Book Report on a World Lit Only by Fire: the Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester

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This New York Times bestseller, titled A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age, written by the iconic American historian William Manchester, is a non-fiction novel that is divided into three sections: "The Medieval Mind", "The Shattering", and "One Man Alone". From stories of honorable knights, to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no other era has been a greater source of admiration, terror, and fascination than the Middle Ages, the era in which this book is based on. This lengthy piece of literature leads us from a civilization on the edge of decline, to the glory of its mighty Renaissance; which just so happens to be a magnificent milestone in today's history, introducing the birth of fine art and literature. Manchester describes a world that is much different from our modern-day society in the first section of the book, titled "The Medieval Mind", and we see a certain kind of attitude which is rarely seen today. Manchester stresses at the fact that the peasants in the Dark Ages had absolutely no knowledge of what was happening in the rest of the world. In our modern-day civilization we have the news and the internet gather to information from across the world. It certainly is difficult to understand that if we were still living in the Dark Ages, most of us would be completely oblivious and unaware to the activities and culture of the rest of the world outside of our small village. Manchester also shows recognition that most of the population in the Dark Ages had no understanding of time. Many were unaware of what century they were in, or even the specific date. And for most peasants, time only passed in a cycle of seasons, and they were only required to know the days of the week so they could know when it was Sabbath, which is a religious day for rest and worship. In the next section of the book, titled "The
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