Book five in The Hinges of History series, this is an interesting examination of the development of Western thought, especially as it has been influenced by Christianity. Using words that sent me screaming into my dictionary right next to contemporary slang, Cahill pens an enjoyably readable history book. The illustrations and pictures included throughout also make it a visually attractive book. Even though there is some bias in favor of Christianity (but away from the Catholic church), I didn’t find it so powerful as to be distracting. He also wrote How the Irish Saved Civilization, which was the first book in the series.
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While parts of the book were profoundly interesting, I found the author's writing style to be jarring. He strives for accessibility and loses credibility in sweeping generalizations that frankly just irritated me. The book is beautifully produced, however, with a really nice integration of medieval manuscript sensibilities and modern book aesthetics. ( )

Od autora bestselleru Jak Irové zachránili civilizaci se nám dostává fascinující pohled na to, jak středověcí myslitelé vytvořili základy moderních intelektuálních hnutí. Na návštěvách velkých evropských měst - monumentálního Říma, intelektuálně rostoucí Paříže, ohniska vědeckého bádání jako byl Oxford a jedinečné Dantovy a Giottovy Florencie uznávaný historik jasně zachycuje ducha experimentování, pestrost pohanství a vášnivou honbu za věděním, která položila základy moderního světa. ( )

This audiobook has caused me to want to read Dante’s Divine Comedy again, however, his comments on the translations made me feel like it would be much better to read it in the original Latin language. (Divina Commedia) Learning Latin at my age is a non-trivial task. But, I have downloaded a bilingual version of the book, and 4 of 19 audio segments. I’ve listened to about 40 minutes of the Latin so far. If I do persist, it will be an exciting time.

The book details some notable, and some unfamiliar historical figures in considerable depth. The table of contents doesn’t correspond to my impression that it is a series of short biographies of half a dozen people. As I listened, I was wondering if the reason he went into such depth on them was because there was information surviving about them.

In the book, and especially in the last chapter, he points out that the questions facing people in ages past are different questions than the ones we face. Winding up he discusses a problem facing the catholic church and seems to recommend, if not a lay clergy, at least a clergy that is free to marry or not marry.

There is also a gentle promise that other books will cover some of the world’s history that this book so blithely skipped over.

This author became a favorite of my wife when she read [b:How the Irish Saved Civilization|25669|How the Irish Saved Civilization|Thomas Cahill|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348861253s/25669.jpg|3285909]. She and I look forward to reading other of his works. ( )

Because the other book I got at the church book sale was definitely non-religious, it took me a while to pick up on the theme of this non-fiction history of the Middle Ages in Europe. As the author admits somewhere late in the book, it's actually about the contributions of Catholicism (both good and bad) to the modern world through its cultural impact on the Middle Ages. It's not nearly as boring as that sounds though - Cahill is a very entertaining writer (unlike some academic historians) and I learned a lot. Cahill highlights the contributions of several important women, as well as some men whose names I recognized but didn't know much about. Because most of the art of the Middle Ages was religious art produced for the church, there are great medieval style illustrations throughout the book (sadly, not credited to an illustrator) as well as photographs of many famous Italian mosaics, frescoes, and paintings. You probably won't run across this book, but if you do, I recommend it. ( )