A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age: Amazon.ca: William Manchester: Books

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It speaks to the failure of medieval Europe, writes popular historian William Manchester, that "in the year 1500, after a thousand years of neglect, the roads built by the Romans were still the best on the continent." European powers were so absorbed in destroying each other and in suppressing peasant revolts and religious reform that they never quite got around to realizing the possibilities of contemporary innovations in public health, civil engineering, and other peaceful pursuits. Instead, they waged war in faraway lands, created and lost fortunes, and squandered millions of lives. For all the wastefulness of medieval societies, however, Manchester notes, the era created the foundation for the extraordinary creative explosion of the Renaissance. Drawing on a cast of characters numbering in the hundreds, Manchester does a solid job of reconstructing the medieval world, although some scholars may disagree with his interpretations.

From Publishers Weekly

Manchester's marvelously vivid popular history humanizes the tumultuous span from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance. A one-week PW bestseller in cloth. Illustrations.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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130 Reviews

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3.3 out of 5 stars (130 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Making a Point, Jun 1 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age (Paperback)

I think William Manchester is trying to make a point here. He's honest about it, unlike other modern scholars trying to hide their bias in a veneer of "Objective Scholarship" like Ed Said and others (for which I recommend "The Muslim Discovery of Europe" by Bernard Lewis, who reminds us that 'non-Westerners' view the 'West' through their own lenses, 'Occidentalism', as well).

Anyway,Manchester here is pointing out to layman several ideas that we generally don't think about.
1. Reinforces the idea that the vast majority of peasants don't know that multiple times there are two or three competiting Popes.
2. That illiterate peasants with nothing to do, find something to do, like fornicate. This idea of good little honest serfs just stitching their clothes, dancing in lederhosen or whatever, and singing hymns all winter is absurd. We think that when medieval Priests moan about all the fornication in cities and villages across Europe, they're just being zealots. Maybe they were being honest.
3. That for all the complaints about how rough we have it in the West today, it was once a whole lot worse.

He gives alot of color to people who many have revered as heroes. Like Luther, or some of the Popes. Some people don't like the truth about Luther's profane rantings (he was the son of a miner after all!) or the inequities of the Medici brats whose Papacy was brought (do you think they instantly became pious men from spoiled plotting children once they become Popes?)
I think the people who don't like this book don't want their "El Cid" and "King Richard" fables de-bunked. They want their staid history from an eagle-eye view, of the battles of Agincourt and Tourneys and dates and places, but when it comes to humanizing the late Medieval/Renaissance men of history, their fantasies come under attack and they react with repulsion.

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5.0 out of 5 stars History of a profound change in the world, Sep 7 2003

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Lyndie C. "lynvie" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age (Paperback)

William Manchester's book was a phenomenon. He describes the history of the transition between the medieval ages to the renaissance. Along the way, he makes sure to include much salacious gossip - anecdotes that can't be proved or disproved, but were believed by the people of the era. The most powerful element of the book, however, was the underlying current of the revolution of thought from a faith-based era to a new, logic-based age. Every example in the book comes to this point, and the ending is indeed quite powerful. When I finally closed the book (and it's been awhile since I read a book straight through the way I did this one) I was left with a strong impression on how profoundly the world was changed by the historical fathers of the renaissance.

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1.0 out of 5 stars pop history, July 15 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age (Hardcover)

Unfortunately, William Manchester did not do his homework before writing this work. To his credit, he does at least admit to not doing the research. This book might provide an interesting story, but readers need to be aware that it cannot masquerade as a serious history text.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst "history" of medieval Europe available
It's disturbing to see how many people think that this book is anything like accurate. Speaking as a professional scholar specializing in the medieval period, I can say with... Read more

Published on Mar 20 2007 by Chester N. Scoville

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the Best Historical text I have ever read!
This is quite a work of art. Bringing a fascinating and fundemental period in Western Civilization to "light". Read more

Published on July 6 2004 by Martin