A World Lit Only by Fire (1992) by American historian William Manchester, is an informal history of the European Middle Ages, structured into three sections: The Medieval Mind, The Shattering, and One Man Alone. In the book, Manchester scathingly posits, as the title suggests, that the Middle Ages were ten centuries of technological stagnation, short-sightedness, bloodshed, feudalism, and an oppressive Church wedged between the golden ages of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.