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\nI spotted this book at the local library and got it out because it contained a contribution by Chris Wickham, whose Framing the Early Middle Ages<\/cite> and The Inheritance of Rome<\/cite> impressed me quite a lot when I read them earlier this year. The Early Middle Ages<\/cite> is one of the entries in The Short Oxford History of Europe<\/cite> and intended as an introduction to this particular period, what the editor Rosamond McKitterick called “the Boeing 767 view of early medieval Europe”, quite a different sort of book from the two Wickham books. I therefore didn’t expect to learn much news from this, but rather wanted to read it as an introduction to the other historians involved, none of whom I’d read before.\n<\/p>\n \nThe Early Middle Ages<\/cite> attempts to give a broad overview of the evolution of Medieval Europe between 400 CE and 1000 CE and tries to evaluate this period on its own terms, rather than as a transition period between the Roman Empire and the “real” Middle Ages. Doing this in less than 250 pages, or some 80,000 words is a real challenge and of course means that a lot of history is elided. Ironically, if you are already familiar with the period, it helps a lot to understand some of the developments that are sketched out here, at least to put them into a chronological context. I’m not sure how much I would’ve understood of some the chapters had I come to this book as a complete novice. This feeling was the strongest in Chris Wickham’s chapter, which felt as an extract of his two books mentioned above…\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Early Middle Ages
\nRosamond McKitterick
\n308 pages including index
\npublished in 2001
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