Genealogy Books - A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age

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Customer Rating:

Summary: A book lit only by fame
Comment: I read this book when it first appeared, and have since carried pleasant if rather vague memories of
it. Rereading it some 16 years later, I'm horrified by how bad it is in places, and wonder what in
the world I saw in it the first time around.

The opening section entitled "The
Medieval Mind" is especially, embarrassingly, bad. In it, Manchester reduces an entire millennium
to a quick and spotty sketch (this must account in part for the vagueness of my memories) which is
full of over-generalizations (the medieval world wasn't a bona fide "civilization"), simplifications
("there was no room in the medieval mind for doubt; the possibility of skepticism simply did not
exist"), and absolute howlers (medieval peasants went naked in the summer; the medieval mind had no
spatial and temporal awareness or self-consciousness).

Less bad--but still bad--are the
succeeding two sections, both much longer than the opening one on the medieval period (this, despite
the book's subtitle). One of the sections is on the Renaissance and Reformation, the other focuses
on Magellan and the European "discovery" of the New World (which Manchester tells us was the germ
from which the entire book grew). There are some interesting biographical vignettes in the
Renaissance section that probably account for my pleasant memories--Savonarola, da Vinci, and
Erasmus in particular--but there's no real effort on Manchester's part to wrestle with the meaning
of the new humanism that fueled the Renaissance or to explore the intricacies of the Reform revolt
against Rome. Instead, he falls back on tired stereotypes; his long account of Martin Luther is
especially hackneyed. Manchester's concluding account of Magellan's voyage, with its brief nod to
Renaissance astronomy and the science of navigation, is enthusiastic and lively, and is probably the
best--or least bad--part of the book. But again, it's sketchy and breathless.

So what
accounts for the remarkable popularity of this book? Its quality should've landed it on the
out-of-print shelve long ago. My only guess is that Manchester's well-deserved fame for his
contemporaneous histories (WWII, Winston Churchill, Douglas MacArthur) bestows a borrowed and
undeserved aura of authority on this one. But authors (and their agents and editors) really ought
to know when they're in over their heads, and refrain from writing bad copy just because they know
they can get it published.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Oh Dear god
Comment: This book is really bad. It plays on every sterotype possible.

I can see why people
like it because the author is a good writer. BUT, there is so much wrong with this book its absurd.
I literally wanted to rip some of the pages out of this book.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A Great Read !!
Comment: In my book, "Astronomical Symbols on Ancient and Medieval Coins", I devote a number of chapters to
the astronomical symbols that were depicted on medieval coinage as signs of divine right to
sovereignty. As part of my research, I read numerous books on medieval history, and I found that
Manchester's book, "A World Lit Only By Fire," was of great value.

In additon to many
items of interest that added to my understanding of the history of this period, I found that the
book was also a great read. It was hard to put down.

I recommend this book to all who
are interested in reading about medieval history.

Marshall Faintich

Customer Rating:

Summary: Not as wonderful as it sounded
Comment: This book was not everything that I thought or hoped it would be. It was more about the religious
upheavals (for the lack of a better description) than about the people. It focused on the bad
behavior of the clergy and major figures of the latter middle ages who changed the religious
landscape. And it focused more on the last two or three centuries of the middle ages than it did on
the entire of span of the middle ages.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Insightful
Comment: Mr. Manchester's single volume of history presents the evidence of history which establishes the
corruption of the apparent task of all organized religions by their assimiluation into civil
government.

Mr. Manchester's opinion of the time from 400AD - 1500AD is, "After the
extant fragments have been fitted together, the portrait [of the era] which emerges is a melange of
incessant warfare, corruption, lawlessness, obsession with strange myths, and an almost impenetrable
mindlessness."

My opinion is we do not seem to have learned the lessons of history. />

I have a blog at "BookTalk.com" under the name lawrenceindestin where my essay
attempts to develope this topic further.

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