Friday, September 7, 2012
Summer Fun?
Welcome! In this initial assignment I would like you to post a brief entry giving your assessment of A World Lit Only By Fire. What did you like about the book, and what did you dislike? What in your opinion were its strengths and weaknesses? Feel free to comment on each other's comments. Remember, keep you posts brief, on topic, and professional. Do no create new posts, but instead add comments. Everyone should post comments by Friday 9/14.
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It was interesting enough for a summer reading book but it seemed to drag on while describing the papal conflicts and the common mans lifestyle. I found the Magellan story to be more interesting, especially his conflicts with his crew and then later conflicts with native peoples.
ReplyDeleteMost of material felt totally new after so many years of United States history, especially the history of the Church. I previously thought I knew all there was to know about Magellan, but Manchester proved that there is a lot more to his story. I realized that his journey around the globe was far more significant due to the knowledge it provided. The book's main weakness is Manchester's style of writing. He seems to constantly go on tangents instead of following a certain order. This made information difficult to keep track of. Overall, it was a good book for the summer and a proper introduction for the course.
ReplyDeleteI thought the book was interesting and informative. It was easy to read at times but other times it was confusing especially when it would tell about a persons books they had written and give the title in the person's native language or the original language it was written in, but no translation so I could understand what the title was and maybe it's meaning. I thought the strengths of the book however was that it was informative and at times gave a really good description of stories so you could actually picture what was happening. I enjoyed the facts it had about Paganism and its relationship to Christianity and how a lot of Christian rituals and things were adapted from Pagan rituals.
ReplyDelete"A World Lit Only By Fire" was the ideal book for a summer assignment for the introduction to AP European History. The topics covered gave an extensive look at the time period, including the significant events that shaped the time period along with the influential people. However, I agree that Manchester's style of writing was the biggest weakness. He made many assumptions that his readers had a prior deep understanding of this era, and sometimes casually mentioned names, books or events I was unaware of without explanation. At some points I felt confused and found the book difficult to follow due to his style.
ReplyDeleteAs a student entering into an AP-European History class, I feel as though "A World Lit Only By Fire" did not only introduce me to European history, but it fully immersed me in European history too. Although Manchester's writing was quite weak and filled with simple grammatical errors, he continued to provide an exceptional perspective on the history of Europe. I was especially fond of Machester's use of anedotes throughout the book, because it offered me as the reader an opportunity to really connect with the major characters and events of the Middle Age era. On the other hand, it was tedious how Manchester would begin to describe a certain topic-leading one to believe that he was going to emphasize on some key facts further-then randomly begin explaining another. Regardless though, I feel as though the information provided will offer some great help to us as we begin to learn European history.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very interesting book with a lot of useful information. The various stories about popes, kings, and other important people of the time were usually interesting. They also provided good examples of the condition of European society during the time period. The biggest problem I had with the book was the lack of structure throughout most of it. The author would jump from two pages about a pope to three paragraphs about a king to several pages about the Protestant Reformation etc. Overall it was an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this summer reading book. For a non-fiction book it was written well and I felt engaged throughout the entire book. That said, I think the overall look at the Middle Ages was more interesting than the somewhat unrelated Magellan passages at the end. Those passages at the end hindered the book, as they were, in my opinion, not actually all that related to his points on the medieval mindset. As well, I think he would have done better to look at primary source documents, as he states at the end that he mainly used collections of material. This hinders his ability to give an unbiased view of the Middle Ages, since his information is already filtered. I liked the tangent writing style, as it kept the material feeling fresher than if he had belabored his points.
ReplyDelete"A World Lit Only By Fire" was a good way to introduce the topic of European History to an incoming AP student. I felt as though Manchester's descriptions were interesting, and well-written. However, at times, Manchester seemed to ramble on and often went off on long tangents that got somewhat boring after a while. In addition, it seemed that Manchester sometimes skipped between topics and time periods without establishing a real flow to the story. On a positive note, I did find much of the section on the papacy and the Church very interesting, as well as the section on Magellan's voyage. In all, the book was enjoyable but was dampened by Manchester's poor structure and long tangents at times.
ReplyDeleteThe book was a good way to lead into European History as it really shows how chaotic and confusing the time period was. I liked how informative Manchester was as he provided insight to a variety of people and events but I agree with everyone else that he went on too many tangents that served no purpose. His last part on Magellan was his strongest bit of writing as it was the most coherent and enjoyable part of the book. I feel that its weaknesses was Manchester's lack of structure and organization throughout much of the book.
ReplyDeleteThe summer reading book I thought to be a good read. It was interesting and informative. I enjoyed learning about the popes like Alexander VI and Julius II as they were about as far from being holy as one could get. I also enjoyed learning about the causes of the Protestant Reformation and responses or lack of from the Church. It was very interesting to see how one man, Martin Luther, was able to take on the whole Church and change Europe forever. The main weakness of the book was that Manchester jumped around too much. It seemed at times hard to see where he was going with some paragraphs or pages.
ReplyDeleteWhile I did enjoy reading A World Lit Only by Fire, Manchester's tendency to skip around really confused me. Although he did allude to it in the prologue, I was unprepared for it. As many other students have said, the best part was about Magellan's voyage around the world. I believe this is due to the fact that Manchester was very engaged in the structural writing of that journey in order to portray an accurate depiction of the trip, whereas in other parts of the book he skipped from person to person, never really following an individual for any length of time.
ReplyDeleteAs written in the previous comment, I percieved William Manchester's survey of the Renaissance to be a bit confusing. If I was prepared and made aware that Manchester would jump around to different topics throughout the book I would have enjoyed the book more, found it more informative, and would have been less confused. If I were to read A World Lit Only by Fire a second time, I would easily understand the style in which he writes now that I have read it once already. Once I read the book in enitrity, then I understood what Machester was trying to accomplish. And like all the previous comments, I found the chapter on Magellan circumnavigating the globe to be the most intersresting and useful part of this work of literature.
ReplyDeleteI thought that these books that we read over the course of the summer were really informative and in some cases interesting. I believe that A World Lit by Only Fire was a good read for us AP European History students, because it covered a wide range of events beginning in the Middle Ages and ending with the Era of Exploration. That being said, I think that it was a little hard to follow at some points, because the author, William Manchester, went off on some tangents and sidetracked from the main points of the book. For example, Manchester mentioned Ferdinand Magellan early on in the book, but then waited about 200 pages to mention him again. I didn't really understand how Magellan fit in to the sequence at the beginning, and felt like he could have left him out until the conclusion of the book. Other than this, I think that the book was very informative and was a good read to start things off in our class.
ReplyDelete"A World Lit Only by Fire" was both a good read and a long read. Manchester's writing style seemed to make the book go on longer than it needed to. Some of his tangents proved interesting, but others were irrelevant to the story. The history of Magellan's voyage was the most interesting part of the book, portraying Magellan as a fool for the way he died. After concluding the book and looking online for more information, it seemed that many people were very critical of Manchester's facts, so I do question how accurate his book was.
ReplyDeleteFor a summer reading book I found "A World Lit Only By Fire" to be very entertaining. Though the wide amount of facts that were in the book did get confusing at times, Manchester was able to present these details in a way that didn’t leave me bored of the book. Working through this initial confusion, I did come to enjoy how Manchester was extensive in his information and included intricate and even personal details I had not typically seen in books before. These facts helped me better grasp things such as the lifestyles of Church leaders or reasons behind events like the Protestant Reofrmation. Overall, I found "A World Lit Only By Fire" to be both informative and interesting despite the original difficulties I Had.
ReplyDeleteA World Lit by Fire was a very well written piece and William Manchester is most certainly an authority when it comes to Middle age and post Middle age thought. I found the book to very flavorful, maybe thats just the history geek in me. However, A World Lit by Fire kept me engaged and was not a slow read, despite its length.
ReplyDeleteA World Lit by Fire was a very interesting and fact filled book. I was surprised with the detail Manchester used describing certain parts of the book. I found all the politics of the Papacy and Holy Roman Emperor very interesting. Also the process Martin Luther went through in the Reformation was very interesting as well. I also thought it was eye opening how he described the lives of Popes then and their flamboyant lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteThis book was indeed interesting, but it lacked a sense of story line and plot that keeps a reader on the hook. After quickly losing interest in this book I would have to put it down. The use of informative writing to reveal history and fact to readers is very bland and boring. However, it was well written in a way that informs the reader with historical knowledge but not the satisfaction of an interesting story. I just felt that the lack of climax and excitement throughout the book really detracted from the readers interest. Cheers B-Lowe. ***/5
ReplyDeletePerhaps the flaw was in my own devout faith to the Catholic Church, but I felt like Manchester spent too much time tearing apart the Catholic Church and the problems with different popes and bishops. I was angry when reading about how terrible the Catholic Church was made out to be by Manchester. I also thought it unnecessary how he would go off on his tangents about the sex life to a king, queen, and pope, to the sex life of a peasant man, woman, brother and sister. It was gross to think about and did not at all contribute to helping me understand what life was like in that time. I thought part of the reason he made the Church sound so bad was to make Luther sound more noble. Luther's antics in the book was hilarious. Guy is absolutely out of his mind throwing crap at the devil. That made Luther's work almost sound less credible because he was so crazy. The sailing part was the best portion of the book. It was well written and came to life as the story of the sailor's journey was told. Felt so bad for Magellan, wanted him to pull through.
ReplyDelete