Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World (Hinges of History)
From Sailing the Wine Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (2003) to his recent book on the flowering of the High Middle Ages, Cahill has proven that he can bring even the most obscure epochs back to life. In this sixth of seven projected volumes in his Hinges of History series, Cahill arrives at his most turbulent era yet: the Reformation and Renaissance. Replete with a larger-than-life cast of explorers, innovators, imperialists, and reformers, the era seems built for Cahill’s masterful storytelling. Although it is rigorously researched, the book abounds in the serendipities that make for the best fiction: Columbus discovers the New World by accident and Gutenberg modifies a winepress to print books. Even the tragic fall of Constantinople and the horrors of the bubonic plague yield unexpected opportunities. The text is delightfully sprinkled with clever notes and asides as well as dozens of illustrative images and poems. Heretics and Heroes is proof that truth is stranger than fiction—and that it can be just as entertaining. --Brett Beasley