In “Mysteries of the Middle Ages,' he countered popular beliefs that the Middle Ages was merely a time of superstition. “Desire of the Everlasting Hills” focused on the New Testament and the life of Jesus, and “Sailing the Wine Dark Sea' celebrated the ancient Greeks.

His book on Ireland formed part of what he called his “Hinges of History” series, a broad and idiosyncratic review of Western civilization and moments he believed were turning points, “a narration of how we became the people that we are,' as he told the AP in a 2006 interview. “And even when his conclusions are not entirely persuasive - they do in places hang on rather slender reeds of evidence - they are always plausible and certainly interesting.”

Cahill is a man of learning himself, and his writing is in the great Irish tradition he describes: lyrical, playful, penetrating and serious, but never too serious,' New York Times critic Richard Bernstein wrote in 1995. But he gained a wide audience in the mid-1990s with the million-selling “How the Irish Saved Civilization,” in which he cited Ireland's crucial - and unappreciated - preservation of classical texts after the fall of the Roman Empire. He wrote two books with his wife, Susan Cahill, in the early 1970s. The cause of death was not immediately known.Ī native of New York City, Cahill attended Jesuit school in his early years and became a dedicated student of Latin and ancient Greek, along with the Bible, philosophy and classical literature. Travis Loller, a family friend and Associated Press writer, says that Cahill died in his sleep Oct. NEW YORK - Thomas Cahill, a scholar of ancient languages and belief systems with a knack for popular storytelling who engaged history readers with such bestsellers as “How the Irish Saved Civilization” and “Desire of the Everlasting Hills,” has died at age 82.

Heretics and Heroes by Thomas Cahill