 "Most of this book is only tangentially related to the title," | 2009-10-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1KJO5VP4K3CHU |
This is another one of those books whose title represents only a tiny fraction of what is actually covered in the book. There is only a 50-page chapter (out of 220 pages) that is about how the "Irish Saved Civilization" and only about 20 pages of that are specifically about this subject. The idea of the book, as expressed by the title, is that Irish monks saved the record of the civilization of the Greeks and Romans by coping, and thereby preserving, Greek and Latin manuscripts. They also traveled to Scotland, England and to the continent, where they "brought their love of learning .... they reestablished literacy and breathed new life into the exhausted literary culture of Europe." The author also goes into the history of the late Roman Empire, the civilization of the Celts, the writings of Saint Augustine, the life of Saint Patrick, and the roots and practices of Irish monasticism and Irish Catholicism. I recommend this book only if you are primarily interested in these topics, as opposed to what the title purport's the book to be about. If you only want the story of "How the Irish Saved Civilization" the little that is actually devoted to this subject will disappoint you.
I found writing to be entertaining, but the history very simplistic and open to criticism. The author leaves out the fact that monks who removed the writing on the pages in order to save the parchment for reuse in fact destroyed many of the Greek and Roman manuscripts. Fortunately, modern techniques have allowed some of the underlying original test to be recovered. The author also does not mention that much (perhaps most) of the writings of the Greeks and Romans were preserved in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and by the Moslems who inherited these works when they conquered the Eastern Empire. In relating this story, the author discusses the history of the end of the Western Roman Empire, but if that is primarily what you are interested in, I recommend Peter Heather's recent book, "The Fall of the Roman Empire" as a much better source. Heather's is a well-documented presentation (unlike Cahill's book) that is at odds with Cahill's book on many points, but much of this has already been pointed out in other reviews, so I will not dwell on this.
Cahill's writing is entertaining and he does provide some interesting information. The book is also short and can be read in one, or at most a few, sittings. All in all, even given the weak history, I am giving the book 3 stars, mostly for brevity and an entertaining style. It is a good choice for those who want a short and entertaining book that is on a historical topic, without being a history book per se, but those who want a history of the title subject will be very disappointed, as I was.
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| "Not so Civilized" | 2009-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2ZN4REMJO63FP |
| Cahill bemoans the fact that Catholics have been given a bum rap and yet he doesn't think a second about slamming the Mormon and Islam religion. He has the ability to breathe life into history but it's not worth much if he can't set aside his own biases. What a shame. |
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 "Excellent read- even if he doesn't prove his thesis." | 2009-09-11 |
| - Reviewed By foldingkayaks |
Let me start out by saying that author Cahill doesn't really prove his title thesis- that it was the Irish who preserved civilization as the Roman empire was crumbling under the onslaught of the various Barbarian tribes. Nonetheless, this is still a very good book, and one I recommend unreservedly.
As other reviewers have noted, while the Irish monks did preserve many great works at their remote abbeys, there was plenty of manuscript copy work going on in other parts of the British Isles, the Arabic world, Constantinople and elsewhere. (In fact, there are several recent books making similar claims of how it was Byzantium that saved Western civilization.) What makes Cahill's book worth reading is his entertaining and informative discussion of the factors that led to the fall of Rome, and how it was that Irish monks ended up establishing their monestaries in remote parts of Britain.
The book is strongest in its discussion of the factors that led up to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Cahill does a first rate job of explaining how the Barbarian tribes, having neither the technology, the wealth, nor the organization of Rome came to defeat it nonetheless. The discussion of how the system of tax collection in Rome led to the loss of smaller farms, and eventually to the great estates that became the principalities and baronial holdings of the Middle ages is one I really hadn't come across before in my readings of history (although I'm sure it's a story well known to historians). Similarly, his discussion of how Irish Catholicism evolved, and how and why it differed from the English church contained much that was new to me.
How The Irish Saved Civilization is not a book for serious scholars or students of history. It's a fairly slim volume, and a quick read. But for the armchair history reader I think it's an excellent choice. |
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 "For History Lovers and Celtic Descendants" | 2009-08-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A37MJCWQOQ2HYY |
| If you like ancient history, you might love this book. The first half of the book is a fascinating narrative of the last days and fall of the Roman Empire. The second half describes how Irish scribes, who lived at the outer fringe of the former empire, copied and passed down most of our heritage of ancient Roman and Greek literature. Fearless Irish scholars re-educated Europe of the Dark Ages and established a network of teaching monasteries as far east as Poland. Cahil gives such a sympathetic account of the Irish conversion to Christianity and the education of the fierce warrior Celts, that I will always hereafter celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I have given numerous copies of this book to friends. And now the price is right! |
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| "Good survey of the post-Roman world" | 2009-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: AGBKB86XCEH3Q |
The greatest impact on me that this book had was really to describe the immensity of the collapse of the (western) Roman world. Cahill opens his book with that and makes you afterwards feel lost - in "darkness" as he would say. Out of that darkness Cahill weaves a narrative that tells Ireland's role in preserving some of the classical world.
I was surprised by the number of rabid critics this book has here on Amazon. As such I'll address a couple of their points. One reviewer stated that Cahill claims Patrick to be the first missionary since Paul. Well, that's not exactly what he says. Cahill states that Patrick is the first missionary to barbarians outside the reach of Roman law. At the least, Patrick seems to have been the only 'prominant' missionary to go outside the Roman world during that time. I do, though, agree with several others that Cahill really should have listed his sources. I think that Cahill thought that would bog his book down and it would make it considerably longer, and therefore more expensive. Also, it's not meant to be a scholarly study, it's a history book for the populous and told in a narrative style. That all being said - yeah, he should've cited some sources!
This book really spurred me down roads in my research as a graduate student that otherwise I wouldn't have gone down. I ended up doing more in-depth research on monasticism during this time and although didn't use this particular book for my paper, it probably was the inspiration and catalyst for it. I would recommend this book for the truly unique look into this time period, as told by a great story-teller. |
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 "Short and lacks Focus" | 2009-07-10 |
| - Reviewed By lefttackle66 |
| For a product who's title makes a claim for the product, this book did little to back the claim. Mostly I saw it as a biased catholic and Irish catholic survey of a brief period of history. I have not done as much reading in the area as others might have, but from what I do know about the so-called "Dark ages" is that it is the east that we should be thanking for the preservation of cultural documents from Roman and Hellenic times. My largest complaint is that the author includes several overly broad generalizations about both the Irish people and the continental peoples they came into contact with and the cultures of both groups of citizens. The author seems not to be a professional historian, and thus perhaps should not be held to such great rigor, but the grand claim really is not backed up in the text. On the plus side, the book is both short and the writer is a good storyteller, so even if you feel that time is wasted reading this book, not much time is wasted. |
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