Through his ongoing, best-selling series, The Hinges of History, Thomas Cahill endeavors to retell the story of the Western world through little-known stories of individuals who had pivotal impacts on history and contributed immensely to Western culture and the evolution of Western sensibility. This reveals how we have become the people we are and why we think and feel the way we do today. Thomas Cahill is best known, in his books and lectures, for taking on a broad scope of complex history and distilling it into a remarkably accessible, illuminating and entertaining narrative. His lively, engaging writing animates cultures that existed up to five millennia ago, revealing the lives of his principal characters with refreshing insight and joy. He writes history, not in its usual terms of war and atrocity, but by inviting his audience into an ancient world to commune with some of the most influential people who ever lived. Unlike all too many history lessons, a Thomas Cahill history book or speech is impossible to forget.
A lifelong scholar, Thomas Cahill has studied with some of America's most distinguished literary and biblical scholars. Born in New York City to Irish-American parents and raised in the Bronx, he was educated by Jesuits and studied ancient Greek and Latin. He continued his study of Greek and Latin literature, as well as medieval philosophy, scripture and theology, at Fordham University, where he completed both a bachelor of arts degree in classical literature and philosophy, and a pontifical degree in philosophy. He went on to complete his master of fine arts degree in film and dramatic literature at Columbia University. He studied scripture at New York's Union Theological Seminary, and recently spent two years as a Visiting Scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible in preparation for writing The Gifts of the Jews. He also reads French and Italian.
Cahill is the author of the best-selling books, How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe; The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels; Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus; Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter; and Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe. These five books comprise Volumes I, II, III, IV, and V respectively of The Hinges of History, a prospective seven-volume series in which the author recounts formative moments in Western civilization, published in North America by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday and Anchor Books.
Thomas Cahill has taught at Queens College, Fordham University, and Seton Hall University, served as the North American education correspondent for the Times of London, and was for many years a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Prior to retiring to write full-time, he was director of religious publishing at Doubleday for six years. Cahill was recently invited to address the U.S. Congress on the Judeo-Christian roots of moral responsibility in American politics. He and his wife, Susan, also an author, founded the now legendary Cahill & Company, whose reader's catalogue was much beloved in literary households throughout the country. They divide their time between New York and Rome.
[Davidson Distinguished Lecture Series]
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