Re: 1001 Books You Must Trash Before You Die

In article <esnbt3tgsue8ketp68847oe3gknc82du84@xxxxxxx>,
BP <reply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 6 Mar 2008 20:55:22 +0000 (UTC), tmcd@xxxxxxxxx (Tim McDaniel)
wrote:

- William Manchester, _A World Lit Only By Fire_

What's wrong with that one?

I gave up on it in the first chapter, and fortunately I don't remember
the details now except repeated "nonsense!".

<http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:Qs5JvnO20V8J:list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa%3FA2%3Dind0209%26L%3DSCA-UNIVERSITAS%26P%3D6213>
is a comment from a scholar whom I trust, but it's not that helpful:

I've not read either, but the consensus of the medieval historians
on the Mediev-L mailing list seems to be that both Tuchman and
Manchester are deeply flawed, and not something most of them would
recommend to someone actually wanting to learn about the Middle
Ages (although I think they, too, tend to prefer Tuchman over
Manchester ;-).

Another scholar I trust is under
<http://groups.google.com/group/soc.history.medieval/browse_frm/thread/9e24546ce5a709e2/50b9bf699a0d0ae8>:

Manchester relies heavily on older sources like the Durants' _Age
of Faith_ which are no longer (if they were ever) considered
reliable sources. He shows signs of having read about the Middle
Ages, but without much understanding, so that he makes statements
such as "the capital sins were punishable by death"--confuting the
modern definition of "capital punishment" with its use in "capital
sins" (that is, the most important/most serious ones).

He is also clearly trying to set up the Middle Ages as an age of
ignorance in comparison to the sudden enlightenment he portrays as
typical of the Renaissance, ignoring at least fifty years of
scholarship showing that the transition to the Renaissance was
long and gradual. Essentially, his view is that of Burckhardt,
who wrote towards the end of the 19th century and whose work is
seminal in the study of the Renaissance, but has long been
superseded.

Essentially, as has been pointed out, this is a book about
Magellan, and the chapters which stick to that topic are
respectable. However, Manchester goes too far and tries to
portray Magellan as a "man of his age", which means he has to use
the Middle Ages as a foil in order to demonstrate the
"revolutionary' nature of Magellan and the whole Renaissance.

The result is an introductory two chapters filled with the kind of
howlers one sees often in undergrad "Western Civ" essays, where
the author's lack of wider reading and utter reliance on the
sources which are used are betrayed.

<http://groups.google.com/group/rec.org.sca/browse_thread/thread/bc4310aca712be54/a18f2ce24631e367>
is more scathing. From one author,

Manchester seems to be of the opinion that nothing of importance
happened between the fall of Rome and the glorious birth of
humanism in the Rennaisance. He also seems to be unaware of a
literary device known as a footnote.

and a reply (the same Susan Carroll-Clark more moderate above):

Every so often a really bad book is picked up by a major
publishing house and marketed to the popular market. Because it's
a "book of the month" selection or some such thing, lots of
libraries buy it. This is what's happened with "A World Lit Only
By Fire". It's on a trendy subject (the Middle Ages and
Renaissance) and has a catchy title and cover. But I've not heard
one good thing about it. For one thing, most historians have
discarded the idea that there was a dark period until "poof!"
Petrarch stepped forward and the world was bathed in th the
Renaissance. Hooey. And that's essentially what Manchester
sayss.

And
<http://groups.google.com/group/soc.history.medieval/browse_thread/thread/6b5b5188695bdd4e/fef1db7a12529a60>
.... You might go to Google Groups and plug in
"world lit only by fire".

--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd@xxxxxxxxx
.

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