How the Irish Saved Civilization
The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe
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Narrated by:
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Liam Neeson
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By:
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Thomas Cahill
About this listen
The perfect St. Patrick's Day gift, and 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 worldview 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.
©1997 Thomas Cahill (P)1997 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, a Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By: William J. Bennett
- Narrated by: Wayne Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Full of larger-than-life characters, stunning acts of bravery, and heart-rending sacrifice, Tried by Fire narrates the rise and expansion of Christianity from an obscure regional sect to the established faith of the world's greatest empire with influence extending from India to Ireland, Scandinavia to Ethiopia, and all points in between.
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Best history of Christianity I've read
- By JOHN F KANARY on 05-05-16
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
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The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
- The Conflict Between Word and Image
- By: Leonard Shlain
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 24 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Who changed the sex of God? This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values.
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Can't Even Get Started
- By Marie on 02-08-19
By: Leonard Shlain
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Genghis Khan and the Quest for God
- How the World's Greatest Conqueror Gave Us Religious Freedom
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history the world’s greatest conquerors have made their mark not just on the battlefield, but in the societies they have transformed. Genghis Khan conquered by arms and bravery, but he ruled by commerce and religion. He created the world’s greatest trading network and drastically lowered taxes for merchants, but he knew that if his empire was going to last, he would need something stronger and more binding than trade. He needed religion.
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Fascinating history
- By R. C. Haynes on 12-29-18
By: Jack Weatherford
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The Jews
- Story of a People
- By: Howard Fast
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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“There is no human being on the face of this earth exempt from the Jewish influence. For as long as there has been history, the Jew has wandered through it, shaping it at times, riding the current silently at other times, but always leaving his mark. History without the Jew? It is inconceivable.”—Howard Fast. His popular history brings the history of the Jewish people into focus, from Genesis to contemporary times.
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The Jews: Story of a People
- By SArt on 05-12-12
By: Howard Fast
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God’s Secretaries
- The Making of the King James Bible
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
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It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment “Englishness” and the English language had come into its first passionate maturity. Boisterous, elegant, subtle, majestic, finely nuanced, sonorous, and musical, the English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own reach and scope than any before or since. It is a form of the language that drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.
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Not what I was expecting
- By Greg on 12-29-13
By: Adam Nicolson
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Yiddish Civilisation: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation
- By: Paul Kriwaczek
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Tracing Yiddish civilization from its roots in the Diaspora to the present, Paul Kriwaczek combines intimate family anecdote, travelogue, historical research, and interviews with scholars to give us a rich portrait of a nearly extinguished culture as it survived across the centuries. He begins his chronicle in Jerusalem, with the destruction of the Jewish temple at the hands of the Romans in the year 70. We see the burgeoning exile population disperse, moving outward and northward throughout the following centuries, making their mark in more far flung cities under Roman rule.
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Disorganized, inconclusive and disappointing
- By Alex on 12-15-20
By: Paul Kriwaczek
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The Rise and Fall of Alexandria
- Birthplace of the Modern Mind
- By: Justin Pollard, Howard Reid
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
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Founded by Alexander the Great and built by self-styled Greek pharaohs, the city of Alexandria at its height dwarfed both Athens and Rome. It was the marvel of its age, legendary for its vast palaces, safe harbors, and magnificent lighthouse. But it was most famous for the astonishing intellectual efflorescence it fostered and the library it produced. If the European Renaissance was the "rebirth" of Western culture, then Alexandria, Egypt, was its birthplace.
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A good listen
- By Jeffrey on 10-02-08
By: Justin Pollard, and others
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Marco Polo
- From Venice to Xanadu
- By: Laurence Bergreen
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West. A universal icon of adventure and discovery, he has inspired six centuries of popular fascination and spurious mythology. Now, from acclaimed author Laurence Bergreen, comes the first fully authoritative biography of one of the most enchanting figures in world history.
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Educational and Entertaining but a bit repetitive
- By PETER on 01-02-13
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With green eyes and an easy smile, Frank McCabe stole me away from the nightmares that awaited me at home. But the son of the Irish Mob would never be mine. I belonged to the Italians. And the moment my mother sold me to the head of the Italian Mafia, I became the one the people of Boston were warned about. The only person more feared than me in our city is the Irish Ghost. When I finally flee my marital prison with my sons and my sister in tow, I unwittingly run straight into the ghost of the Irishman who died in a fiery explosion years ago.
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The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York - the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America.
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Sinn Féin: The History and Legacy of the Irish Republican Political Party
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The saga of English predominance in Ireland began in the 12th century following the Norman invasion of England, when a band of Norman adventurers, established on the Welsh mainland, set off across the Irish Sea to test their prospects on the shores of England’s western neighbor. Ireland at the time was ruled in provinces by local kings, each with limited power and authority, and often at war with one another.
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Great Overview!
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What listeners say about How the Irish Saved Civilization
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-17-20
A Grand Account
Written by an Irishman. Performed by an Irishman. Spoken word recorded by an Irishman. 'Tis Grand!
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- Nina
- 12-04-23
Clear expression of History
History is full of niche stories like this. And I love hearing them. It reminds us that good and influential occurrences happen in unexpected ways and possibly from unexpected places. I heard of this book a long time ago and I’m so glad I finally read it. I enjoy so much of the history that leads up to it and after it.
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Overall
- Betty Marshall
- 12-07-16
How the Irish Saved Civiliz,ation
Powerful , I will retain so much more detail from listening to Neeson read than I would have if I had read it silently. A wonderful history masterfully brought to life for me
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- As my Wimsey takes me
- 03-16-15
Wishing for more...
If this were unabridged, I could whole-heartedly give it five stars. Liam Neeson is fantastic!
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- RG
- 04-29-18
Excellent story - outstanding performance
Cahill manages to span an amazingly large span of history, not by condensing it, but by finding the thread that reveals the connections: the fall of Rome, St. Augustine, the Druids, Irish immigration, St. Patrick - and, of course, the fact that so much of the literature of the ancient world, especially Latin works, was available to lay the foundation for the Renaissance only because of the work of the Irish scribes. It is a tale little-known enough, but an important one, and Cahill writes it well. But it is Liam Neeson’s reading that truly brings it to life. He tells the tale with the passion that perhaps only an Irishman (and one with the dramatic skills of a Liam Neeson) could bring.
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- marguerite allred-crawford
- 04-19-19
A great read
Have owned this book for years, and was very happy to find it available on Audible to listen to, now that my eyesight is poor. The reader brought to life all those well known passages with excellent timing and diction; the lack of which can render thoughts unknowable.
A great distillation of a very complex subject into enjoyable and thought provoking spirits.
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- Leigh W. Warren
- 09-25-17
A Masterful Telling
Thomas Cahill's classic is masterfully narrated by the actor Liam Neeson. A most important achievement. Sincerely, Wells+
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- Destiny D Taylor
- 09-29-22
who narrated this book it's not Liam Neeson
Liam's voice is very distinctive and this is not him. This is just some random Irish person. if you listen to A Monster Calls which Liam actually did narrate you can hear the difference.
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- pvl
- 02-24-21
Great History
Wonderfully interesting history, with the encouragement to go good while you live you never know the consequence it will have into the future.
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- BWolcott
- 05-21-20
Excellent!!
Wonderful story telling. I'm Irish and this book is full of very interesting facts! Well worth the time.
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