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 enlarge | Author: Thomas Cahill
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
New (73) Used (295) Collectible (7) from $0.01
Rating:  259 reviews
Sales Rank: 8031
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Anchor Books Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 0385418493
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.501
EAN: 9780385418492
ASIN: 0385418493
Publication Date: February 1, 1996
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| Customer Reviews:
 Crazy Celts kept classics carefully copied May 26, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
God bless the Irish for preserving so much ancient learning and for promoting the art of story telling in poems, prose, and songs. Great read by Thomas Cahill. Especially recommend the parts with Cuchulainn and his "warp spasm." Can be read in a short time.
perfect title, entertaining read May 12, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The title gives a good feel for the tone of the book. It's clever, informative, and very entertaining. You learn without feeling like you hit the history books, and you're left thinking about lessons for the future -- the most important reason to look back at the past.
Very much enjoyed it.
 how the irish saved civilization May 8, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Excellent service. Prompt delivery. A used book but in even better condition than described
let's get real April 2, 2008
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book accomplishes what it sets out to do, in my mind. It opens a whole new perspective on a distinct subject in history that would be otherwise unknown or inaccessible to many, including myself. I think the author understands his audience quite well, and keeps things bearable, interesting and understandable. I don't think it's pretentious or sloppy or any of the other slams it's receiving here. It's simply a well written, informative, compact, concise, entertaining window into a...."hinge" of history most of us never considered. Cahill is articulate, energetic and passionate. He has breathed life into this slice of history and has done so in a richly informative manner. it this work contained all that some feel it needs, it would be nothing more than a rambling and boring list of facts, which it's not.
If I were looking for extensive commentary so I too can become an expert on the vast sweep of recorded written history I think I might need more material than this little book can offer. This is the kind of work that gets a person, especially a young person, interested in such things in the first place.
Walking away, I now have the base of knowledge and interest to look into some of the many interesting people, places, cultures and societies that I never really contemplated or realized existed. That's what I take away from this work, and in that, I found it an excellent choice.
i just think some of the reviews of this book are absolutely ridiculous. if anyone can point me to a better history covering all the ground this book does, in this few pages, i'll delete this review.
 Very disappointing March 11, 2008
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
I was intrigued when I first heard of this book and immediately added it to my wishlist - I have not read very much about Irish history and looked forward to the chance to read about grand things the Irish did to "save" civilization. I was quite surprised, then, to find that this book is just shy of 250 pages. Shouldn't there be more?
Some of the tidbits throughout the book are interesting, but I quickly realized that this book isn't an objective delivery of history but a most subjective focus on the Christianizing of Ireland. Basically, the Irish, according to Cahill, saved civilization by meticulously and beautifully copying ancient texts and keeping that literature alive. Once this bit of information is delivered, Cahill keeps his focus on religion, namely Christianity and even more succinctly, Catholicism. In fact, the book began to feel like How Catholicism Saved the Irish. That's not meant as an insult toward any particular religion; I just think that a book with this title should be focused more on what the Irish did to contribute to the world community rather than how the barbarians were delivered from their little mud huts into the glorious world of organized monotheism...and then copied a lot of pretty books.
Perhaps I missed the point, but I just finished reading this book, and I am no more enlightened regarding the rich history of the Irish than I was before I read the book.
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