Framing the Early Middle Ages : Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800

WOW, this is some book; one to study. It took me a while to read it, and I am going to do it again. What scholarship; I am amazed that some one can assimilate so much, and synthesize such a broad prospective. If you want to get a picture of what happened at the end of the Western Empire, this is the book for you. My only criticism is that Wickham is not a Hemingway. It is pretty slow going for us Americans. There are lots of parenthical expressions, in the middle of a sentence; and colons and semicolons to join related, but independent, thoughts. I am not a professional historian, and I do not understand some of his arguments. Large scale systems of exchange broke down, and in general the aristocrats became poorer, and less powerful. Apparently the peasants were not taxed as much, or contolled as much. Should'nt this result in a more flowering in an economy? He writes there was a decrease in population, but none, or little productive land was taken out of production. Did everybody work harder; producing the same amount as when the large scale systems of echange were operating, even though they had no place to sell it? Did they decide to spend more time with their kids, and only produce what they needed, even if they were not making efficient use of the land? I am sure there is a simple explanation. That is why this is a book for me to study.

The Roman empire tends to be seen as a whole whereas the early middle ages tends to be seen as a collection of regional histories, roughly corresponding to the land-areas of modern nation states. As a result, early medieval history is much more fragmented, and there have been few convincing syntheses of socio-economic change in the post-Roman world since the 1930s. In recent decades, the rise of early medieval archaeology has also transformed our source-base, but this has not been adequately integrated into analyses of documentary history in almost any country.

In Framing the Early Middle Ages Chris Wickham aims at integrating documentary and archaeological evidence together, and also, above all, at creating a comparative history of the period 400-800, by means of systematic comparative analyses of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt (only the Slav areas are left out). The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes, state finance, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are only a partial picture of the period, but they are intended as a framing for other developments, without which those other developments cannot be properly understood.

Wickham argues that only a complex comparative analysis can act as the basis for a wider synthesis. Whilst earlier syntheses have taken the development of a single region as 'typical', with divergent developments presented as exceptions, this book takes all different developments as typical, and aims to construct a synthesis based on a better understanding of difference and the reasons for it. This is the most ambitious and original survey of the period ever written.

The Roman empire tends to be seen as a whole. By contrast, the early middle ages tends to be seen as a collection of regional histories, roughly corresponding to modern nation states. As a result, early medieval history-writing is much more fragmented. There have been few convincing syntheses of socio-economic change in the post-Roman world since the 1930s. Although, in recent decades, the rise of early medieval archaelogy has transformed our knowledge of the period, this has been adequately integrated into wider syntheses anywhere. This book aims to change this.In Framing the Early Middle Ages Chris Wickham combines documentary and archeological evidence together, and creates a comparative history of the period 400-800. He sets out thematic analyses of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt. The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes: states and their funding, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are discussed region by region, in a way not attempted before. Wickham argues that, without this, the broader development of Europe and the Mediterranean cannot be properly understood.Earlier syntheses have taken the development of a single region as 'typical', with divergent developments presented as exceptions. Wickham's book aims to construct a sythesis based on a better understanding of differences and the reasons for them. Readers will want to read the book for its richness of detail, but the book is also a more ambitious synthesis of the period than any previous work. The Roman empire tends to be seen as a whole whereas the early middle ages tends to be seen as a collection of regional histories, roughly corresponding to the land-areas of modern nation states. As a result, early medieval history is much more fragmented, and there have been few convincing syntheses of socio-economic change in the post-Roman world since the 1930s. In recent decades, the rise of early medieval archaeology has also transformed our source-base, but this has not been adequately integrated into analyses of documentary history in almost any country. In Framing the Early Middle Ages Chris Wickham combines documentary and archaeological evidence to create a comparative history of the period 400-800. His analysis embraces each of the regions of the late Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt. The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes, state finance, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These give only a partial picture of the period, but they frame and explain other developments. Earlier syntheses have taken the development of a single region as'typical', with divergent developments presented as exceptions. This book takes all different developments as typical, and aims to construct a synthesis based on a better understanding of difference and the reasons for it. The Roman empire tends to be seen as a whole whereas the early middle ages tends to be seen as a collection of regional histories, roughly corresponding to the land-areas of modern nation states. As a result, early medieval history is much more fragmented. In recent decades, the rise of early medieval archaeology has also transformed our source-base, but this has not been adequately integrated into analyses of documentary history in almost any country. This book integrates documentary and archaeological evidence together, and provides a history of the period 400—800, by means of systematic comparative analyses of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt (only the Slav areas are left out). The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes, state finance, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are only a partial picture of the period, but they are intended as a framing for other developments, without which those other developments cannot be properly understood. The book argues that only a complex comparative analysis can act as the basis for a wider synthesis. The book takes all different developments as typical, and constructs a synthesis based on a better understanding of difference and the reasons for it. "In Framing the early middle ages Chris Wickham links documentary and archaeological evidence together, and creates a comparative history of the period 400-800. He sets out thematic analysis of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt. The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes: states and their funding, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are discussed region by region, in a way not attempted before. Wickham argues that, without this, the broader development of Europe and the Mediterranean cannot be properly understood."--Jacket Front Matter List of maps Abbreviations Notes on terminology Introduction States Geography and politics The Form of the State Aristocratic power-structures Aristocracies Managing the land Political breakdown and state-building in the North Peasantries Peasants and local societies: case studies Rural settlement and village societies Peasant society and its problems Networks Cities Systems of exchange General conclusions End Matter Bibliography Primary sources Secondary sources Index