NonfictionLarge Print Edition*A New York Times BestsellerCahills lively prose breaths life into a 1,600-year-old history. Boston Globe From the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagne, learning, scholarship, and culture disappeared from the European continent. All history of Western civilization would have been lost had it not been for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland. In this illuminating book, Cahill takes us to the Ireland of Saint Patrick where monks and scribes laboriously and lovingly worked to preserve the written treasury of Western heritage, putting their unique stamp on Western culture forever.

• Irelandhistoryireland historyThomas CahillMedieval