Rating: 
Summary: It Should Have Been Better
Review: Although I respected this book, I expected a lot more substance, both
in concrete facts and logic. I am Irish and long familiar with the
argument that Irish monks were the virtual guardians of civilization for so many centuries. I looked for this book
to provide the foundation evidence and argument for the assertion. In fact, the author seemed to set out with that objective and,
failing to find the supporting evidence, wrote the book anyway and just
avoided the central premise. Not entirely uninteresting but
ultimately unsatisfying.
Rating:
Summary: A reasonable intro to Irelands role in educating Europe.
Review: Overall I liked this book. Cahill uses a lot of quotes to
explain how the potential loss of literacy due to the collapse
of Roman 'civilization' (my quotes) was offset by the rise in
Irish monastic settlements and the sudden adoption of more
Christian practises within Ireland.
He makes this a readable book, but I think it's a little thin
on supporting evidence. However, not being a historian and being
Irish, I was happy to accept this modernized portayal of a
particular time in Irish and European history. It certainly
made me more interested in the general era.
Rating: 
Summary: Quaint but historically uninteresting
Review: There is lots of good historical evidence, circumstantial
and factual that leads one to believe that Ireland played a crucial role in the development of Western Christian Europe.
Unfortunately, none of that can be found in this book. I thought the book wandered and was filled with too many interesting
but inconclusive stories. The information on St. Patrick was
probably the most effective part of the book, but the title was
not "A Biography of St. Patrick."
I felt that it wouldn't have been too hard for the author to
dig a bit deeper into historical fact to give us something that
we could sink our teeth in.
Jeb Bolding
Rating: 
Summary: Heir of Ausonius
Review: On the positive side, I will say that this book was interesting and provides a useful historical overview of late antiquity and the early middle ages. It provides some helpful insights on historical personalities of the era and shows once again, that each era is as complex as our own, at least in terms of human interaction and motivation.
Western Religion is a central theme of the book, but I can't help feeling that the author has a pretty feeble grasp on the spiritual aspects of Christianity. In fact, I suspect that he feels that the whole faith thing is nothing more than a particularly potent opiate for the masses. This is utterly predicatible for a secular historian. As any modern academic figure would, Cahill focuses on the hypocrisy and political nature of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Irish Church, the book's protagonist, is better than the older church primarily in the ways in which it diverges from the oppressive structure and moral code of the Rome. Specifically, the Celtic Christians are superior because they allow women to serve as clergy and because they have a looser sexual moral code. If you think I am exagerrating then you merely have to read page 178 where Cahill states,
"How different might Catholicism be today if it had taken over the easy Irish attitudes toward diveristy, authority, the role of women, and the relative unimportance of sexual mores." On the same page he goes on to relay a story in which female saint removes (can we say aborts) the unborn baby of a nun and another where the Virgin Mary covers for the absence of a wanton nun.
Right. Those enlighted Irish monks sound like they would be right at home at the Oscars or maybe in Cahill's faculty lounge.
These are not isolated incidences. The entire book is chock full of sexual references. I am sure that does not hurt sales any and it surely makes lectures more interesting for teenage college students, but it does seem that sex is one of the main themes of the book.
While the book does inform, Cahill doesn't say anything that would rock the modern, liberal academic boat. I think that he could have spent less time smashing the RC's (of whom I am not a member, BTW) and more time discussing the implications of the Celtic version of Christianity for our age. For example, the thought occurs to me that the Celtic Catholics may have actually planted the seeds of the Protestant Reformation with their less authoritarian and more personal brand of faith. But thoughts like that might illumine the Church in a positive light and our modern day Ausonius probably would not want to risk the wrath of his liberal collegues with such a unprecedented tactic.
Rating:
Summary: Very good argument
Review: One thing that can be said about this book is that it seems to cover new ground. I don't know of any other book that deals with the role of Irish monks in maintaining the written works of the Greeks and Romans during a time when the rest of Europe was uneducated and plagued with war, ready to let those written works disappear. Cahill does a good job of describing the lives of the most important Irish people during that time and in describing how Ireland became an educated country while the rest of Europe became more uneducated. And the author also does a good job of describing the Irish personality and how it has and also has not changed - and he does it in a way to make you proud to be Irish.
Although Cahill describes the importance of the Irish monks well, he could have gone more into depth. I feel that he only used enough of the history as was necessary to make his argument, instead of giving a really comprehensive analysis of that time. Hopefully someone can pick up where he left off and provide much more detail of that historical period. Also, the poems from classic Greece and Rome that the Irish monks saved, as well as the poems written by the Irish monks themselves, that are included in the book are interesting but I think the author overdoes it and uses too many.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick and at times beautiful look at How the Irish Saved Civilization. It is important not just to people with an Irish heritage, but to all who want to think about how civilization's written words can be saved through hostile times and the importance of education and literacy.
Rating:
Summary: Save Civilization; A Very Interesting Book
Review: I read this book a little while back, and it was interesting and informative. I can't really think of any qualms about this volume, and feel that it is a good read but not necessarily the most comprehensive volume on the subject. So if you want to start learning about Irish Civilization (or how they saved civilization), this is one of several good starting places. Anyway, best of reading to you, and enjoy every moment of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Putting the "Story" back in "History"
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb mix of writing and narration
Review: I am very impressed with this Audio presentation of this book. I have always wanted to know about the fall of Rome and the history that followed. This incredibly narrated book by Liam Nielson brings to life in vibrant pictoral verbeage the important figures that helped establish and save civilizaton. I love the Gastalt view the author brings as to what was happening that brought Rome to her knees and what brought salvation to Ireland. The history is amazing and so well revealed in this narration of Cahill's work.
I highly recommend this Audio version as Nielson is captivating in his expression of the language and his broug doesnt hurt either. The fleshing out of Augustine,St.Patrick and the times they lived in and their effect on the future is truly superb. I have learned much from this history lesson and look forward so much to other works of this author. Having an hour long drive a day has made the audio version exquisit. ENJOY JB
Rating: 
Summary: BORING BOOK
Review: This is a very BORING book. Only read it if you have to for class, and then only if you can't find enough quotes for your essay without reading it.
Rating:
Summary: HOW HALF THE IRISH WENT TO HELL
Review: My mother got really upset with me when I said this book's title should be changed to the aforementioned title. Maybe a better question should be, WHICH IRISH, AND HOW DO THEY INTEND TO DO IT??? And hey, what about some of the Scots, as another reviewer mentioned!!! I'm not so sure the history told in this small book is all that accurate. The book is a little disjointed and is filled with pictures of celtic trophies, dishes, flagons, statues, and swords. It's written for the commoner. Someone recommended R.F. Foster's history of Ireland which is more substantive than this book.
The bottom line from this book is that the Irish saved civilization by literacy, by promoting scholarship, by preserving written works. But how much of that history is true, or how much of it is truly, authentically christian, for the country of Ireland, catholic and protestant, is predominately a christian nation? I, at first, loved the ending, the last few pages of this book. I agree the world will be saved by saints, although scripture indicates that the saints will be defeated, trampled upon by this beast, which represents all the combined evils amassed against G-D's people. Please see Daniel Chapters 2, 7, 12 and Revelation Chapter 13. When that happens, people will finally begin to see that they are a part of that mob and, for Christ's sake, better get out of it.
This book was a favorite of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis and former President Bill Clinton.
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