Europe's Barbarians, AD 200-600

by Edward James

'Barbarians' is the name the Romans gave to those who lived beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire - the peoples they considered 'uncivilised'. Most of the written sources concerning the barbarians come from the Romans too, and as such, need to be treated with caution. Only archaeology allows us to see beyond Roman prejudices - and yet these records are often as difficult to interpret as historical ones. Expertly guiding the reader through such historiographical complexities, Edward James traces the history of the barbarians from the height of Roman power through to AD 600, by which time they had settled in most parts of imperial territory in Europe. His book is the first to look at all Europe's the Picts and the Scots in the far north-west; the Franks, Goths and Slavic-speaking peoples; and relative newcomers such as the Huns and Alans from the Asiatic steppes. How did whole barbarian peoples migrate across Europe? What were their relations with the Romans? And why did they convert to Christianity? Drawing on the latest scholarly research, this book rejects easy generalisations to provide a clear, nuanced and comprehensive account of the barbarians and the tumultuous period they lived through.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History

356 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Edward James is Professor of Medieval History at University College Dublin. He won the University of California's Eaton Prize for his book Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century (1994) and a Hugo Award for (jointly) editing The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. He co-wrote, with Farah Mendlesohn, A Short History of Fantasy (2009) and he has co-edited a number of other books, all of them essay collections, with Farah Mendlesohn and others. One of these is the first and only academic book on Terry Pratchett, called Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature (first edition 2000, shortlisted for a Hugo Award in 2001). He is currently working on book-length studies of Gregory of Tours and Lois McMaster Bujold.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trying to find secondary sources about the Saxons, Angles, and other "barbarian" tribes of Europe and their homelands during the period between the fall of the Roman Empire in the west and the rise of Anglo-Saxon England is a frustrating endeavor. Such sources are few and far between. This is far and away the best such source I have come across, and the author does a fantastic job synthesizing and analyzing the primary sources, archaeology, and other available data.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πολύ ενδιαφέρον σύγγραμμα που παρουσιάζει αναλυτικά ένα κομμάτι της ευρωπαϊκής ιστορίας με το οποίο είμαστε λιγότερο εξοικειωμένοι στην Ελλάδα και μάλιστα από πολλές σκοπιές. Θεωρώ ότι είναι χρήσιμο ώστε να κατανοήσουμε τους συσχετισμούς στη νεώτερη ευρωπαϊκή ιστορία, αλλά και αυτούς τους ίδιους τους Ευρωπαίους. Εξαιρετικές είναι δε οι πηγές.