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Review
`an awesomely ambitious work: an attempt, in the heroic tradition of Pirenne, to make sense of nothing less than the reshaping of antiquity, and the origins of modern Europe...Heather is a wonderfully fluent writer, with a consistent ability to grab hold of his reader's attention....The result is a book which richly merits reading by those interested in the future of Europe as well as its past.'
--BBC History Magazine
`Peter Heather is a Big Historian...his prose is unfailingly clear and bright, and he laces it with enough nutty summaries and moments of dramatic action to cheer the reader along.
--Tribune
--BBC History Magazine
`Peter Heather is a Big Historian...his prose is unfailingly clear and bright, and he laces it with enough nutty summaries and moments of dramatic action to cheer the reader along.
--Tribune
Product Description
The epic story of the creation of Europe by the bestselling author of The Fall of Rome
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A thoughroughly enjoyable book on a difficult subject. It offers new and surprising insight into the birth of Europe based on recent archaeological evidence and the few and rather reticent written primary sources available. What marks this book as different is Heather's fresh approach to both.
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Densely pack and well argued, this sequel to Peter Heather's "The Fall of the Roman Empire" is a new classic. Using the latest composite information from historical texts and archaeological finds, Heather develops the "why" of the early development of Europe. It is liberally sprinkled with humorous turns of phrase when the reader least expects them. A chapter title of "Huns on the Run" gives some idea of the smiles that Heather can provoke. His attention to detail does not detract from his synthesis of grand themes in the migratory period. The single criticism I could place on the book is that the (very important) supporting map graphics are not found within the text where they are referenced but in a single section at the back of the book. For an explanation of the "Third Law of Empires", you will have to read the book. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read his earlier book on the fall of the Roman Empire and being very interested in what is commonly called the "dark ages", I really looked forward to this one, but it doesn't quite deliver.
For a start, the writing style seems to vary from sober historian to slangy joviality (at times he sounds like a historian on speed). The latter doesn't work. You can write pop history without descending to attempting "cool" language or John Cleese jokes (which foreign readers will not understand anyway). There's too much repetition and verbosity. It needs a good editor with guts to tell the author "Peter, keep it simple and try not to be the Nigel Kennedy of history writing."
The book is also very long and looking through the arguments and supporting information you come to the conclusion that there simply is not enough material on the subject probably to justify such a long book. Written material is scant and the archeological remains are not massive either. This means that much of the work is devoted to arguing about migration and invasion hypotheses and using parallels from the modern world to try and construct a model for the movements of peoples. If you don't know about (or are not interested in) the various theories on this subject it can be quite difficult or boring. However, he handles many of the arguments, particularly given the limited material, well and his thesis is well presented. What is weak is the use of comparisons with other ages. He continually uses the example of the Boer Trekkers as the virtually sole example of similar migrations. If his theory relies on comparatives with other similar migrations in history, I would expect to see more examples.
As a history graduate with some prior knowledge I learned a lot from the book, but for the average reader with an interest in the subject, I think that this would be a difficult book. However, the most important take away for me, was that given the scarcity of material and the passing of so much time, hard conclusions as to the whys and hows the Roman Empire collapsed and barabarians took over the remains are very unlikely to be possible. We can certainly see the "what" in our current world (which is why this is written in English, not Latin or Welsh!).
For a start, the writing style seems to vary from sober historian to slangy joviality (at times he sounds like a historian on speed). The latter doesn't work. You can write pop history without descending to attempting "cool" language or John Cleese jokes (which foreign readers will not understand anyway). There's too much repetition and verbosity. It needs a good editor with guts to tell the author "Peter, keep it simple and try not to be the Nigel Kennedy of history writing."
The book is also very long and looking through the arguments and supporting information you come to the conclusion that there simply is not enough material on the subject probably to justify such a long book. Written material is scant and the archeological remains are not massive either. This means that much of the work is devoted to arguing about migration and invasion hypotheses and using parallels from the modern world to try and construct a model for the movements of peoples. If you don't know about (or are not interested in) the various theories on this subject it can be quite difficult or boring. However, he handles many of the arguments, particularly given the limited material, well and his thesis is well presented. What is weak is the use of comparisons with other ages. He continually uses the example of the Boer Trekkers as the virtually sole example of similar migrations. If his theory relies on comparatives with other similar migrations in history, I would expect to see more examples.
As a history graduate with some prior knowledge I learned a lot from the book, but for the average reader with an interest in the subject, I think that this would be a difficult book. However, the most important take away for me, was that given the scarcity of material and the passing of so much time, hard conclusions as to the whys and hows the Roman Empire collapsed and barabarians took over the remains are very unlikely to be possible. We can certainly see the "what" in our current world (which is why this is written in English, not Latin or Welsh!).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Sequel to Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire
This is a really long book. There are 734 pages which makes it over a hundred pages longer than his previous book The Fall of the Roman Empire. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Stuart McCunn
A Handy Piece of Work
Excellent and solid stuff. Anyone who reads this can no longer say that Europe is 'a faraway place of which we know nothing'... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Pastmaster
academia at its best
I suppose I have more than a general reader's knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon world but my grasp of the migrations which produced it was hazy at best. Now I know so much more! Read more
Published on 23 April 2010 by Peter Byrne
an essential addition to your history collection
Peter Heather has spent decades developing his expertise concerning a little-understood period of European history: the several centuries during which the Roman Empire and its... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2009 by Ms. J. L. Budenz
New classic?
Not read yet, but would appear to be a natural successor to HG Koenigsberger's 1987 classic "Medieval Europe 400-1500" which partly explains how Europe, though fragmented and... Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2009 by Christopher Hull
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