Helen K. (Billie-K) reviewed on + 459 more book reviews
FROM THE PUBLISHER
From the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagnethe "dark ages"learning, scholarship, and culture disappeared from the European continent. The great heritage of western civilizationfrom the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian workswould have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland. 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 treasures. With the return of stability in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning. Thus the Irish not only were conservators of civilization, but became shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on western culture.
From the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagnethe "dark ages"learning, scholarship, and culture disappeared from the European continent. The great heritage of western civilizationfrom the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian workswould have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland. 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 treasures. With the return of stability in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning. Thus the Irish not only were conservators of civilization, but became shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on western culture.
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