A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age
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.--This text refers to thePaperbackedition.