A World Lit Only by Fire, William Manchester

This book is a favorite of mine.  I recall it frequently and now, it seems most appropriate to read it again.  Doesn't this review by Amazon remind you of the times we are now living in?  Would you guess that history repeats itself?  This week, I saw posts on Facebook by passionate people saying, TAKE MY SIDE!  You know that they are not wise in the ways of the world, when they blare out TAKE MY SIDE, they  know nothing of what they boldly want to allocate,  the waste of government funds, and other maneuvers that swallow up our money, the life blood of our industrious wonderful society, yet here they are pronouncing with passion, "Follow me, I know best!" Hopefully, we will grow more thinkers who will refrain from the positions of lambs following the pied piper.  What a wonderful read !

Amazon.com Review

It speaks to the failure of medieval Europe, writes popular historian William Manchester, that "in the year 1500, after a thousand years of neglect, the roads built by the Romans were still the best on the continent." European powers were so absorbed in destroying each other and in suppressing peasant revolts and religious reform that they never quite got around to realizing the possibilities of contemporary innovations in public health, civil engineering, and other peaceful pursuits. Instead, they waged war in faraway lands, created and lost fortunes, and squandered millions of lives. For all the wastefulness of medieval societies, however, Manchester notes, the era created the foundation for the extraordinary creative explosion of the Renaissance. Drawing on a cast of characters numbering in the hundreds, Manchester does a solid job of reconstructing the medieval world, although some scholars may disagree with his interpretations.