Thomas Cahill, best-selling explorer of the Western past, dies at 82

Thomas Cahill, who combined a fascination with the ancient world and a gift for droll, exuberant storytelling in best-selling books such as “How the Irish Saved Civilization,” which argued that Ireland was a haven for Western thought during the tumultuous period after the fall of Rome, died Oct. 18 at his home in Manhattan. He was 82.