⋙ Read Free A World Lit Only by Fire The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age William Manchester 9780316545563 Books

A World Lit Only by Fire The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age William Manchester 9780316545563 Books

Download As PDF : A World Lit Only by Fire The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age William Manchester 9780316545563 Books

A World Lit Only by Fire The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age William Manchester 9780316545563 Books

This book is a better artistic rendering of an age than it is a factual history of events. Many reviewers seem to forget that history is more a storehouse of ideas than one of opaque facts. The factual errors, questionable inferences and judgmental shortcomings are well documented in many of the accompanying reviews and need not be rehearsed here. I am not writing to pile onto the well-deserved critical reviews nor provide additional Pollyannaish five-star review rhetoric, of which there is already too much. Please allow me to provide another perspective from which to consider this book, which is as an artistic rendering of an age, not as a critical historical review which is what some readers understandably expected.

When we claim that facts are not true, we must first recognize this assessment depends what it is that we are trying to be true. William Manchester has a much richer and thicker notion of facts and is getting at a deeper truth about an age that may not be literally true in a quotidian factual sense. For example, are we to tell Van Gogh that he did not accurately depict a starry night sky in an ostensibly factual manner? Manchester is creating a portrait in language. We need to recall that this book is a portrait of an age, it seems that this metaphor has been lost of many reviewers.

Perhaps this book upset so many readers because it disappointed their comfortable expectations. Manchester’s approach bypasses historical representation and goes directly to emotion. This is understandably annoying and confusing to the literal historical reader. There are dimensions to this book beyond the often off putting literal factual errors. Manchester is showing us this age without literally demonstrating the age and this gives the literal mind pause. The right question isn’t, “what are the facts of the age?” It should be, “what did this age feel like?” We should ask “what inner mood is the author trying evoke in the reader?” Is there an inner language or any language appropriate to articulate the feelings evoked by a work trying to evoke a mood? In communicating moods, words can be clumsy whereas art can be eloquent. In this sense, Manchester’s book is more art and less history. Manchester brings us to the cusp of understanding without coming to understand. A book of this this kind is meant to seep into our daily life and should put us in a mood of appreciation and help us become aware of what we feel about our own historical age. This deeper awareness of the past should make us less annoyed at the strangeness of our own world, release us from our parochial prejudices and free us to enjoy our own world on its own terms. Learning how to read abstractly rather than just literally is of benefit beyond the world of historical review. By stripping away the literal expectations that come with so much of life it helps keep our observational and interpretive skills sharp. Our senses are awakened and a thousand things that normally go unnoticed are brought back to our now enhanced sense of awareness. We become able to look upon own daily life, as well as past ages, with a new and gracious sensitivity. This should give us relief from preoccupation with ourselves and encourage in us greater self-reflection and less self-absorption.


Tags : A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age [William Manchester] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror,William Manchester,A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age,Little, Brown and Company,0316545562,HIS000000,Medieval,Learning and scholarship - History - Medieval, 500-1500,Renaissance,Renaissance.,Europe - General,GENERAL,General Adult,HISTORY Europe Medieval,HISTORY Europe Renaissance,HISTORY Expeditions & Discoveries,History,History - General History,HistoryEurope - General,HistoryEurope - Renaissance,HistoryWorld,History: World,Local history,Non-Fiction,World history,medieval european history; european renaissance; european history; dark ages; age of exploration; reformation history; medieval history; renaissance europe; renaissance history; medieval studies; magellan; middle ages europe; middle ages history; europe middle ages; middle age renaissance; european history medieval; middle ages; medieval period; medieval times nonfiction

A World Lit Only by Fire The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age William Manchester 9780316545563 Books Reviews

One of the best overviews of a era I have ever read. Not only was Manchester perhaps the finest American biographer of the 20th century, he was also a great writer and masterful story-teller.
Manchester dishes about the end of medieval life and the beginning of the Renaissance. Sex, money, power, and religion. The four topics taboo in polite conversation are all delicious here.
I admit to having the Manchester bug, late in life. Just finished his three volume work on Churchill, and I quickly missed the writing of a master... so I ordered what I thought was a stale history. I was mistaken. I read and re-read pages of this monumental work, and wonder how we ever became civilized from such a savage race... Wonderful… and should be required reading of anyone studying Western Civilization and trying to understand why we are where we are...
Very easy book to read and very informative - read it over a weekend. Takes you from before the renaissance till the beginning of the enlightment and the actors of that period. Took off one star because you can detect a slight bias (which book doesn’t?) but mostly because of the extreme focus on Magellan (a third of the book) which I thought left less room for other important events and figures.
This is one of two books about Magellan's epic voyage. The other is Bergreen's "Over the Edge of the World." I would strongly recommend that anyone interested enough to read one of them, read both. As one of the earlier reviewers noted, it would have been useful for "Over the Edge" to tell a bit more about the times. This book has more of that than I wanted; at the expense of making the Magellan voyage almost an after-thought..
Very readable, and eye opening--especially for those of us like me who dozed off in Western Civ. This is your chance to catch up.

Manchester does a superb job of describing life in Medieval times and of explaining how the Renaissance and Reformation came about. He provides depressing descriptions of daily life and brings to life the excesses and depravity of the Catholic Church during the period. Lest today's Protestants get too haughty, he also covers the less than admirable beginnings of Lutheranism, Calvinism and The Church of England. The Holy Roman Empire and Magellan's famous voyage are covered as well. And then everything is put into context.

My main criticism is that the version would be well served with a time line chart to tie everything together.

If you have doubts about how you might like this book, try downloading the sample. If you are like me, you will be hooked.
This work is very well done for a writer whose speciality was not in the 16th century; Manchester's Magnum Opus was on JFK. This is an engaging read, accessible to those with interest in western history, at times a brutal encounter with the horrors of living in late medieval times, but it also gives the reader an engaging sense of awe at human detemination to advance science and discovery. It was surprisingly engaging for me.
This is an obviously well-researched book on the attitudes and daily lives in the European world about to be shaken to its foundations by Martin Luther, aided considerably by Gutenberg's printing press which allowed moderately priced literature IN THE COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE to be printed and distributed. The ruling Church was unfortunately completely avaricious, greedy and corrupt, proving the theory that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It offered a big and easy target for Luther and other reformers throughout Europe. Lots of interesting facts in this book, from pleasant to simply appalling.
In my opinion, definitely worth your time and effort to read.
This book is a better artistic rendering of an age than it is a factual history of events. Many reviewers seem to forget that history is more a storehouse of ideas than one of opaque facts. The factual errors, questionable inferences and judgmental shortcomings are well documented in many of the accompanying reviews and need not be rehearsed here. I am not writing to pile onto the well-deserved critical reviews nor provide additional Pollyannaish five-star review rhetoric, of which there is already too much. Please allow me to provide another perspective from which to consider this book, which is as an artistic rendering of an age, not as a critical historical review which is what some readers understandably expected.

When we claim that facts are not true, we must first recognize this assessment depends what it is that we are trying to be true. William Manchester has a much richer and thicker notion of facts and is getting at a deeper truth about an age that may not be literally true in a quotidian factual sense. For example, are we to tell Van Gogh that he did not accurately depict a starry night sky in an ostensibly factual manner? Manchester is creating a portrait in language. We need to recall that this book is a portrait of an age, it seems that this metaphor has been lost of many reviewers.

Perhaps this book upset so many readers because it disappointed their comfortable expectations. Manchester’s approach bypasses historical representation and goes directly to emotion. This is understandably annoying and confusing to the literal historical reader. There are dimensions to this book beyond the often off putting literal factual errors. Manchester is showing us this age without literally demonstrating the age and this gives the literal mind pause. The right question isn’t, “what are the facts of the age?” It should be, “what did this age feel like?” We should ask “what inner mood is the author trying evoke in the reader?” Is there an inner language or any language appropriate to articulate the feelings evoked by a work trying to evoke a mood? In communicating moods, words can be clumsy whereas art can be eloquent. In this sense, Manchester’s book is more art and less history. Manchester brings us to the cusp of understanding without coming to understand. A book of this this kind is meant to seep into our daily life and should put us in a mood of appreciation and help us become aware of what we feel about our own historical age. This deeper awareness of the past should make us less annoyed at the strangeness of our own world, release us from our parochial prejudices and free us to enjoy our own world on its own terms. Learning how to read abstractly rather than just literally is of benefit beyond the world of historical review. By stripping away the literal expectations that come with so much of life it helps keep our observational and interpretive skills sharp. Our senses are awakened and a thousand things that normally go unnoticed are brought back to our now enhanced sense of awareness. We become able to look upon own daily life, as well as past ages, with a new and gracious sensitivity. This should give us relief from preoccupation with ourselves and encourage in us greater self-reflection and less self-absorption.