A World Lit Only by Fire
by William Manchester · first published 1991
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3recommended by
5HN commenters
2014–2026first – last mentioned
60% recommend40% critical
William Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire is the preeminent popular history of civilization's rebirth after the Dark Ages.
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A fantastic book to read on this topic is "A world lit only by fire" by William Manchester. He also makes the case that Europe emerged from superstition because the Pope declared the world to be flat just as Magellan circumnavigated the globe, and the printing press permitted…
on “What China wants” ↗Off the cuff, I think you might enjoy William Manchester's "A World Lit Only By Fire."
on “The power of Luther’s printing press” ↗Two other books in that vein that I really liked: 1. A World Lit Only by Fire — William Manchester 2. One Summer: America, 1927 — Bill Bryson
on “Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history” ↗…survives doesn't touch on the shape of the earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth#Early_Middle_Ages Hard to imagine this wouldn't be mentioned. I also noticed the reviews and reception of A World Lit Only by Fire are scathing, and if what they cite is correct, appropriately so. It's my understanding its shape as a sphere was well accepted for a very long time, e.g. Wikipedia, citing a 1995 German PhD dissertation…
on “What China wants” ↗> A World Lit Only by Fire I loved this book in my high school AP Euro class. I revisited it much later in my studies, and was dismayed to realize how lacking in proper research and citation it was. Manchester makes numerous bold…
on “Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history” ↗