Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 1st Edition

by Chris Wickham (Author)

9 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0199212965

ISBN-10: 0199212961

Why is ISBN important?

Sell yours for a Gift Card
We'll buy it for up to $17.43
Learn More
Trade in now

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Share <Embed>

Condition: Used - Acceptable

In Stock. Sold by Amazon Warehouse, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

22 Used from $45.30

FREE Shipping

Deliver to France

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Only 14 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

This item ships to France. Want it Friday, Oct. 19? Order within and choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

List Price: $65.00
Save: $9.75 (15%)

24 New from $55.25

Deliver to France

Turn on 1-Click ordering

More Buying Choices

24 New from $55.25 22 Used from $45.30 1 Rentals from $45.50

47 offers from $45.30

See All Buying Options

Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student

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.

Frequently bought together

Total price: $88.18

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 by Chris Wickham Paperback $55.25
Only 14 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details
The Penguin History of Medieval Europe by Maurice Keen Paperback $15.36
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The Oxford History of Medieval Europe by George Holmes Paperback $17.57
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

George Holmes

26

Paperback
$17.57
Maurice Keen

11

Paperback
$15.36
R. W. Southern

17

Paperback
$22.50
Walter Goffart

5

Paperback
$26.50
Chris Wickham

28

Hardcover
$28.18
Chris Wickham

74

Paperback
$19.76

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a book and a subject with a pedigree that demands the closest attention...[A] tour de force...Wickham'snds Framing the Early Middle Ages may be the last great historical work of the last century."--The New Republic

"History doesn't get any better...More than almost any history I've read, Wickham's manages to be at once grand and rigorous. In its adroit and confident treatment of an array of subjects and disciplines, and in its exhaustive bibliography, this book, like Brown's [Rise of Western Christendom], has encapsulated and synthesized a burgeoning field of scholarship at the point of perhaps its greatest creativity."--Benjamin Schwarz, he Atlantic Monthly

"For all its great range, its methodological self-awareness, its deployment of precise and often closely analysed data from many disciplines and kinds of source, there is hardly a page of Framing the Early Middle Ages which a newcomer to the period would not find accessible, indeed warmly welcoming, in the informality of its tone, the scrupulous articulation of its reasoning and its care not to presume on the prior knowledge of the reader...It raises the bar for all future discussion of large-scale historical change, and not just for this period, but it also shows us how we may occasionally scramble over it."--Times Literary Supplement

"Wickham has an admirably clear and pragmatic way of tackling the sheer weight of both the evidence and of previous scholarship...groundbreaking."--Speculum

About the Author

Chris Wickham received his DPhil from Oxford in 1975. He has taught at the University of Birmingham since then and is currently Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford. He has been editor of Past and Present since 1995.

Paperback: 1024 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (February 8, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199212961
ISBN-13: 978-0199212965
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 2.2 x 6.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 9 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1723 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Ancient
- #4341 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Europe
- #6463 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

See Kindle Edition

Customer reviews

3 star (0%)

1 star (0%)

Write a customer review

See all 9 customer reviews

Top customer reviews

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

John E. Mack

Sure to set the standard on the Subject

August 30, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a monumental review of the economic and social histories of the former provinces of the Roman Empire between the penetration of the empire by the barbarians and the imperial coronation of Charlemagne. Along with the Origins of the European Economy, this book is likely to be the standard social and economic survey of the dark ages for years to come. The author surveys each of the major territorial regions of the fomer Roman Empire region-by-region, and slowly develops his theses. These include: (1) a "soft-fall" view of the disintegration of the Western Empire, concluding that many of its structures were in place well into the seventh century and gradually were melded into the less sophisticated successor states of Western Europe; (2) a taxation-driven notion of the state, concluding that the major factor distinguishing Rome and Roman power from that of successor states is that Rome had an elaborate and relatively efficient tax system, and that the successor states did not; (3) a regionalist approach to conclusions, finding that things changed in different degrees in different ways throughout the territories of the Roman Empire -- slowly and relatively little in the East, massively in Britain, in odd ways in Spain and Gaul; (4) a picture of transformation from peasant-based society to feudal society, occurring rather later than many historians would allow; (5) a strong de-emphasis on barbarian wars and conquests as an explanation for these transformations; and (5) a peasant's eye view of the transformation from Roman Empire to the Middle Ages.

It is in the latter that the only real problem with the book arises. The author is so pro-peasant in his view that he takes what could be called a "Xena" view of medieval class struggles. In Xena (and Conan, and Red Sonya, and 10,000 B.C., to name but a few sword-and-sorcery potboilers) there is a familiar scene where the peaceful peasants are going about their village business, talking to each other and carrying out their daily tasks, while a band of heavily-armed thugs is approaching the village on horseback, ready to destroy it with fire and sword. In this author's world, heavily-financed aristocrats are about to encroach on an idylic and egalitarian peasant world, forcing the formerly free peasantry to pay rent, work harder, and have more children. In what is perhaps his most radical claim, the author suggests that the serious decline in population from the late empire to about 700 A.D. was due, not to war, pestilence, famine and occupation but -- family planning! He admits that he cannot prove this, but it is clearly an idea which attracts him. I am dubious -- it is difficult to think of any other society between the birth of agriculture and the industrial revolution where the bulk of the population did not breed to its Malthusian limit, and the claim that early medieval Europe was an exception would require a good deal of proof.

That said, this is a wonderful book. Even its bias supplies a point of view which has been the subject of all-too-little factual analysis in the past. And by focusing on social relations above all, the author presents a very different view of the dark ages than that usually presented in our histories. Far from being a time of barbarism and decay, the early Middle Ages (the author balks at the term "dark ages") were a period of relative prosperity, equality, and good relations compared to what was to come.

61 people found this helpful

Comment

June 29, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

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.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Marcos

Clear, methodical and comprehensive depiction of the societies emerging ...

September 1, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Clear, methodical and comprehensive depiction of the societies emerging from the crisis of the Roman Empire in the fifth century.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Mark Mosca

Take with water - it's very dry.

March 8, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Abstruse, dry-as-dust, more than what want and less. Not for the general reader, even with some knowledge and interest in the subject Lots of information of interest only of the true student/scholar.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Norman Siebrasse

In depth analysis, but heavy going

January 27, 2009

Format: Paperback

I completely agree with the reviewers who call this "a tremendous piece of scholarship" and "a monumental review." But beware - it is very heavy going. This is not because it is poorly written. On the contrary, given the density of information and depth of analysis, it is very well written. But Wickham deals extremely carefully with a great mass of material, and the result, while insightful and thorough, is very difficult to digest. As a couple of examples for comparison, I found Marc Bloch's "Feudal Society" and Pirenne's "Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe" both much easier to read.

It's difficult to rate this book. If you are looking for scholarship, it is 5 stars. If you are looking for a readable overview, it's more like 2 stars. I notice that one reviewer listed Peter Heather's "Fall of the Roman Empire" along with this as one of three must have books on the period. To me, the books were completely different. Heather's book was extremely readable, but the analysis was not not at the forefront. I wasn't particularly convinced by Heather's thesis, but more to the point, you can pretty much ignore the analysis if you just want a narrative history. With Wickham's book, each page carefully marshalls evidence and inference - you may agree or disagree, but you can't take this book lightly. That may be for better or for worse, depending on what you are looking for.

36 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

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

Set up a giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Chris Wickham

74

Paperback
$19.76
Chris Wickham

28

Paperback
$18.00
Bryan Ward-Perkins

108

Paperback
$15.57
Peter Brown

47

Paperback
$28.27
Peter Brown

5

Paperback
$44.93
George Holmes

26

Paperback
$17.57

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: early middle ages, early modern europe, the middle ages

Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 1st Edition

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

Customer reviews

Top customer reviews

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

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 1st Edition

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $35.41 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $55.25 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

Customer reviews

Top customer reviews

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

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$35.41 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$55.25 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open