Customer Reviews

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: And the Beginning of the Modern World (Hinges of History)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is a well-written, beautifully illustrated book. The treatment of the footnotes is unusual and eminently readable; they are on the same page, rather than being relegated to the end of the book, and not in the usual 6 or 7 pt fine print of a scholarly treatise. The author obviously knows his subject matter, but his writing is more conversational than pedagogical. However, buyer beware. If you've read the hardcover "Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe," don't buy this so-called reprint edition. They've simply changed the subtitle to "And the Beginning of the Modern World." It's not the additional volume on the making of the modern world promised on page iii of the hardcover edition.

This is a well written book that illustrates some of the major advances toward a more modern world that occurred during the middle ages. This is largely accomplished through a detailed examination of several key people (and one could surely quibble with these selections, although they are pretty reasonable to me): Hildegarde of Bingen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Francis of Assisi, Peter Abelard, Henry II (Plantagenet), Roger Bacon, Dante, Giotto, and a handful of others.

One issue that bothered me somewhat: the focus or purpose of this book is not real clear. The author, Thomas Cahill, begins by mentioning that the Middle Ages are, against the claims of some, the beginnings of modernity and has often been unappreciated for its contributions. However, at the end, he notes that (Page 313) "The story this book has had to tell is the story of the (often overlooked and belittled) Catholic contribution to Western civilization." And then, if one reads the book, he is often quite critical of the Catholic hierarchy. Thus, I am not sure that there is a consistent thematic spine to the book. That is hardly critical, but I sometimes asked myself what the purpose of this book might be.

That said, this is a handsomely produced work. There is a nice technique for including footnotes on the pages where a reference is made; there are very nice reproductions of the art of the day, maps, and so on; there is plenty of space between the lines and this renders reading much easier. From time to time there are summary charts (e.g., key dates on timelines).

For those (including me) who may a little about some of the key players but not much about others, this is a delight. I enjoy the music of Hildegarde of Bingen, but I scarcely had a sense of her role in the history of the times. Abelard and Eloise was a rather lugubrious story to me, but I had no great depth of information on their relationship and the events that challenged them. The juxtaposition of Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi is nicely done.

On the other hand, gratuitous and underdeveloped linkages to today's politics just detract from the narrative flow. On pages 182-183, we read a rather ill formed critique of George Bush. Whatever one thinks of Bush and his Iraqi policy, such a throwaway commentary contributes little and is, in fact, irritating. If an author wish to draw parallels to today's political situation, such an author should be obliged to flesh out the comment rather than making snide asides.

Overall, though, a well done work exploring the important changes taking place in the Middle Ages, presaging the move to modernity.

Mysteries of the Middle Ages is the third book in a series of seven on European history.

Thomas Cahill's thesis is that the Middle Ages were not the intellectual desert that many people think them to be. He suggests that they were a period of fertile development in the areas of science, philosophy and the arts. Rather than trying to give a broad overview of the period, he introduces us to a number of the main characters who lived in the period. The book is a history of the Church and faith more than the countries, but it is through the gradually shifting nature of that faith that the world changes.

The book begins with a quick overview of the Greek and Roman civilization. As strange as it may seem to start there, it becomes clear that much of the Middle Ages are the re-discovery of Greek philosophy and science, but with a different twist to it.

During the course of the book we meet a sequestered nun who, by the end of her long life is going on speaking tours of Europe; another woman who lives her own life as ruler; and a gentle man who renounces all wealth and power. We are introduced to a villain who has a great effect on all three of the above, and many other characters who are all unique in the way they view the world they live in.

While I found the stories fascinating, I found Cahill's diversions into commentary on the modern day less interesting. He interjects his opinions of our modern day in a way that more often distracts than adds to the book. The entire closing chapter is in this vein. That said, I found the way the author tells the story usually carried me past the infrequent rants. I would still recommend this amusing and readable book to anyone who wishes an introduction to this misunderstood period of our history.

Armchair Interviews says: When Cahill is telling stories he is terrific, when he is ranting, less so.

Cahill writes entertaining prose but what I read in this book makes me feel the need to read more widely in order to get a balanced picture of some of the historical figures mentioned. For instance:

Bernard of Clairvaux was "terrified of real women."

Pope Boniface VIII "was one of the vilest men ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter..."

Despite a Jesuit education, Cahill's understanding of Catholicism seems shaky in spots. He repeatedly refers to Catholic "worship" of the Virgin Mary, seeming to not understand the idea of veneration or at least not caring to make the all-important distinction. He says Thomas Aquinas' writings were "finally accepted by Pope Leo XIII as the official teaching of the Catholic Church" in 1879 while failing to note Aquinas' being proclaimed a Doctor of the Universal Church by Pius V in 1567.

Most unwelcome are Cahill's off-topic diatribes against President Bush and particularly the modern Catholic Church which are out of place here. He thinks "the only hope" for the church "is for an uprising of laypeople who refuse to be disenfranchised serfs any longer," led by radical dissident groups Call to Action and Voice of the Faithful. Inserting this polemical stuff in a book about the Middle Ages amounts to false advertising.

I was stunned by the wide range of ratings that this book has received from general-interest readers. It stands in stark contrast to the overwhelmingly positive ratings from reviewers. I'll comment on what happened (in my opinion) at the end of this review.

I think the book offers tremendous insights into the development of European culture and intellectual and religious life during the Middle Ages. It begins with Europe's roots in ancient Greece and Rome, but rather than taking the easy way out by listing a bunch of wars and and proto-European nation-states, the author looks at the intellectual threads that emerged and the thinkers who created them. He shows how Greece's intellectual ideas and Rome's more practical way of thinking (and passion for life) formed early Christianity, and then led to the split between the Orthodox Church and the Holy Roman Empire-style church.

Then he takes a deeper look at how that HRE-style of religion was changed by extraordinarily brave and thoughtful people over the course of more than 300 years: people such as Gregory the Great, Hildegard of Bingen, Heloise, Eleanor of Acquitaine, Francis of Assisi, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, and Giotto. He shows how each of these people contributed to changing their world...and our world.

And when I say "show," I mean show. I can't think of a book of history that's better illustrated than this volume. My greatest frustration with history books comes when I'm reading an exciting description of a battle formation, a costume, a town, or whatever, and there's no picture. In fact, there's almost never a picture. This book, by contrast, has all the right pictures -- paintings, mosaics, maps, cathedrals, etc. Any publisher worried about the future of selling books should use this visually stimulating book as a model.

A few highlights. Hildegard. I'd never heard of nuns who were sealed up in cathedrals as young girls, literally entombed for Christ. She endured that environment by becoming, arguably, the best-educated woman in history up to that time. Through her intellect and bravery became a influential writer and religious leader.

The tragedy of Heloise and Peter Abelard is a poignant chapter that is brought to life with passion, pity, and respect for how the thwarted lovers created something that endured beyond their lives.

Yet, the author is equally at home explaining the thinking of Plato, the religious fervor of Assisi, and the scientific experiments of Bacon.

Now, back to the reason for the wide-ranging reviews. I think that some people rated the book poorly because they disagreed with one of the author's opinions. Interestingly, they have, in some cases, misread the book. One person who gave the book a "1" said it was a Catholic apology; clearly, that person didn't read the last chapter of the book. Another person gave it a "1" because that last chapter came down so hard on Catholics. Another gave it a poor rating because it criticized women, when I would argue that it highlighted the surprisingly important role that women had in changing the course of history. Other reviewers gave it a "1" or a "2" because they didn't like the author's discursions into modern-day affairs. Those asides might be annoying or distracting, but they are hardly the substance of the book, and they certainly don't detract from its intellectual rigor.

In short, this book a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of religious thinking during the Middle Ages, as well as the intellectual lines that it supported and stunted.

I bought this book with the expectation of learning more about the middle ages. Because, you know, the title of the book is "Mysteries of the Middle Ages - And the Beginning of the Modern World".

The book begins with a history of the Greece and Roman Empires which is fair enough. However it then dives into 4 or 5 characters and places which seemingly have nothing to do with each other. While taken individually the chapters are decently written and entertaining, they rarely relate to one another and I find myself trying to figure out where the author is going with things.

Towards the end of the book, it quickly turns into a diatribe about what is wrong with the world and Catholicism. I kept asking myself what George W. Bush among others has to do with the Middle Ages.

Finally, at the end of the book in the Postlude, the Author admits "The story this book has had to tell is the story of the (often overlooked and belittled) Catholic contribution to Western Civilization." This one sentence sums up what this book has been about. I'm not sure who decides the title of the book, but I am sure the Publishing company wants to take in as many people as they can to make a few bucks. It really is a shame, because nothing on the outside of the book indicates what it is truly about.

The only upside to this book is that the images, charts, and footnotes are beautifully illustrated throughout the book. Which is why I picked this one over others - I guess that is what I get for buying a book because of the pictures, as my sister succinctly pointed out.

If you are looking for a good summary of the Middle Ages, avoid this book like the plague!

I have read most of Thomas Cahill's books, and one issue I have always had that the titles did not quite get explained in the books. He sort of dances around the subject. With this book, I really began to question the quality of his historic research. With most of his previous books,, they covered times and subjects that I did not know a great deal about. In this instance, I have read quite a bit about this time period, particularly about Henry !! and Eleanor of Aquitaine and I came away form the book wondering if most of Cahill's knowledge about these two important figures in history, and their offspring, came from the movie, the Lion in Winter. How could he have read Allison Weir's biography of Eleanor and still come away with some of his comments about her and her son, RIchard? Just because Richard and King Phillip of France shared a bed, that did not mean that he was homosexual. In that time, there were not a lot of beds around, so when the king made this offer, it was a great honor, it did not mean that they were gay! If anything, Richard was militantly heterosexual and his lords were well advised to put their wives into hiding if RIchard was around!. Also, Henry did not make Richard's intended, Alys, his mistress. There is nothing in the writings of chroniclers of the time that indicate that.

If you want to learn more about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their children, better information would come from Allison Weir's biography of Eleanor, or even Sharon Kaye Penman's novels about the family. Penman at least tries to keep the story as historically accurate as possible.

The latest offering from Thomas Cahill is, at first, a fascinating, if somewhat unfocused exploration of what he views as significant developments that influenced Western Civilization. From the influence of Western Christianity to the impact of several key women (Eleanor of Aquitane, and Hildegard of Bingen), to many others including: Saint Francis, Saint Clare, Dante, Giotto, Benedict, Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas. The book is beautifully illustrated, with drawings and photographs that offer a rich tapestry. The illustrations go far beyond the previous offerings in the "Hinges of History" series. In the past, I have given favorable reviews to his other offerings.

So why do I give only one star? Quite honestly, the final chapter, which is an unrelated diatribe and gratuitous invective against the Catholic Church as a whole, is an incredible add-on that has nothing to do with the topic or theme of the book. The issues of pedophilia and cover-up by certain individuals within the Catholic Church are not to be condoned; rather, they are to be condemned and have been condemned. Mr. Cahill's offense is an unwarranted grafting of unrelated matters and personal invective onto what should be an exploration of significant cultural, social, and intellectual factors of the Middle Ages as they have impacted modern society. In addition, the author takes the individual instances of abuse (as abhorrent as they are) and universalizes them to encompass the entire breadth of the Church. This one chapter alone is akin to painting the faces of Hitler and Idi Amin on Grant Wood's "American Gothic" and calling it art!

Although I enjoyed many of the Cahill's anecdotes, I did not get the sense that The Mysteries of the Middle Ages had a central point. Cahill bounces from Hildegard of Bingen, to Francis of Assisi, and then to Eleanor of Aquitaine, but does little to connect them to what he says is point of his book--that they somehow set the stage for the modern world. Granted, Eleanor of Aquitaine had power and apparently was sexually liberated, but I fail to see how these qualities set the stage for the modern world. Perhaps this is the great failing of Cahill's book: he reduces extremely complex issues to rather simplistic observations. For example, when Cahill says that "Islamic society and Christian society have been generally bad neighbors," he ignores the nuanced thinking of scholars such as Bernard Lewis, Amin Saikal, and Edward Said. In short, Cahill is a popularizer, not a scholar, and because of this, he has a tendency to reduce complex issues to sound bites. Most annoying, however, is Cahill's constant criticism of the Bush administration and the Iraq war, both of which he obviously abhors. Most of the time these intrusions are gratuitous and extremely distracting. Cahill should understand that people buy his book to learn about the middle ages, not to be subjected to harangues against the president. Although there is much to recommend Cahill's book, I think that the book's shortcomings more than outweigh it more entertaining aspects.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. It is highly readable, delightfully written (for the most part) and has brought to life, for me, the contributions of Dante, Hildegard, Giotto (my favorite chapter), Thomas Aquinas, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Francis of Assisi, to name just a few. Cahill brings the same appealing and conversational tone that I found so agreeable in How the Irish Saved Civilization, but at times his good humor seems to give way to a bit too much soapbox scholarship, diverging from his narrative to rail against the warmongering of the Bush/Blair administrations (we know already) and an unseemly tirade, at the end, against the modern Catholic church. It almost (but note quite) spoils the book for me. Further, his attack on William Manchester seems churlish (and where were the citations in his notes to indicate the source of Manchester's quotes?) Overall, I give this book an A- for presentation and readability, but a C for going off the reservation at times in ways that were decidedly distracting.