The Early Medieval World: From the Fall of Rome to the Time of Charlemagne [2 volumes] - Hardcover

Frassetto, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1598849956 ISBN 13: 9781598849950

Publisher: ABC-CLIO, 2013

Synopsis

This book examines a pivotal period in ancient human history: the fall of the Roman Empire and the birth of a new European civilization in the early Middle Ages.

The Early Medieval World: From the Fall of Rome to the Time of Charlemagne addresses the social and material culture of this critical period in the evolution of Western society, covering the social, political, cultural, and religious history of the Mediterranean world and northern Europe.

The two-volume set explains how invading and migrating barbarian tribes―spurred by raiding Huns from the steppes of Central Asia―contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and documents how the blending of Greco-Roman, Germanic, and Christian cultures birthed a new civilization in Western Europe, creating the Christian Church and the modern nation-state. A-Z entries discuss political transformation, changing religious practices in daily life, sculpture and the arts, material culture, and social structure, and provide biographies of important men and women in the transitional period of late antiquity. The work will be extremely helpful to students learning about the factors that contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire―an important and common topic in world history curricula.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Frassetto, PhD, teaches medieval and world history at the University of Delaware, La Salle University, and Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Reviews

For most readers, early medieval Europe brings to mind a world mired in an intellectual void and a civilization struggling to survive. In these two volumes, Frassetto canvasses the world of the Dark Ages, revealing a much more active and creative civilization than its Renaissance detractors (such as Petrarch) have led us to believe. Whether exploring early medieval jurisprudence, the growth of the monastic tradition, or the Carolingian bridge to modernity, these volumes seek to rectify these deeply ingrained, false perceptions. Volume 1 is prefaced with an insightful introduction that provides a useful overview of the period, an extended chronology, and a few black-and-white maps (which are much too general). The nearly 250 A–Z entries, which range in length from a few paragraphs to a few pages, are written with a nonscholarly audience in mind and cover a broad range of subjects. Examples of entries include Alfred the Great, Cassiodorus, Gothic wars, Merovingian dynasty, Peasants, and Witigis (an Ostrogothic king of Italy). Each entry contains a few see also terms for cross-referencing as well as a few works for further research. The volumes are bolstered by the addition of 30 primary documents, including excerpts from Saint Augustine’s Confessions, Einhard’s Biography of Charlemagne, Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis, and Procopius’ Secret History. Volume 2 concludes with a broad bibliography and an appendix that lists the rulers from the era. The strength of the set lies in its combination of a diversity of well-chosen subjects and readable prose into a compact reference for generalists. The foremost shortcoming, however, is the far-too-brief focus on the art of the period. In a work that seeks to provide users with a sense of the era’s dynamism, it demands a bit more in the way of imagery and architecture or at the very least a few glimpses of magnificent works of the canon. That aside, this is, overall, a nice addition to any high-school or public library looking to upgrade its history collection. --Brian Odom

Edition details

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1598849956
• ISBN 13: 9781598849950
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 804