The Barbarian invasions that brought about the fall of the Roman Empire in the West laid the foundations of Europe as we know it. But the historian who tried to understand this crucial period in European history is faced with a daunting task. The written documents are few, and often ambiguous; and he must fall back on the still more vague evidence provided by archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, linguistics, and toponymy.This book, by one of the foremost experts on the Dark Ages, provides authoritative guidelines to the bewildering flux of the period and recharts the fundamentals of such knowledge as the historian can obtain. The original French edition of Professor Musse's work-published under the title Les Invasions: les vagues germaniques--was hailed by scholars everywhere as a work that brilliantly summaraized modern scholarship on the invasions and their consequences.In Part One Professor Musset establishes the framework of his study, tracing the history of each wave of invasions. In Part Two he outlines the frontiers of knowledge in areas of major importance where no consensus has been reached, and indicates lines of desirable future research. Part Three provides a thorough and up-to-date bibliography, arranged according to topic and area.This book makes an outstanding contribution to a field of study in which interest is growing. It will be found indispensable both as an introduction and as a definitive summary of its subject.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Editorial Reviews
Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation)
About the Author
Lucien Musset is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Caen. He has written extensively on the period and has made a major contribution to Viking and Norman studies. He is editor of the Bulletin de la Societe des Antiquaries de Normandie.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not new, but still good,
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This review is from: The Germanic Invasions: The making of Europe, AD 400-600 (French Edition) (Hardcover)
Though this work was originally published in 1965, the fact that new editions of the English translation are still being published shows that its usefulness is still recognized. The period of the "barbarian" invasions of the western Roman Empire can be confusing. There were many different cultures, of separate origins and speaking a variety of languages, their peregrinations often overlapping. Many of them joined together in alliances, broke apart again, and fought each other as well as the Romans and the Romanized barbarians who had arrived earlier. But most Americans of European origin are more likely to carry the DNA of the Visigoths, Vandals, Lombards, or Franks, than we are of the Romans.
Musset divides his work into three parts, the first of which I would especially recommend to beginners in this subject. It's called "The Facts" and it runs about 150 well-written, easily comprehended pages. Rather than considering each of the migrating peoples individually, because they so often interact with each other, he deals with the subject chronologically, examining each of the five major waves of invaders by land over four centuries, plus the maritime migrations of the Germanic Saxons, Angles, and Jutes to Britain. The second section is "Unsolved Problems and Subjects for Further Research," which is still largely valid even after almost forty-five years. While new schools of historical thought and method have taken power, there are still many unanswered questions. In fact, this section could be very useful in getting students to think for themselves. The third section, "Sources and Studies," is probably the least useful at this late date, being an unannotated bibliography of more than five hundred primary and secondary sources, both books and journal articles -- most of them, not surprisingly, in languages other than English. Still, the primary sources themselves haven't changed (though interpretations of them have), and certain classic secondary works, like J. B. Bury, are certainly still worth reading.
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