The Inheritance of Rome

By Chris Wickham

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A distinguished professor of medieval history at Oxford and author of the award-winning Framing the Middle Ages, Chris Wickham presents a comprehensive and challenging interpretation of the alleged “Dark Ages.” Far from being the cultural and social wasteland as described by countless historians, Wickham opens up a world of astonishing depth and variety in societies ranging from the Carolingian Empire, to the ‘Abbasid Caliphate, the always fascinating Byzantines, and the Britain and Ireland of 400-800 AD. In a work not geared toward the novice, Wickham assumes a fair amount of knowledge on the part of the reader, who will be impressed at his analysis of a world staggered by political turbulence but resilient in its response. Viking Press is to be commended for publishing a monograph of such merit as those commonly produced by Oxford and Cambridge.