How the Irish Saved Civilization

The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

By: Thomas Cahill

Narrated by: Donal Donnelly

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

A book in the best tradition of popular history - the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe.

Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars" - and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians.

In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization - copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost - they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.

In the tradition of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, How the Irish Saved Civilization reconstructs an era that few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. But it conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.

©1995 Thomas Cahill (P)1999 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, a Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Cahill's lovely prose breathes life into a 1,600-year-old history." (The Los Angeles Times)

"Charming and poetic...an entirely engaging, delectable voyage into the distant past, a small treasure." (The New York Times)

"Cahill's lively prose breathes life into a 1,600-year-old history." (The Boston Globe)

Impressive!

A rollicking trip through history, exploring the origins and underpinnings of Western philosophy and thought, and the circumstances that led to Ireland being in a unique time, place, and position to play it's special role. Interesting, well written and paced, very entertaining history!

An absolute delight! If you listen at 1.25 speed.

The "voice" of the author, meaning the style and personality which comes through his words, is positively delightful. This book is gripping from stem to stern, and I have been introduced to so many new and interesting characters throughout history. On top of these introductions the author wove wonderful connections between people I did know about like Boethius, Patrick, Scotus Eugenia, etc.

Thomas has written a beautiful book which is both entertaining and packed with historical data presented in a delightful way. The writing is so good that it almost covers up how much Donal Donnelly just phoned in the narration.

Donal has an interesting voice, and you can tell he is probably a skilled voice-over artist, but this felt very much like a first read, or like he had very limited studio time and really needed to pound this out on short notice in one or two brutal sessions with no pre-reading. He is able to quickly inflect one emotion or another in a sentence, but feeling never extends by more than that sentence. He clearly has no vision of what's coming next and just quickly intones deeply when the word "death" pops up or throws a little stank on it when you can tell someone is speaking sarcastically, but only at the point in the sentence when it would be completely obvious to a first-time reader of that sentence would realize what's going on.

You can tell he has talent, and is quite nimble to throw in this or that emotion when it becomes apparent from the read, but it feels very much like a skilled dancer dancing to a complex piece of music they've never heard before.

However, Donal's (in my opinion) very poor performance (in light of his apparent talent) has neither turned me off of Donal or the story itself. First of all, this book is fantastic. It's a book I feel better for having listened to. It both expanded my sense of the magnificent importance of Irish history and its lively cast of characters, and entertained me like a good novel. Secondly, I have faith that Donal is a good V-O guy, and this was just a bad day or two, or maybe he just really hated the book for some absurd reason I could never comprehend. Even so, he has an interesting voice, and no apparent lack of skill. Though I'd like to have seen this book get the treating it deserves, I don't feel cheated in any way.

You ever meet someone who really botches their first impression with you, like, they're rude and inconsiderate, but you can tell they're someone you want to know better, and that this was probably just a really bad day? That's how I feel about Donal. I'm pretty sure we're gonna be buddies, but I'm never gonna stop teasing him about how the first time we met he threw up all over my carpet and didn't apologize for two weeks.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I listened to this at 1.25 speed. In light of this... Maybe Donal and I won't be buddies, lol, time will tell. It is a total slog if you listen to it at normal speed. Kick it up.

Drags a bit

While the arguments are compellingly and accessibly laid out, the narrator drags a bit in the delivery. I listened to this book at 1.2 speed, and found it to be a much more satisfying pace.
The book does its best work when recounting the impact of specific Irish saints, and if your looking for something to get you in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit, you can’t go wrong with this book.

Excellent!

Uplifting, enlightening and facinating story of Ireland. Makes me proud of my Irish heritage.

Enjoyed

I heard a bit of this story years ago when I visited Ireland. I was very interested in hearing the details. I enjoyed getting the history and early culture and how it affected the journey. Didn’t mind the dramatization, added a bit to the story.

Not titled

Very well read. You have to get used to the parts where he alters his voice to emphasize characters speaking, but then again, after a few hours even that turns out to be kind of humerous at times and quite enjoyable.

This is not a Fodor's guide to Ireland or even a day by day history of Ireland, it's an account of how the Irish monks saved history in written form (among other things.) While the world was burning all the books it could the Irish monastic leaders were collecting all the works of their neighboring world and translating (even transcribing) them for study and posterity. A society that was once nearly illiterate SAVED scores of written works! (Are you not with me here?) The stories of the Romans, Greeks and barbarians are necessary to understand just how (and why) the Irish managed to save the written texts and thus the history of a great deal of what is now Europe. Forget the negative reviews, for they are from people that wanted a history of Ireland and ordered the wrong book.

Decline of Rome and subsequent Irish history

I found this to be extremely well written with an occasional condecending tone (not sure if it was implied by the reader or from the author, I'd have to listen to those sections again)when expressing a personal observation.
The reading was excellent and appropriate to the subject. It may not be the accustomed style, but worked well here.

A rambling but fun listen

Not just the Irish - the entire medieval history is fair game for this meandering but intelligent and fun author. I listened to it at a faster speed to save time.

We're all Irish at heart

Great book to read if you're of Irish heritage. Great book to read if you didn't know you were Irish. Excellent wrap up of the fall of Rome, and the rise of Ireland.

lots of detailed history

it you want to learn about the so called dark ages and how they came about, as well as how Irish culture began, this is the book to read