Thomas Cahill and History. June 4, 2010

At the Clay Jenkinson event, I picked up a copy of a book by Thomas Cahill. We read two of his books ("How the Irish Saved Civilization," and "The Gift of the Jews") in our book club. Those are the first two books of a four-book series called The Making of the Ancient World. The third book in that series--Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus-- a good book about the historical setting of the New Testament. A fourth book in that series, Sailing the Wine Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, I have not read, but I'll read anything about the Greeks.

Now he is beginning another series, called The Making of the Modern World. I just bought the first volume, called The Mysteries of the Middle Ages. Two more volumes are promised. The whole seven-volume series has a title: The Hinges of History.

I both admire and resist “grand schemes.” There’s a tendency to rush individual pieces, hoping, perhaps, that the larger structure will make up the difference. That seems to be the case with Mysteries.