History of the Goths First Edition

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

27 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0520069831

ISBN-10: 0520069838

Why is ISBN important?

Other Sellers

from

Other Sellers

See all 5 versions

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by NRP LLC

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Thursday, Aug 12 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: Wednesday, Aug 11

Only 3 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

FREE delivery: Thursday, Aug 12 Details

Fastest delivery: Wednesday, Aug 11

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

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.

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Peter Heather
21
Paperback
25 offers from $19.75
Jordanes
24
Paperback
10 offers from $8.17
Herwig (Thomas J. Dunlap -translator) Wolfram
3
Hardcover
25 offers from $4.38
Torsten Cumberland Jacobsen
18
Hardcover
27 offers from $9.28
Captivating History
47
Paperback
11 offers from $13.34
Douglas Boin
286
Hardcover
58 offers from $7.48

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Peter Heather
21
Hardcover
28 offers from $9.98
Jordanes
24
Paperback
10 offers from $8.17
Herwig (Thomas J. Dunlap -translator) Wolfram
3
Hardcover
25 offers from $4.38
Edward James
21
Hardcover
49 offers from $2.12
Herwig Wolfram
20
Paperback
33 offers from $11.13
Patrick J. Geary
38
Paperback
47 offers from $6.75

Editorial Reviews

Review

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

About the Author

Herwig Wolfram is Professor of History at the University of Vienna and Director of the Austrian Institute for Historical Research.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First edition (February 13, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 580 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520069838
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520069831
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.2 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #288,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #265 in Ancient History (Books)
- #531 in European History (Books)
- #1,867 in Ancient Civilizations

Customer Reviews:
27 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		10%
3 star		4%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

doc peterson

a definitive history of a mysterious group

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

Wolfram's _A HIstory of the Goths_ is a scholarly treatise, and is written for an academic audience, and therefore may not be to everyone's tastes. That said, it is detailed, exhaustively cited, incisive and with a suprizingly easy to read narrative.

As a group, the Goths are a difficult group to pin down - while much as been written about them by others, there are few extant primary sources by the Goths themselves, matters further compounded by their arrival in historical accounts as the Roman empire was disintegrating leaving historians using whatever non-written tools they have at their disposal: archeological finds, lingustics, and anthropological infrences. In spite of this, Wolfram does a tremendous job of drawing from these resources to create a cohesive history.

For the non-academic interested in this ellusive group I recommend [[ASIN:0631165363 The Goths] - this would also be a more accessable introduction to these people. For a more detailed and in-depth history, however, this is the book I recommend.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

C. H.

Worthwhile Reading

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2012

Verified Purchase

Herwig Wolfram's History of the Goths is very worth reading due to the fact that there is so much information in it. I have compared this book to Peter Heather's book on the Goths and found each book fairly easy to read if start at the beginning. I like the lineage charts included in Wolfram's book and as well the vast notes and references used. Wolfram has a very good knowledge of his subject, the Goths through the final days. I suggest watching the History Channel's videos called "Barbarians" first, to give you an overview. There's one episode called, "The Goths".
I am normally not attracted to violence, but I needed to read this book on the Goth's history to write my own series of historical fiction based on many sources. This is one of the best resources, with commentary on how accurate ancient writers were in their accounts of the Goths. Ermentrude's Knot .

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kenneth G

Densley written & only part of the story

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

Very densely written & slow going to read, perhaps because of the translation. Packed with a great deal of information, names, places, etc. One problem was a plethora of geographical names. No idea where the places were & no explanation to location or map to shed light. Also, though supposed to be a history of the Goths, the book stops with the downfall of the Ostrogoths & nothing is told of the history of the Visigoths in Spain. That was a major disappointment for me.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

EW Rafalske

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great story about a long lost people. Great reference guide as well.

Helpful

Paul

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2016

Verified Purchase

FANTASTIC

Helpful

Mr. Matthew L. C. Allen

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2014

Verified Purchase

So helpful!

Helpful

Caleb Hanson

Manages to make the Goths stale, dense, and boring

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2011

Translated from the German, and in some ways almost a stereotype of German scholarship: big, heavy, dense (c. 620 pages), scrupulously annotated and documented (appendices, notes, bibliography, index, etc., make up exactly half of that length), and obsessed with the question of ethnogenesis. Dedicated almost entirely to political/institutional/constitutional history, with no coverage of art, literature, material culture, or the situations of ordinary people--exacerbated when the one throwaway reference to women (the women of Rome) sticks out as almost tasteless.

Having said all that, it is definitely a good, serious book. Much better than Burns, for instance, who makes attempts at covering cultural matters but awkwardly; and on historical events, where Burns just makes a passing reference, Wolfram will actually tell you what happened. To make more cross-references, Wolfram totally accepts Goffart's interpretation of 'hospitalitas' as referring to land TAX, not to the actual land itself. Heather makes a lot of the same points but in a more popular vein - more superficial, less well documented.

So, the scholarship is strong, it fits in well with other reading on the period, and the writing is better organized than a lot of books I complain about. And yet the text is dense and hard to read, the maps are downright painful to look at, and it's generally hard to get excited about, which all go to limit its rating.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mark Singer

An incredible achievement

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2006

I really have to wonder if previous reviewers have actually read this.

Wolfram does not base his argument on linguistics (though his are fine - I checked) or on archaeology (which he clearly states is an unreliable guide). What he does do is make an incredibly exhaustive, cross-referenced study of all of the available sources and use that to write an ethnographic history of the ever-shifting and recombining peoples, Germanic and non-Germanic, who were called the "Goths." That history he then uses to illuminate and make sense of the historical record. As he does this, Wolfram also effectively silences the old "racialist" histories that have made this subject so hard to deal with for so long.

This is very tough going because of the dense writing (translated academic German can be a horror to wade though) and the extreme detail. And, yes, the reproduction of the maps is pretty terrible. It is still, however, one of the best histories I have read, period, and will likely be a source for study and a springboard for my own research for years to come. I'd recommend not dismissing it, especially when that dismissal is itself neither thoughtful nor accurate.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

E. Sumptus

An odd book - arrived on time.. :)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

An odd book, discredited by many, still well worth a read.
Shipper: The book arrived well packaged, as described, and on time.

Aleix fabregat

A very complete goths history book ( the best one) , and with a impressive bibliography

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

Recomended to history fans, comprehensive and complete history book, opens also the links to other history books related to this period

2 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

History of the Goths First Edition

Buy used: $17.73

Buy new: $38.95

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Customers who bought this item also bought

Buy used:

$17.73

Buy new:

$38.95