Thomas Cahill

Thomas Cahill gets a special page not because I've been reading him a long time or even that I've read a lot of his work, but he's writing a series of books that has captured my imagination, he's not done yet but he has finished five of seven volumes and I've read four and the fifth is in the mail, or so I've been told. I'm talking of Cahill's 'Hinges of History' series off course.

I can't say too much without giving a lot away and these are really books you should read if you're interested in the History of the Western world. This is no objective unbiased view of the world, these are wonderfully opinionated books, well researched and incredibly well written, these don't read like old dusty boring history books with facts, dates and names that make you dizzy, the beauty of these books is that they have all the facts, dates and names but you hardly notice and you can get back to them, or deeper into them if you want to, but you can also just read them for the the story, the story of the West, the good the bad and the ugly, sometimes the very ugly, it's all there. I note of caution here, 'Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea' isn't a sensitized version of Greek life, it's an honest look at Greek society with all the warts and wrinkles in place, some people might find some material in this particular volume offensive, and it's certainly not written for children, but in Cahills own words "What do you expect, they're the Greeks!"

A disclaimer (I hate disclaimers). I'm highly recommending 'The Mystery of The Middle Ages' below, eventhough I haven't read it yet, this isn't very smart maybe, except that I'm going on my experience of the previous four volumes. You can see what I'm reading here. Once I've read it I will take this note away and maybe add some thoughts.

Cahill has a nice website up with reading guide questions for his books and some further reading recommendations.

Highly recommended