Four Cultures of the West

Anything by O'Malley is excellently researched and presented, and that is evident in this book. He reviews, discusses and integrates the four cultures - the major influences - of western civilazation and describes how they affect everything from education to our western world view. This book is a real gem and is as interesting being read for the fourth time as it was the first time.

As someone who majored in philosophy and theology at Catholic University 4 decades ago, I found reading O'Malley's four cultures a refreshing review of centuries of learning. I can relate to the four cultures O'Malley so clearly explains in an entertaining way. I am especially grateful to O'Malley for writing about much I missed concerning the connection between the ancient, medieval, renaissance and modern world. If I had... Read Full Review

What I most enjoyed about this book was that a noted historian stepped out of the usual role of more detailed analysis of a particular period and took the long view about the main streams of culture winding through Western history and Christianity. In this sense it is a risky book. O'Malley pulls it off, showing both his understanding of history and his power of more synthetic reflection. I don't know anything like it... Read Full Review

This is a wonderful book that feels like Vivaldi and reads like a Bach fugue. Full of life, kindness and compassion, this book is an easy read. It is open, inclusive and daring in its scope and purpose: to map out the four dominant motifs or cultures of the West. These four cultures are more like four distinct personality types. Each culture has its "characters" galore and the author does a good job of letting us experience... Read Full Review

This book is a find - it captures something critically important about the modern West and will have you thinking for years to come. In many aspects, it's a very classical and a very Catholic book. Thus the way O'Malley shows how all of that shapes our culture today will come as all the more refreshing and incisive. It is not a long book you will read slowly and once, but a short book that you will first read quickly, and... Read Full Review