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Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780199212965
ISBN: 0199212961
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1024
Publication Date: February 08, 2007
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Review:
The Roman empire tends to be seen as a whole whereas the early middle ages tends to be seen as a collection of regional histories, roughly corresponding to the land-areas of modern nation states. As a result, early medieval history is much more fragmented, and there have been few convincing syntheses of socio-economic change in the post-Roman world since the 1930s. In recent decades, the rise of early medieval archaeology has also transformed our source-base, but this has not been adequately integrated into analyses of documentary history in almost any country.
In Framing the Early Middle Ages Chris Wickham aims at integrating documentary and archaeological evidence together, and also, above all, at creating a comparative history of the period 400-800, by means of systematic comparative analyses of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt (only the Slav areas are left out). The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes, state finance, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are only a partial picture of the period, but they are intended as a framing for other developments, without which those other developments cannot be properly understood.
Wickham argues that only a complex comparative analysis can act as the basis for a wider synthesis. Whilst earlier syntheses have taken the development of a single region as 'typical', with divergent developments presented as exceptions, this book takes all different developments as typical, and aims to construct a synthesis based on a better understanding of difference and the reasons for it. This is the most ambitious and original survey of the period ever written.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Trend-setting
Late Antiquity is still quite controversial. Its application, time boundaries, and geographic limits still a matter of debate. As such, theories about its true nature and its application to historical study is still undetermined and is being revised everyday.
This book, much like the book that landed 'Late Antiquity' as a free-standing period in English historical enquiry (Peter Brown's "The World of Late Antiquity") is a trend-setter. Wickham's excellent scholarship, plus the fact that ... Read More
Rating: - Fantastic Survey!
Chris Wickham explores the world of the early Middle Ages in a systematic way. Using literary and archaeological evidence, Wickham describes the changes which took place in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa after the fall of Rome. He maintains that despite the great political upheavals of the time, local continuity was a hallmark of this period. Economic decline and regrowth were connected with changes in the power and wealth of the aristocracy, who also exercised lesser or greater control over the ... Read More
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