The Birth of France: Warriors, Bishops and Long-Haired Kings

by Katharine Scherman

Depicts the vitality of a barbarian people, the decadence of a dying empire, and the crucial role of the development of Christianity while tracing the saga of the earliest kings of France

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, France

324 pages, Hardcover

First published August 12, 1987

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second time I have read this book and I would wholeheartily recommend this book to anyone wanting to get a flavor of the Meroviginian period. The author writes very well and I like her style of writing. However, I didn't rate it higher because I feel some of her "factual" statements are tainted with too much subjectivity with and given with an air of 20th century superiority over 5th century barbarians.

[Timothyemmalee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was surprisingly enjoyable. Between the writing and the sheer history, it was equal parts entertaining and informative.

[Fionna Pillow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scherman writes in a way that is what I call "accessibly pedantic." The knowledge per square inch of this text is very very dense, but it's written in such a way so as to allow a non-historian ground themselves and understand. That being said, maps would have occasionally come in handy, but such is the way of history books. The font is quite large with plenty of room for notes if that's your thing.

You might not enjoy this text because Scherman tends to occasionally fill in the gaps of knowledge about peoples, figures, and places with character traits, I would argue that it is easy to distinguish her opinion from fact, and that everyone does this to a certain extent.