How the Irish Saved Civilization

Good question! Thomas Cahill answers this in his book "How the Irish Saved Civilization". After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century C.E., the Irish became the only nation in Europe that was actively promoting literacy, and its monks were still copying manuscripts and making codices, while throughout the rest of Europe (this was the era known as the Dark Ages) barbarians were destroying libraries. Irish monks rescued as many manuscripts as they could, and once the dust settled, they started spreading out through Europe, to reteach the lost art of book making. So that, my friends, is how the Irish saved civilization, by saving and reproducting books and manuscripts. See, and you didn't think books were important :-) It was a good book, very interesting, and I really liked Cahill's style of writing: he was funny and sarcastic and engaging.