History of the Goths [Paperback]

Herwig Wolfram (Author), Thomas J. Dunlap (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 1990

Incorporating exciting new material that has come to light since the last German edition of 1980, Herwig Wolfram places Gothic history within its proper context of late Roman society and institutions. He demonstrates that the barbarian world of the Goths was both a creation of and an essential element of the late Roman Empire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Herwig Wolfram's book represents the culmination of his scholarly work in this field and synthesizes the archaeological and historical research of several generations of scholars. Every serious student of the ancient, as well as the medieval, world should have a copy. Future textbooks on the period will have to take account of its contents. . . . An extremely important book." -- Robert K. Sherk, History

"This book provides a thoroughgoing revision of our knowledge of the German invasions." -- Michel Rouche, Francia

"Through a fresh examination and reassessment of the Latin and Greek sources, Wolfram provides a wealth of detail on the formation of the Gothic tribes, their migrations, and the later history of the Ostrogothic and Visigothic settlements. . . . There are original and provocative ideas and conclusions presented here . . . and it is safe to say that neither the Goths, nor their historians, will ever be the same." -- Everett Crosby, The Virginia Quarterly

"Wolfram's study is indispensable." -- B. S. Bachrach, Choice

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 580 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (February 13, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520069838
• ISBN-13: 978-0520069831
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #897,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the premier works on Gothic history, December 16, 2000

By 

Michael Martinez - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of the Goths (Paperback)

Wolfram takes on a difficult subject, the history of a people whose origins are crusted over with legends and generations of archaeological interpretations. Some of his conclusions have been challenged but Wolfram makes a solid case for many of his interpretations. His survey of Gothic history and culture is a landmark in Gothic research.

The book is intended for academics and therefore includes numerous citations and end-notes and footnotes. If the reader can ignore all the note references, the narrative flows well enough. Wolfram's detailed analysis does dispell a few nationalistic myths, but he replaces them with a thorough retelling of Gothic history. Most reference works about ancient Germanic peoples tend to speak of the Goths in an offhand manner. But they left a lasting imprint on several parts of Europe and Asia, even if we can no longer feel their presence today. Wolfram does a good job of removing the Goths from legend and putting them back into history.

38 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Academic Exercise, March 17, 2002

By 

J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: History of the Goths (Paperback)

Herwig Wolfram's HISTORY OF THE GOTHS is probably the best one-volume survey volume, perhaps the only, available on the Gothic tribes. These tribes, the quintessential "barbarians" who sacked and then succeeded the Western Roman Empire, were an amalgam of Germanic and Slavic bloodlines, who ultimately ruled large sections of the former Empire, and most notably Iberia.

As Wolfram admits, "A Goth was anyone who said he was," and the book suffers from the same lack of focus. Although attempts are made to discuss the social structure, culture, and history, military and otherwise, of the Goths, the discussions are superficial, rambling, and without point, and leave the reader feeling inconclusive. Wolfram seems fearful of drawing conclusions in this book, as if hypothesis or informed opinion might make him seem an irresponsible historian.

Who, after all, were these people, and why did they ravage Europe, and why were they so, finally, inestimably incapable of sustaining their identity? The book begs answers.

In part, the fault may be the writing style, which is textbook dry and lacks any sense (or attempt) at vividness. Wolfram's Goths are museum pieces, not a living, breathing community of people.

The scholarship of this work is exhaustive and astounding. Over half the book is comprised of Author's Notes and Bibliography. Certainly, if the reader has an abiding interest in Gothic history, this is a wonderful sourcebook for other, primary, materials.

Reading much more like a dissertation than a popular work of history, HISTORY OF THE GOTHS is a tedious and boring read, unless, like the author, you find these vanished people compellingly fascinating.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ian Myles Slater on: A Close Look at a Problem, October 9, 2003

By 

Ian M. Slater "aylchanan" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: History of the Goths (Paperback)

Understanding the Goths and their role in history used to be simple. On the one hand, you could go along with Alexander Pope in his "Essay on Criticism," and declare of the fall of Rome, "A second deluge learning thus o'errun, / And the monks finished what the Goths begun" (which is particularly pointed, given that Pope himself was a Catholic).

On the other hand, you could praise them. The reasons for favoring the Goths were somewhat diverse. For example, the Victorian socialist and poet (and designer and fantasy novelist, etc.) William Morris portrayed them as wonderful examples of folk-solidarity against the corruption and imperialism of Rome.

In Germany, at the same time, historians announced that they were convinced that the Goths demonstrated how the Germanic Race brought Freedom back into the world -- just like the Kaiser! (Leading Nietzsche to ask the difference between such a Conviction and an ordinary Lie. He also expressed relief that the ancient Germans, whose inferior blood had helped destroy the Roman Empire through intermarriage, were NOT ancestors of the modern Germans.)

In America, broad-minded scholars, brought up on the doctrine of Anglo-Saxon Liberty (and the Norman Yoke), rushed to recognize the continental Goths as honorary Anglo-Saxons, extending a privileged status to at least some Europeans.

All of these views (including Nietzsche's) depended on the assumption that the name Goth (and its variants) in ancient and early medieval texts always meant the same thing, and that the Ostrogoths and Visigoths were simply branches of the same original tribe -- "tribe" too being a term taken for granted (along with translating *gens* as *race*). This made things simple for archeologists; dig up something of about the right age in a place where "Goths" were supposed to have been living, and you know it was "Gothic." Find something similar someplace else, and you had discovered Goths.

Herwig Wolfram, reviewing another century of scholarship, shows that there are problems with every one of these assumptions (including Pope's). Even leaving aside the problem of the whole idea of a "tribe" as a recognizable entity (whether social or biological), ancient sources on the Goths and their divisions are not easy to understand. Entirely different population groups sometimes seem to have acquired the label, only to shed it again. Efforts to find a principle of continuity in royal dynasties follow the propaganda of self-promoted kings. And, of course, a whole body of writing from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth is interwoven with theories of racial superiority.

None of this makes for easy reading, or straightforward narrative. Instead, we get the clearing away of misconceptions, and an effort to evaluate competing modern theories. This is a really valuable book for anyone seriously interested in the problems associated with the later Roman Empire and the emergence of Barbarian Kingdoms in Italy and Spain. If you want a simple story, you will have to take your chances elsewhere.