Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of EuropeOxford University Press, 4 mar. 2010 - 752 pagini Empires and Barbarians presents a fresh, provocative look at how a recognizable Europe came into being in the first millennium AD. With sharp analytic insight, Peter Heather explores the dynamics of migration and social and economic interaction that changed two vastly different worlds--the undeveloped barbarian world and the sophisticated Roman Empire--into remarkably similar societies and states. The book's vivid narrative begins at the time of Christ, when the Mediterranean circle, newly united under the Romans, hosted a politically sophisticated, economically advanced, and culturally developed civilization--one with philosophy, banking, professional armies, literature, stunning architecture, even garbage collection. The rest of Europe, meanwhile, was home to subsistence farmers living in small groups, dominated largely by Germanic speakers. Although having some iron tools and weapons, these mostly illiterate peoples worked mainly in wood and never built in stone. The farther east one went, the simpler it became: fewer iron tools and ever less productive economies. And yet ten centuries later, from the Atlantic to the Urals, the European world had turned. Slavic speakers had largely superseded Germanic speakers in central and Eastern Europe, literacy was growing, Christianity had spread, and most fundamentally, Mediterranean supremacy was broken. Bringing the whole of first millennium European history together, and challenging current arguments that migration played but a tiny role in this unfolding narrative, Empires and Barbarians views the destruction of the ancient world order in light of modern migration and globalization patterns. |
Cuprins
1 | |
2 GLOBALIZATION AND THE GERMANI | 36 |
3 ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME? | 94 |
4 MIGRATION AND FRONTIER COLLAPSE | 151 |
5 HUNS ON THE RUN | 207 |
ELITE TRANSFER OR VÖLKERWANDERUNG? | 266 |
7 A NEW EUROPE | 333 |
8 THE CREATION OF SLAVIC EUROPE | 386 |
10 THE FIRST EUROPEAN UNION | 515 |
11 THE END OF MIGRATION AND THE BIRTH OF EUROPE | 577 |
MAPS | 619 |
NOTES | 645 |
694 | |
697 | |
720 | |
9 VIKING DIASPORAS | 452 |
Alte ediții - Afișează-le pe toate
Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe Peter Heather Previzualizare limitată - 2010 |
Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe Peter J. Heather Previzualizare limitată - 2010 |
Empires and Barbarians:The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe: The Fall of ... Peter Heather Nu există previzualizare disponibilă - 2010 |
Termeni și expresii frecvente
agricultural Alamanni Alans Alaric’s Ammianus Anglo-Saxon areas army Attila’s Avar Balkans barbarian Black Sea Bohemia burials Carpathians central chapter Chronicle collapse Danelaw Danube domination dynasty early east Roman eastern economic Elbe elite Emperor Empire’s Europe European expansion first-millennium force fourth century Frankish frontier further Gaul Gepids Germanic Germanic Europe Germanic-speaking Gothic Goths Greuthungi group identity Halsall Heather Heruli huge Hunnic Empire Huns immigrants imperial indigenous kilometres kind kingdom kings Korchak land landscape large numbers leaders least Lombards major Marcomanni Marcomannic War Merovingian Middle Danube migration flows military millennium modern move northern Ostrogoths patterns political population Quadi Radagaisus raiding region retinues Rhine Roman Empire Roman period Rome’s Rugi Sarmatians Saxon Scandinavian settlement sixth century Slavic groups Slavic-speakers Slavs social sources structures substantial Sueves suggests tenth century territory Tervingi Theoderic third century trade Vandals Viking Visigoths warbands warriors wealth western Wielbark Zosimus