Rating: 
Summary: Goetterdaemerung for a Great Biographer
Review: I was initially angry at the prospect of reading this little work -- written in Manchester's seventieth year -- rather than a third and concluding volume of his monumental Churchill biography. Alas, the word is now out that there will be no third volume -- that the author lacks the will or capacity to carry on.Manchester -- together with Catherine Drinker Bowen -- is clearly the great biographer of the century. His passing from active work is a deep personal blow to one who has savored his work for more than thirty years. This ersatz volume I found to my delight to be highly engaging and insightful into the Age of Gutenberg and Michaelangelo, of DaVinci and Tyndale. This book is in the best tradition of Will Durant -- a great writer who doesn't plow new ground but places the mountain of existing literature into a context and framework.
Rating: 
Summary: A World Lit Only By Fire
Review: The book was an excellent read. Although not arranged chronologically, it was still presented in a manner which was very logical and easy to follow. Manchester provides fascinating details on a variety of subjects, including the development of the Roman Catholic Church and its influence on medieval society. My only complaint is that Manchester, an apparent athiest or agnostic, makes off-handed comments regarding the accuracy of the bible without providing any historical basis for his remarks. Since Manchester is such a renowned historian, I would have expected him to provide some evidence to support his assertions. That he failed to do so causes me some concern about the accuracy of his other thesis, but I still think the book is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: This one's on my 'keeper' list!
Review: I read this book several years ago and am about to read it again.
It's one of my favorite books. As a High School student I was bored by history but all that has changed since reading this book. Manchester's approach to dealing with this period in European history is engrossing, enlightening and even entertaining. I have since gone on to read several books on the early history of Wales, England and the monarchy. I have to credit my new interest in history to Mr. Manchester and this book. I look forward to reading more works by this fine author.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: I've read this book twice and I find it hard to put it down once I start. Good books have that effect.
Rating:
Summary: As You Wish
Review: Manchester has obviously infuriated 'history buffs,' who have learned all they know of the age from "The Princess Bride" and suburban Renaissance Fairs, by pointing out in a popular format what most students of history already knew: Medieval and Renaissance Europe and England were filthy, disease-ridden places with little food and a continental chasm between the very few wealthy and huge masses of the incredibly poor. It was not the elogant age many like to imagine, but it did set the stage for all that was to come after. Manchester is a fine writer and this is a fine book.
Rating:
Summary: A door into the Medieval World
Review: I think that I have read A World Lit Only By Fire four times. It flows and gives the sense of a time of superstition giving way to a new realization by Magellan's epic journey. The Distant Mirror is also a wonderful book and they should be read together. I have often given this wonderful book as a gift. I plan to read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Could it be More Random?
Review: A World Lit Only by Fire "The Medieval Mind" Basically an introduction to the rest of the book, the Medieval Mind covers vaguely the harshness and bleakness of everyday life in the Middle Ages. It speaks of impoverished bodies meandering their ways through life without any real knowledge or understanding of that world. Perhaps grimly pictured, the Middle Ages is shown to be a time of despair and rampant disease and war. This section of the book also outlines the second section, briefly naming many kings, popes, saints, and reformers, whom are all elaborated on in the second section of the book. The Medieval Mind also prepares us for, what the author considers the one decisive shattering blow that changes the Dark ages into the renaissance. "The Shattering" The shattering, said by the author to be Ferdinand Magellan, came in the form of the circumnavigation of the Earth which is discussed in much greater detail in the third section of the book. This section, however basically serves to sum up five hundred years of history, thrown together almost randomly, from the daily life and clothing of peasants to the misanthropic tendencies of the popes to the struggles King Henry VIII had in annulling his marriages. There are stories of the papal throne becoming a brothel as well as stories of incest, intrigue, and politics. Yet through the madness comes one prevalent theme--the struggle of power from the pope to the king. We are also guided through the Renaissance and into more modern days, discussing in detail the plight of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II. And finally, a great deal of effort went into narrating the history of the church's reforms, stemming from Martin Luther and Erasmus and additions from Tomas More "One Man Alone" The story of the most important bridge from the Medieval into the present, that of Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan, himself Portuguese, set out with a fleet of five ragged ships under the flag of Spain in hope of finding the paso from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. After months at sea traveling south on the Atlantic coast of South America, his crew finally mutinied and one of the ships returned to Spain. The aptly named Straight of Magellan was finally reached where another ship was lost. Now the three remaining ships and their crew headed for the Asian islands. Running deadly low on supplies the ships stopped in the islands of the Philippines, where the sailors had their ways with the local women. Magellan, a true Christians, only had his beliefs confirmed when he reached Asia, and so he began to convert as many of the natives as possible. When one tribe was unwilling to convert he went to war where he died in the Philippines. In the end only one of the ships made it all the way around the world where its captain, one of the original traitors was heralded a hero. The truth will out applies here, as Magellan is the man we know for circling the Earth. The third section, however, ends by summing up all the main themes of the past two sections. ... At times I felt this book was interesting and those are the times I would like to hold on to. There were very many interesting facts in the second section, which, I've already stated, I feel would have been better expressed if there was some chronological order to the material. Not that I'm pessimistic, but I enjoyed reading about the indulgences of the certain papal figures elaborated upon, as well as reading the background information behind Becket, Anne of the Thousand Days, and The Agony and the Ecstasy. The only time I considered this book a bore was when trying desperately to figure out which character the author was talking about, because there are so many in history with the same name, that I just got so confused I had to put the book down and take a break. ...
Rating: 
Summary: biased and banal
Review: This author has no real concept of the medieval ages, basing his text on what can only be seen as stereotypes. The author frequently gets his information wrong, and contradicts himself when it is convenient for his exploitative text. As another reader put it, this is "tabloid literature" at it's finest. He uses the outdated method of progressive history and speaks in dull metaphors of darkness and light. Read this book only if you want trite and cliché nonsense about an extremely interesting period of history. Absolute trash.
Rating:
Summary: An opinionated and judgmental masterpiece
Review: This is a great book. It is not a fair-minded overview of a general historical era, it is a book which wants to make a point, and which makes it as well as Dawkins makes HIS point in "The Blind Watchmaker."
To summarize that point: at a time when the Popes were persecuting Galileo and insisting that the Earth was the center of the universe, Magellan and his crew circumnavigated the globe. They kept meticulous diaries, and when they returned to Europe they were surprised to find out that they were missing a day.
Now, if the earth orbits the sun, this is precisely the expected result from circumnavigating the globe in a westerly direction. However, the Popes resisted this evidence and went on braying their false dogma for (what?) another 250 years and 45 popes.
Highly recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Cliched Pseudo-history
Review: While, as many other reviewers have noted, Manchester's biography of Magellan at the conclusion of this work is certainly scholarly and insightful, the rest of this text, especially the rather pathetic thirty-page rant against the Church entitled "The Medieval Mind," is consistently shallow and cliched. That the author truly believes that 1,000 years of European history can possibly be summarized accurately in so few words should disqualify this book as a serious, scholarly "portrait of an age." In short, Manchester's view of the Medieval millenium as a time of unending brutishness, depravity, and intellectual stagnancy is as thoroughly unenlightened and pseudo-intellectual as the false "Middle Ages" which he describes.
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