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Britannia - The Failed State: Tribal Conflict and the End of Roman Britain [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Stuart Laycock (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: The History Press (6 Jun 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0752446142
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752446141
  • Product Dimensions: 24.6 x 17 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 108,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #1 in  Books > History > Ancient History & Civilisation > Rome
    #57 in  Books > History > Europe > Pre-500
    #28 in  Books > History > Europe > Italy

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More About the Author

Stuart Laycock
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Product Description

Product Description

'Nominated for Current Archaeology Book of the Year' Efforts to understand how Roman Britain ends and Anglo-Saxon England begins have been undermined by the division of studies into pre-Roman, Roman and early medieval periods. This groundbreaking new study traces the history of British tribes and British tribal rivalries from the pre-Roman period, through the Roman period and into the post-Roman period. It shows how tribal conflict was central to the arrival of Roman power in Britain and how tribal identities persisted through the Roman period and were a factor in the three great convulsions that struck Britain during the Roman centuries. It explores how tribal conflicts may have played a major role in the end of Roman Britain, creating a failed state scenario akin in some ways to those seen recently in Bosnia and Iraq, and brought about the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. Finally, it considers how British tribal territories and British tribal conflicts can be understood as the direct predecessors of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Anglo-Saxon conflicts that form the basis of early English history.

About the Author

Stuart Laycock has an MA in Classics from Jesus College, Cambridge. Since leaving Cambridge he has worked as a writer in advertising and television, but during the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo took time out to work as an aid worker there. His particular combination of original research on the end of Roman Britain combined with first-hand experience of the dynamics and consequences of tribal and ethnic conflict is perhaps unique.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Highly plausible, not quite convincing, 13 Oct 2008
By E. L. Wisty "World Domination by 1958" (Devon, UK) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Britannia - The Failed State: Tribal Conflict and the End of Roman Britain (Paperback)
Too long the history of sub-Roman Britain has relied too much on doubtful small snippets of written evidence, often from authors on the other side of Europe writing over a century after the events described, which too many people have accepted at face value. Really the only thing we can rely on for sure is the evidence from archaeology.

Laycock presents here a thesis, which he attempts to back up from the archaeological evidence, that the tribal kingdoms of pre-Roman Britain retained their boundaries, their identity and their accompanying tribal hatreds, throughout the Roman period. Despite the Roman administration, the province never became unified. Many of the "barbarian attacks" of the Roman period may actually have been in effect civil wars between rival tribes. Furthermore, he asserts, these tribal mini-states formed the nuclei for the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Each brought in various Germanic tribes from the continent as foederati to fight for them against their immediate neighbours, as opposed to the standard historical model in which they were intended to fight against outside invaders such as Picts and Irish. Subsequently these Germans, either peacefully or by coup d'etat, took over the leadership of the mini-states and turned them into kingdoms. The spread of the Anglo-Saxons as indicated by archaeology has always seemed far too rapid to me compared to the standard historical model based on the written sources, and such a scenario as posited here with geographically widespread Anglo-Saxon immigration right from the start seems more consistent. (There's even serious discussion these days about the possibility that some of the peoples of south-eastern pre-Roman Britain were Germanic speakers rather than Brythonic speakers. See for example The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story.)

I would say that Laycock's thesis is highly plausible, more plausible than many other scenarios presented by historians and archaeologists, but not quite enough evidence to be totally convincing. Like much archaeology and history writing, there is plenty of phraseology used of the form "we may suppose that" or "there is no reason to doubt that" as a prelude to certain conclusions. We may have to wait to see what further archaeological evidence build up in future.

Certainly a valuable contribution to the history of pre-Roman, Roman and post-Roman Britain, and recommended reading.

(Update 30/5/09: Laycock has since followed up this work with Warlords: The Struggle for Power in Post-Roman Britain.)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A non-specialist's view, 20 July 2010
By Andrew Walker "Andrew Walker" (Glasgow, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Britannia - The Failed State: Tribal Conflict and the End of Roman Britain (Paperback)
I feel nervous about writing a review of this book since I came to it as a very general reader with no knowledge of the period beyond that of a layman. I was fascinated by what happened when the Roman period in Britain ended, and was rewarded with a really interesting set of ideas which my simple understanding summarises as follows. Our understanding of history has been seriously warped by the 20th century experience of two world wars (plus, I would add, our highly selective memory of our military history as consisting of decisive battles such as Waterloo or Trafalgar). Laycock's argument is that this is fundamentally misleading and the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and in Iraq/Afghanistan in the last decade are much more informative. His hypothesis is that the tribes who occupy the islands we now know as Britain were likely forming shifting alliances, of which the introduction of the Romans was just one more example. He argues this tribal system was deep-rooted and people still thought of themselves as from their tribe first and from Roman Britannia second - hence the title, "Britannia: The Failed State". When external pressures emerged in the fourth century (and even earlier) the long-standing tribal system started to come to the fore again. Laycock argues this system is the most likely successor to Roman government of these islands.
There's a lot more to it than that, but this put things in a new light for me (my previous knowledge having been based on half-remembered school lessons and history documentaries on TV). The problem for me as a general reader is that there is probably an interesting 20 to 30 page article in here. However, Laycock is writing to persuade a more specialist audience so to support his case he adds in a lot of evidence to support his hypothesis (total length 250 pages). I'm really not the best person to comment on this but as a layperson I felt these sections of the book pretty heavy going and it wasn't too long before I was skipping ahead to the next chapter.
I did enjoy the bits I understood, but I hope in future Laycock gets an opportunity to put forward his ideas from a popular platform - a bit of the Michael Wood treatment on TV! There you go, now all you real historians can vote my review "unhelpful"!
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly stimulating - recommended, 8 July 2008
By A. Browne "Caballo" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Britannia - The Failed State: Tribal Conflict and the End of Roman Britain (Paperback)
I very much enjoyed this book- the central premise is that the tribal system that pre-dated the Roman invasion began to re-asserted itself after the legions left.

It draws very stimulating parallels with the post-Tito Balkans where Bosnian/ Serbian / Albanian/ Slovenian ethnic rivalries similarly re-emerged after decades of Yugoslav rule.

The analysis of brooch types- potentially identifying tribal/ ethnic groupings- was new to me- and convincing. It also made sense of some of the obscurer parts of Gildas on the entry of the Saxons.

Very much recommended for those interested in how Britannia changed from a Roman province to the Anglo-Saxon/ Romano-British kingdoms- well-written as well.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking
I enjoyed this book; it made me think much more about the importance of tribal identities, not just the obvious significance in pre-Roman Britain but the continued importance in... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Anthony K. Divey

5.0 out of 5 stars An emerging Insular identity
History is usually defined by the age you live in and it's refreshing to read this new interpretation of early post Roman British history in the context of our times. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. Diarmid I. Macaulay

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting
If you are interested in this area of history you'll like this book. Stuart Laycock's ideas about the different tribal identities in Britain and how their relationship with each... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Feste

4.0 out of 5 stars Disunited Kingdoms
This is a well told revisionist version of how the Romans and the Saxons actually took over Britain. Read more
Published 15 months ago by C. Hindmarch

2.0 out of 5 stars Useful Narrative On Late Roman England
The Failed State is a narrative discussion of the collapse of the British tribal system in the late Roman and early post-Roman era. Read more
Published 17 months ago by MLA

5.0 out of 5 stars Intertribal relations - combined in a single book
The book is a necessary overview and makes a very good attempt to bring the subject matter closer to the modern reader. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Jaka Jarc

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive
By the standards of archaeology and history, it's easy to read and it comes up with new approaches on some of the main questions about Roman Britain that make a lot of sense. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mrs. Julia Guerra

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting, but unproved case
This is a thoughtful work that just doesn't prove its case. The idea that Romanized British tribes maintained a murderous antagonism toward one another for 400 years, and that... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Elafius

5.0 out of 5 stars Throw away your old textbooks.......
A number of commentators in recent years have noted how the human propensity for stories, hard wired into our minds, provides the mechanism by which humans understand the world... Read more
Published on 12 July 2008 by Dr. Nigel Sewell

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