Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization takes us on a journey through the landmarks of art and bloodshed that defined Greek culture nearly three millennia ago.

"A triumph of popularization: extraordinarily knowledgeable, informal in tone, amusing, wide ranging, smartly paced." --The New York Times Book Review

In the city-states of Athens and Sparta and throughout the Greek islands, honors could be won in making love and war, and lives were rife with contradictions. By developing the alphabet, the Greeks empowered the reader, demystified experience, and opened the way for civil discussion and experimentation--yet they kept slaves. The glorious verses of the Iliad recount a conflict in which rage and outrage spur men to action and suggest that their "bellicose society of gleaming metals and rattling weapons" is not so very distant from more recent campaigns of "shock and awe." And, centuries before Zorba, Greece was a land where music, dance, and freely flowing wine were essential to the high life. Granting equal time to the sacred and the profane, Cahill rivets our attention to the legacies of an ancient and enduring worldview.

THOMAS CAHILL is the author of numerous best-selling books, including How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Hidden Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Collapse of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Altered the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, Desire of the Eternal Hills: The World Before and After Jesus, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, and Mys Books I, II, III, IV, V, and VI of the Hinges of History, a planned seven-volume series in which the author recalls formative episodes in Western civilisation, are these six works. Thomas Cahill's book The Hinges of History attempts to recreate the tale of the Western World through little-known stories of great gift-givers, people who made significant contributions to Western culture and the evolution of Western sensibility, demonstrating how we came to be the people we are and why we think and feel the way we do today. Thomas Cahill is most recognized for taking a broad range of complex history and reducing it into an approachable, informative, and amusing narrative in his books and talks. His bright, engaging writing brings societies from up to five millennia ago to life, exposing the lives of his main characters with new insight and joy.

He retells the stories of those beautiful and unexplained times when someone did something for someone else, saved a life, bestowed a gift, or offered something beyond what was necessary by circumstance. A Thomas Cahill history book or speech, unlike far too many history lessons, is impossible to forget. He has taught at Queens College, Fordham University, and Seton Hall University, as well as serving as the Times of London's North American education reporter and a long-time contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He was director of Christian publishing at Doubleday for six years before retiring to write full-time.

He and his wife, Susan, who was also an novelist, formed the now-famous Cahill & Company, whose reader's catalog was well-loved in literary homes across the country. New York, Rome, and Paris are where they spend their time.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780385495547
ISBN 10	0385495544
Title	Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
Author	Thomas Cahill
Series	The Hinges Of History
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2004-07-27
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.