'The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing's great projects' New Statesman The world known as the 'Dark Ages', often seen as a time of barbarism, was in fact the crucible in which modern Europe would be created. Chris Wickham's acclaimed history shows how this period, encompassing peoples such as Goths, Franks, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, was central to the development of our history and culture. From the collapse of the Roman Empire to the establishment of new European states, and from Ireland to Constantinople, the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this landmark work makes sense of a time of invasion and turbulence, but also of continuity, creativity and achievement.
Author(s): Chris Wickahm
Edition: 1
Publisher: Penguin UK
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 400
Title Page......Page 3
Copyright Page......Page 4
Dedication......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
List of Maps......Page 8
List of Illustrations......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 11
Maps......Page 12
1: Introduction......Page 13
2: The Weight of Empire......Page 30
3: Culture and Belief in the Christian Roman World......Page 60
4: Crisis and Continuity, 400 – 550......Page 88
5: Merovingian Gaul and Germany, 500 – 751......Page 123
6: The West Mediterranean Kingdoms: Spain and Italy, 550 – 750......Page 143
7: Kings without States: Britain and Ireland, 400 – 800......Page 164
8: Post-Roman Attitudes: Culture, Belief and Political Etiquette, 550 – 750......Page 186
9: Wealth, Exchange and Peasant Society......Page 221
10: The Power of the Visual: Material Culture and Display from Imperial Rome to the Carolingians......Page 252
11: Byzantine Survival, 550 – 850......Page 273
12: The Crystallization of Arab Political Power, 630 – 750......Page 299
13: Byzantine Revival, 850 – 1000......Page 319
14: From ‘Abbasid Baghdad to Umayyad Córdoba, 750 – 1000......Page 341
15: The State and the Economy: Eastern Mediterranean Exchange Networks, 600 – 1000......Page 372
16: The Carolingian Century, 751 – 887......Page 398
17: Intellectuals and Politics......Page 430
18: The Tenth-century Successor States......Page 453
19: ‘Carolingian' England, 800 – 1000......Page 481
20: Outer Europe......Page 501
21: Aristocrats between the Carolingian and the ‘Feudal' Worlds......Page 539
22: The Caging of the Peasantry, 800 – 1000......Page 561
23: Conclusion: Trends in European History, 400 – 1000......Page 585
Illustrations......Page 598
Notes and Bibliographic Guides......Page 627
Index of Names and Places......Page 735
