it's origin an intellectual movement of the Roman and Greek aristocracies within the Roman Church that tended toward an Aristotelian nature in scholarship and flagged in its growth during the 6th Century Lombard expansion.
The heritage of Patrick and Columban, alternatively, was Augustinian teaching through the love of God and all human beings of every layer of society, with certainly one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful missionizing outreach in the history of the Catholic Church.
Cahill writes in a conversational manner that not all scholars will appreciate, but anyone interested in the growth and the spread of education, unification of what became a strong Europe, and in the history of the shaping of the character and background of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and most of Central Europe in a Christian mold will find the book both instructive and entertaining.
While Cahill is not without detractors, I believe the contribution he and his books are making will be remembered and appreciated by anyone who likes both a good story and a well-researched treatise on a part of Irish life which has been too-little told.
Odinelson
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