| How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History) | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas Cahill
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  260 reviews
Sales Rank: 8642
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Anchor Books Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 0385418493
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.501
EAN: 9780385418492
ASIN: 0385418493
Publication Date: February 1, 1996
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| Customer Reviews:
 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
 Crazy Celts kept classics carefully copied May 26, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
God bless the Irish for preserving so much ancient learning and for promoting the art of story telling in poems, prose, and songs. Great read by Thomas Cahill. Especially recommend the parts with Cuchulainn and his "warp spasm." Can be read in a short time.
perfect title, entertaining read May 12, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The title gives a good feel for the tone of the book. It's clever, informative, and very entertaining. You learn without feeling like you hit the history books, and you're left thinking about lessons for the future -- the most important reason to look back at the past.
Very much enjoyed it.
how the irish saved civilization May 8, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Excellent service. Prompt delivery. A used book but in even better condition than described
let's get real April 2, 2008
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book accomplishes what it sets out to do, in my mind. It opens a whole new perspective on a distinct subject in history that would be otherwise unknown or inaccessible to many, including myself. I think the author understands his audience quite well, and keeps things bearable, interesting and understandable. I don't think it's pretentious or sloppy or any of the other slams it's receiving here. It's simply a well written, informative, compact, concise, entertaining window into a...."hinge" of history most of us never considered. Cahill is articulate, energetic and passionate. He has breathed life into this slice of history and has done so in a richly informative manner. it this work contained all that some feel it needs, it would be nothing more than a rambling and boring list of facts, which it's not.
If I were looking for extensive commentary so I too can become an expert on the vast sweep of recorded written history I think I might need more material than this little book can offer. This is the kind of work that gets a person, especially a young person, interested in such things in the first place.
Walking away, I now have the base of knowledge and interest to look into some of the many interesting people, places, cultures and societies that I never really contemplated or realized existed. That's what I take away from this work, and in that, I found it an excellent choice.
i just think some of the reviews of this book are absolutely ridiculous. if anyone can point me to a better history covering all the ground this book does, in this few pages, i'll delete this review.
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