About this title: The author's graceful mastery of both prose and history combine to express both the voice and content of Irish culture. Cahill traces Ireland's pivotal role in the preservation and transmission of the intellectual legacy of the West, from the fall of Rome under the barbarian invasions that brought the Dark Ages to the rise of Medieval Europe which heralded its re-ascendance. In constructing the narrative that explains how Ireland became "the isle of saints and scholars", the author manages to capture the majestic scope of his subject in the plaintive and yet rollicking rhythms which evoke ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: G K Hall & Co
Date Published: 1998-05
ISBN-13:9780783801209ISBN:0783801203
Description: Good. Good clean condition. All pages are clean. Cover/book edges have some wear. Ex library copy. May have a clear plastic book cover, library stamps, catalog numbers, stickers or other markings. Your satisfaction is guaranteed! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Anchor Books, TPB, 1995, 30th PB printing. Clean and tight, light wear, name on IFC, no other markings or highlighting. read more
Description: Very Good. Nan A. Talese, TPB, 1995, 51st printing. Lightly used, clean, tight, no markings or highlighting, light wear on corners. Check my store for more books by this author. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Very light reading wear. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 256 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Like New. Anchor Books, TPB, 1995, 33rd PB printing. Appears never read, clean, tight binding, no markings or highlighting, minimal shelf wear. read more
Description: Very Good. Nan A. Talese, TPB, 1995, 51st printing. Lightly used, clean, t ight, no markings or highlighting, light wear on corners, one dog ear. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Date Published: 1995-02-15
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Very Good. Very good hardcover with DJ. Pages are clean and unmarked. Covers show light edge wear. Binding is tight, hinges strong. Dust jacket shows light edge wear.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Free Delivery Confirmation! Ships same or next business day! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, New York
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. The untold Story of Ireland's heroic role from the fall of Rome to the rise of Medival Europe. Excellent condition Minor shelf wear. Text is clean and unmarked. read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday & Co., New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7ľ"-9ľ" tall. An excellent hardcover copy, seemingly unread and still much like new. The spine is solid and square. The binding of gray cloth and lighter gray paper shows almost no wear and looks fresh and sharp. The text is clean and unmarked. The dustjacket, which bears the publisher's original price of $22.50, has some bearly perceptible rubbing. ---------------------------------------- subtitle is: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the ... read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: DOUBLEDAY, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Good + in Good + jacket. Hard cover in good + condition, dust jacket is in good + condition. There is a little edge rubbing, pages are clean, book is stated, "First Edition", [Satisfaction Guaranteed! ]. read more
Binding: Boards
Publisher: Nan A Talese. Doubleday., New York.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Very Good jacket. Octavo (8.5in x 6in) black boards with silver titling to spine. x, 246pp. Half-title page and title page are creased. Bump to heel of spine with fold to top board. Else a clean copy that is near Vg in a dustwrapper that is lightly shelfworn and is Vg. read more
Edition: Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: New in fine dust jacket. Tight binding with clean text. Dustjacket has slight shelfwear. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 256 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Doubleday, New York
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Fine. No Jacket. Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) 8vo-over 7ľ"-9ľ" tall. Very minor edge wear on the spine. Book is unread. On cover states"Bound Galley Not for Sale". read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday, NY
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Near Fine in Very Good Plus jacket. 5.75" x 8.5" 242 pp. First editio. Multiple b/w photos. Bibliography, chronology, index. Former owner's name penned on front endpaper. Dj with some light edge wear. read more
Edition: Number Line 10987654
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday & Co, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780385418485ISBN:0385418485
Description: Very Good in Very Good Price Intact jacket. 8 1/2 X 5 3/4. The pages are clean, bright and firm and tight in its binding, sewn signatures. Boards, spine, edges and corners very good. No apparent wear. If needed for research, analysis, lucubrations or just enjoyment, this is the one, a nice issue. 246 pages, bibliographical sources, chronology, acknowledgements & index. Former owners name & embossy on title page. Jacket in a crystal-clear polyester protector sleeve. Illustrated end sheets & B/W ... read more
"What a great book! It tells the story of how Irish monks preserved books while Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages. The monks would smuggle and save all kinds of books to Ireland while the Roman Catholic Church burned volumes they deemed heretic. The Irish had an insatiable appetite for knowledge that they copied any and all books, not just religious materials. While they copied books, the world's first universities was born. The book also tells the story about how the Irish embraced Christianity but kept their pagan side, and Ireland is the only country converted to Catholicism without bloodshed.
While the book is a slightly heavy on Catholicism, it does give insight on why Saint Patrick was able to convert the Irish, and how they still carry pagan beliefs to this day. The Irish Catholicism that formed during St. Patrick's time was wholly different from the Catholicism on the Continent during the Dark Ages."
"I've had this sitting on my shelf for a long time, and I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. But it turned out to be a delightful, informative, accessible read; an overview of the history of the Roman empire, Christianity, and Irish Christianity. Which was neat, because I previously had some vague notion of the saints as mythological-type rumored people, and I didn't realize how much concrete information exists about their actual existence. I didn't realize how literate early Ireland was, and how much of an emphasis was placed on transcribing writing (e.g. the Book of Kells).
His essential thesis is that "Latin literature would almost surely have been lost without the Irish, and illiterate Europe would hardly have developed its great national literatures without the example of Irish, the first vernacular literature to be written down. Beyond that, there would have perished in the west not only literacy but all the habits of mind that encourage thought." (p 193) Who knew?
I was also surprised to find this part in the Irish prayer "Saint Patrick's Breastplate," because it reminds me of the Navajo blessing song: "Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me..." (p 118)"
"I'm sorry to say, I was actually rather disappointed by this book. Perhaps it was the big build up many people had given it. Perhaps it was that I just have too much of a love for history and for Ireland. Hard to say really but given the chance to do it all over again I'd pass on it. I think my main problem is that I've been longing for a book to explain exactly what life was like for people of various ranks during the peek of the Roman Empire. I want to know how life changed during the fall and truely what was lost in the Middle Ages and how it was found again that lead to the Renaissance or if indeed it was more of a steady resurgance that lead to Renaissance Europe.
Cahill basically talks about literature through the whole book. Know I acknowledge that there is much for the edification of the soul to be found in literature and even some practicallity in Greek Philosophy, but I'm also a bit of a cynic when it comes to what philosophy can really do. As nice as it is to know that Aristophanes was saved thanks to Irish monks, did they save any Pythagorus? Did they save any Archimedes? Any treatises on how cement is made or on architecture, metallurgy, tool design? Were such things ever written down by Romans or were these trade secrets passed by mouth? If passed by mouth why did that knowledge die out or did it?
Cahill's argument is that by copying both catholic and secular texts, the Irish preserved Western civilzation and through their teaching, sparked a revival of learning in Europe, lessening the effects of the "Dark Ages". His argument is bollucks. The Irish did copy many books, he lists a few but never really gives a good impression of the scope or specifics of what was saved. Was it just a handful of Greek and Roman literature or really all of Western Civilization that was preserved? Second, Cahill himself mentions that the Bizintine Empire had not yet fallen, and when it finally does, it is conquered by Turks who have as much knowledge and in some respects more than the Byzantines. All this knowledge is preserved seperately and indeed our understanding of most of Greek and Roman civilization comes from this Eastern Roman Empire. Finally, Cahill says that the Irish monks taught anyone in Ireland willing to learn how to read (I can't argue with him I can only assume his sources are accurate) and then go out and found monasteries on the continent. He fails to mention if the teaching to all continues at these new monasteries. In fact he implies that only the wealthy could get such schooling. He cites that around these monasteries grew the major universities of Europe specifically pointing out the University of Salamanca. Unfortunately for his argument, shortly after its founding Salamanca, and all of Spain, was conquered by the Moors who brought with them the knowledge from Bizantium. When did learning really start on the continent, with the Irish or with the Muslims?
By the end I just found this book tiring. The measly amount of information he gives could easily be compressed to 100 pages instead of the 250 he wrote. It reads like literary criticism wrapped in a fan letter to Ireland rather than popular history. He jumps around, makes few connections, causal or otherwise, between all his topics and serves it to an America with Irish roots that sees itself as the new Rome. Frankly with the topic it couldn't be anyting but a bestseller, too bad a more worthy historian didn't get to it first. -B 5/14/09"
"what an interesting read, illuminating a piece of history whose generalities are well-known, but whose details are not. i enjoyed cahill's presentation of history. in particular, i really liked the bits about how the irish catholic church was initially incredibly pluralistic, uninterested in focusing on sexuality, and who may have had female abesses, priests and even bishops! how fantastic and a shame that this part of the society did not formally survive. that said, perhaps my favorite part of the book is that cahill manages to convincingly portray the irish as saviors of literature and civilization yet reminds us that the role of Roman and Catholics could be played by anyone and could be easily reversed - even in present day society. He ends with noting, "Perhaps history is always divided into Romans and Catholics - or, better,catholics. The Romans are the rich and powerful who run things their own way and must always accrue more because they instinctively believe that there will never be enough to go around; the catholics, as their name implies are the universalists who instinctively believe that all humanity makes one family, that every human being is an equal child of God, and that God will provide." i thank my dad for raving about this book for 10 years and am glad i finally got around to reading it."
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