How the Irish Saved Civilization : The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

Rating:
Summary: Full of Wit and Song
Review: As the descendent of an Irish lad born and immediately orphaned in the workhouse of Macroom, I may be hopelessly biased in my adulation of this book. "How the Irish Saved Civilization," is brilliant historical synthesis, wholly accessible to any armchair student of history. More than a read, it is literary romp. Mr. Cahill has written an examination of Irish history and culture that everyone Irish should read.

My grandfather, the same lad born to such unfortunate circumstance, though penniless was never poor and always full of wit and song. He bore uncanny resemblence to the mythic characters portrayed in this book. His gift was passed to me when he took hos grandchildren aside at an impressionable age and revealed our noble heritage as "descendants of the First Kings of Ireland." This "secret" family knowledge conveyed an abiding sense of worth that made the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, endurable and humorous. Such is Irish heritage and such is the resonant message of this book.

For anyone who enjoys insightful, colorful historical summation this is an infallible selection. Cautionary warnings about the book's summary nature are lost on hostory lovers.

My admiration for Thomas Cahill knows no bounds. The positivity he brings to his historical subjects in the "Hinges of History" series clearly derives from an appreciative heart and masterful grasp of subject. "How the Irish . . ." has the dazzle of a love born labor. It is important to recall from time to time, what the sung (and unsung) intersections of civilization have brought us. The Hinges of History series is a great tool in the box of remembrance.

Rating:
Summary: Relatively Accurate but Simplified History
Review: Cahill writes in an extremely compelling manner. I enjoy his prose greatly. His works are quick and entertaining reads. That said, he often goes overboard on his books and his theses, and simplifies complex history. He did this with The Gifts of the Jews and he does it here with How the Irish Saved Civilization.

Cahill is right that certain ancient and medieval civilizations hold a prominent place in the development and advancement of ideas and thought systems that govern much of the modern world. The Irish undoubtedly are one of them. Irish Christianity preserved a lot of classical learning of the Greeks and early Christian texts. They re-introduced these ideas to continental Europe and were key in the spread of monasticism. However, to claim that the Irish actually "saved" civilization is going a little too far. Saving what Cahill calls "civilization" was a joint effort that included the Irish, the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks, the Normans, the Byzantines, and the Arab Muslims, Turks, and Persians. In fact, during the Carolingian Renaissance undertaken by Charlemagne in the early 9th century, there was a flowering of Christian and classical learning undertaken by scholars brought from both Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England. The primary character in this was Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon monk. Alcuin was primarily responsible for establishing schools and re-introducing classic philosophy, literacy, and rhetoric. Classical texts were preserved in England as well as Ireland. Ireland did play a prominent role, shared by the Anglo-Saxons. And the Franks were the ones who ultimately established the tradition of European Christianity and its strong basis in society and culture.

The Roman civilization did not truly fall until the mid-15th century. People forget very easily that it was only the western Empire that fell in the 5th century, the east continued for another thousand years under the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines did not destroy or forget classical learning. Byzantine Christianity was characterized by philosophical speculation in continuance of the ancient Greek manner. The emperor Justinian also codified Roman civil law, which became the basis for the continental legal structure. When the Arab Muslims began rising and conquering the Byzantine Empire, much of that classical learning in philosophy, medicine, and mathematics was not only preserved but expanded upon by the Muslims. The Muslims excelled in fields such as trigonometry, algebra (an Arabic word), medicine and anatomy. And the Muslims preserved at least one tradition that all of Europe, including the Irish had lost: Aristotelian philosophy. Platonism and neo-Platonism was the primary philosophical bent among medieval Christendom, it wasn't until the Muslims reintroduced Aristotle to Europe, at their world-class university in Cordoba, Spain that a new era began that led to the empirical, scientific exploration of the world preceding and carried on by the Italian Renaissance. We also have a Muslim woman to thank for the discovery of vaccination, brought back to Europe by Lady Montagu.

As another review pointed out, "civilization" means more than the Christian texts. It is politics, culture, economics, science, philosophy, language, etc. The Irish had little to do with many of these things, for which we have the Anglo-Saxons, Norman English, the French, the Italian, the Byzantine, the Muslims, among others to thank for. Oh, and I forgot to mention the Scots. History is a very complicated affair; beware of simplified conclusions. The Irish DID play a role in the development of the medieval and modern worlds, however, civilization would have turned out just fine without them.


Rating:
Summary: How the Irish Saved Civilization
Review: How the Irish Saved Civilization... Though the book's title seems sardonic and impossible to some, the book verifies the fact that the Irish did indeed save Europe's civilization. The beginning of the book seemed to pick apart the Roman Empire. Its geographical position (in accordance to the main river), the important factors they overlooked (the power of the restless, disheveled barbarians), even the dress and appeal of the tidy and put-together Roman army. Around the 6th century, as the strength of the Roman Empire was waning, the Irish copied down the works of the Western Civilization. And soon enough, the Roman Empire was swallowed up in the chaos and anarchy that the barbarians brought upon them. When St. Patrick was first brought to Ireland as a slave, he seemed unimportant. But in the six years he spent in Ireland, he managed to turn the Irish people into faithful Christians. These non-Roman Christians would save the civilization of Europe as we once knew it. The Irish monks worked hard and established churches all across Europe. The failing Roman Empire came to a crashing halt. Their existence was as meaningless and pointless as the barbarians they once looked down upon with disparaging and decrying eyes. Thankfully, the Irish scribes and monks had peppered continental Europe with monasteries. Religion was one of the basic structures of the Roman Empire. It was like their backbone, for it gave them structure and a common characteristic to share amongst its people. If only they knew that some day, the primitive people who seemed so uncivilized and basic, would save their aesthetic and liberal achievements, they would not have resented them as much. Furthermore, in regard to St. Patrick, the Irish were Christianized without being Romans; therefore, establishing their own Christian headquarters in a seemingly isolated island. The Romans were quick to judge, for the Irish soon became just as intellectually knowledgeable as the perspicacious Romans who first wrote the works themselves. Not only that, but they were both genuine Christians. One reviewer from Amazon wrote, in regard to the somewhat ignorant Roman-Catholics, "Clearly Christians should be more aware of the open-minded and intellectually-curious background of their own faith".