The Inheritance of Rome

Another synthesis of the ‘Dark Ages’ Europe, this one from the Penguin History series. An easy, but thorough read, painting a broad canvas from Ireland to Byzantium, and from the last days of Rome to the last days of Anglo-Saxon England, shines the light on the centuries that, while still seen as shrouded in the darkness of violence and barbarism, are in fact the true cradle of the European civilization as we know it today.

This really is a “great read”, an exemplary and multi-faceted discussion by one of the leading historians of the early medieval world in western Eurasia. Integrating archaeological with documentary research and a vast range of sources of many different kinds, it offers a coherent, consistent and plausible account of the beginnings and early development of the post-Roman world in Europe, N. Africa, and the Middle East, covering also the origins of Islam and its impacts as well as the rise of the Carolingian empire and the origins and foundation of modern European politics and nations. Technically refined, clearly, coherently and… show more.