The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 17 February 1998
by Thomas Cahill
This highly entertaining book covers two centuries of the early middle ages. At the fall of the Roman Empire, as hoardes of barbarians from the East swarmed across Europe destroying libraries and other treasures, the books and teachings of Christianity as well as the great works of Greek and Roman antiquity were best preserved and ultimately copied in the most remote land Europe could imagine: Hibernia, Ireland. Celtic civilization seemed to take to this task out of a cultural joy in storytelling. As the monastic movement outgrew Ireland, it expanded eastward again, into continental Europe. The Irish scholars, who had preserved so much literature, were then responsible for redistributing the knowledge throughout illiterate Europe. The author's style is engaging and fun to read. It is like a bright storyteller bringing one a fine tale of adventure liberally spiced with the author's opinions and asides. But it isn't short on historical detail, either. It starts with the Fall of Rome and the life of St. Augustine, passing through Celtic history and the lives of Saints Patrick and Columba. The author narrows his view of preservation to mainly the literature of Greek and Roman antiquity as well as the new Christianity. He neglects that the Arabs were largely responsible for the preservation of many of the sciences, particularly Astronomy. But the book is a lot of fun.
Also by Cahill: [Desire of the Everlasting Hills]