Rating: 
Summary: Good book - worth reading
Review: I found the book to be a bit sparse. This book is a good read, but there are certainly better books available, such as the PBS book "In Search of Ancient Ireland" by Carmel McCaffrey & Leo Eaton.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad history
Review: This book is simply bad history as others have pointed out. The author does not give an historically correct picture of pre-Christian Ireland. For instance, he does not address the issue of modern archeological finds, instead he takes Christian influenced texts to describe pagan Ireland and of course the Irish pagans come off looking savage and in need of Christian 'civilizing'! No surprise there - these texts were written by Christian monks trying to secure their position in Ireland. Cahill takes them as accurate 'history'. The stories on St. Patrick are pure fiction but Cahill does not seem to even know this. The book is not based on current scholarly knowledge which he obviously does not know about. The book reads like he put it together in a hurry.
Someone else recommended the PBS book "In Search of ancient Ireland" for a proper look at this period in Irish history and I agree.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read reviews, read books.
Review: If nothing else, read. Read anything.
Rating:
Summary: Another take
Review: Sometimes the revews are more interesting than the books themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed this book understanding that Cahill favors the colorful and possible over the dull and probable approach to history at times. He takes a point of view and marshals his information to support it like a friendly argument in the neighborhood bar. If you want a heavy tome to discuss the draft riots in New York during the civil war, or speculation on the cycles of the Irish in politics you should look elsewhwere. If you want a readable and educated book on how a small group of people might have had a major influence in history, hop on board.
Rating:
Summary: Holy False History, Batman
Review: The second half of the book about Irish Monasticism was enlightening, but the depictian of Pre-Patrick Ireland and Christianization is a deception that borders on outright lies. He makes a number of claims that are not remotely backed up such as his assertion that Ireland saw a sharp decline in violence after the coming of Patrick (saying nothing of the violent persecution of the only highly educated class in Pre-Christian Gaelic society). In short, he paints a colorful, peaceful fantasy about the "blessing" of syncretism and tries to pass it off as history. It's eduational, but only if you limit it to chapter VI. It is somewhat ironic that the fable of the Man and the Lion Chaill cites in his introduction is far more applicable to his work than The skewed ideas he was attacking. In it, the Lion remarks on a series of pictures in which lions are are being violently defeated by men, saying, "Lions would have fared better, had lions been the artists." Well, Mr. Chaill, ancient Ireland would have fared better in your story, had druids held the pens
Rating:
Summary: If it weren't for Irish Whiskey...the Irish Gotterdammerung?
Review: Michael Knox Beran (and Richard Hofstatdter much earlier) reminds us in his biography on Bobby Kennedy that "histories" like these are a sure sign of an ethnic group's heightened insecurity over its social and political decline within a given culture. It's no secret the Irish (predominantly Catholic) stranglehold on power in America has been receding since the Kennedy asassination: fewer and fewer cardinals, bishops, priests, and nuns of Celtic stock (the Pope is Polish, after all - would a vigorous U.S. Hibernian curia allowed THAT to happen? ); fewer Irish senators, representatives, governors, mayors, machine politicians and ward bosses - politics CAN be such a tiresome, ugly, bourgoise affair! ; and far, far fewer Irish athletes (evidently, white men CAN'T jump), celebrities, movie stars, artists, writers and so forth. Once the aristocrats of the American Catholic Church, the Irish are now recidivist - and highly contentious - parishoners. Once the princes of the American ballot box, they now are included (mostly) among the faceless, corporatist, suburbanized, big city constituencies. Once the shapers of American discourse and ideas, they consume the same kitsch and lowbrow pablum all other hyphenated U.S. citizens seemed condemned (or are forced) to lust after. Dare I say that the descendents of the bonny sons and daughters of the Emerald Isle have become like their (horror!) Albion archenemies - the WASPS ??? Country Club Republicans - some even Episcopalian ???!!! Say it ain't so, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy!!! Holy Cardinal Spellman!!! Even Al Smith is turning over in his grave! I know, I know, these are cheesy cliches. So I'll knock off the sardonic humor and ironic detachment (JFK would have loved it, though). But this, (as I'm sure most of you know - I'm not here to insult anyone's intelligence - well, maybe just a few of you) in the anthropology and sociology of American cultural history is natural, my friends. Over time, economic/political/demographic/religious, et al changes make the rule of one group over others highly tenuous and increasingly more difficult. At some point, this ruling clique (by force, lack of enthusiasm, boredom, a collective change in tastes and ambitions, et al) senses power is no longer worth having and simply gives up the franchise to a newer, more grasping (and arriviste - at least to those who are used to ruling) group. This cycle is as old as the hills and will repeat itself again and again. The WASPS learned this over a century ago. The Irish have been learning it for the better part of forty years. Sunrise, sunset. So cheer up my fellow (full, half, partial, only on St. Paddy's Day) American Irishmen and put away your copy of John Ford's 'The Last Hurrah': there is something quite Yeatsian, quite Faulkneresque, even delicious about an aristocrat in decline (and you know you Irish have always, always, ALWAYS thought you were better than everyone else). They emit the most exquisite foilages, perfumes, and vintages. Just ask Thomas Cahill. I believe he is, or affects to be, one.
Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm, interesting theories!
Review: How the Irish Saved Civilization postulates an interesting and charming theory that wouldn't be around today for us to ponder were it not for the Irish monks of the middle ages. Cahill has all of the facts that back up his rather interesting theories. His opinions about how the Irish had it together during the oppressive times are quite convincing. I would have believed his theories had I not already been educated on said subject. It is an entertaining read conveyed by an Irishman with the true gift of babble.
Rating: 
Summary: And what of the Draft Riots?
Review: They may have saved "civilization" per se, but based on the Draft Riots, the role of the Irish in the history of New York City is a wee bit more complex (and I say this in all due respect).
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Summary: I enjoyed this book
Review: I thought this book was insightful and fascinating. However, being of Irish decent...... I find it so distasteful when racist remarks are made by some of these reviews such as with "Mr. Makumbe's" remarks: "If you've ever hung out in a bar and met one of those droll sons of the Esmerald Isle spinning a hilarious tale or two after a wee bit of the ol' poteen" .......... "a wee bit of the ol' poteen???? Nothing like reducing a noble heritage to an insulting alcoholic stereotype? You might also want to check your spelling of "Emerald"!!!???
Rating:
Summary: Exaggeration on Irish Role in Saving World
Review: An entertaining book for the laymen which is also a good case study of how even an extremely barbaric people can be transformed by the gospel to play a critical role in saving a civilization. The Irish were evangelized by the apostle to the Irish, St. Patrick, who was a Romanized Briton-of a Celtic people in Britain-to eventually rise as leaders in saving some
of the "Latin?civilization by transcribing and preserving books and manuscripts during the European dark ages. As most histories are, the book is partial towards the Irish in exaggerating their role in saving the world.
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