You may choose any book listed in the bibliography below for your book review paper. Note that there may be limited copies of some books available in our library system, so that if you choose early you will have a much greater chance of finding a copy available. If you find that you cannot obtain a copy of a specific book, choose another from the list.
The bibliography is organized into loose geographic and chronological divisions. Note that no books deal with late antiquity before the sixth century, early Ireland, or the Islamic world; these topics are off limits for this assignment. Some fields of study are better covered in this bibliography than others, largely reflecting the abundance (or scarcity!) of accessible scholarly books in English for each field. If you are interested in a thematic topic (women, religion, military history, economic history, etc.), you may find books of interest in several categories.
East Rome and Byzantium
Justinian; East Rome to Heraclius
Evans, James Allan Stewart. The Age of Justinian: The Circumstances of Imperial Power. Routledge, 1996.
Kaegi, Walter Emil. Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Maas, Michael. John Lydus and the Roman Past: Antiquarianism and Politics in the Age of Justinian. Routledge, 1992.
Sarris, Peter. Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Byzantium, ca. 600-800: Muslim invasions, Iconoclasm
Haldon, John F. Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Kaegi, Walter Emil. Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Byzantium 800-1025; general Byzantine to 1025 and thematic topics in Byzantine history
Angold, Michael. Byzantium: The Bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Macmillan, 2001.
Dagron, Gilbert. Emperor and Priest: The Imperial Office in Byzantium. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Garland, Lynda. Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204. London; New York: Routledge, 1999.
Haldon, John F. Warfare, State, and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204. UCL Press, 1999.
Herrin, Judith. Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Treadgold, Warren T. The Byzantine Revival, 780-842. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988.
Whittow, Mark. The Making of Byzantium, 600-1025. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
The Slavic world
Barford, P. M. The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe. Cornell University Press, 2001.
Curta, Florin. The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Early medieval Western Europe
General early medieval West, thematic topics in early medieval West, specific regions over the entire period
Bitel, Lisa M. Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400-1100. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Collins, Roger. Early Medieval Spain. Macmillan, 1995.
Fletcher, Richard A. The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. University of California Press, 1999.
Halsall, Guy. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. Routledge, 2003.
Hodges, Richard. Dark Age Economics: The Origins of Towns and Trade A.D. 600-1000. Duckworth, 1982.
Innes, Matthew. State and Society in the Early Middle Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400-1000. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
McCormick, Michael. Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, A.D. 300-900. Cambridge University Press, 2001. [warning: very long book]
Richter, Michael. The Formation of the Medieval West: Studies in the Oral Culture of the Barbarians. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.
Smith, Julia M. H. Europe After Rome: A New Cultural History 500-1000. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Wemple, Suzanne Fonay. Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500 to 900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981.
Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. University of Michigan Press, 1989.
Early medieval west to 750: Merovingian Francia; Italy; Visigothic Spain
Amory, Patrick. People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554. Cambridge UniversityPress, 2003.
Christie, Neil. The Lombards. Blackwell, 1998.
Collins, Roger. Visigothic Spain, 409-711. Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
Effros, Bonnie. Caring for Body and Soul: Burial and the Afterlife in the Merovingian World. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.
Geary, Patrick. Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Geary, Patrick J. The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
George, Judith W. Venantius Fortunatus: A Latin Poet in Merovingian Gaul. Clarendon Press, 1992.
Handley, Mark A. Death, Society and Culture: Inscriptions and Epitaphs in Gaul and Spain, AD 300-750. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2003.
Heinzelmann, Martin. Gregory of Tours: History and Society in the Sixth Century. Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Hen, Yitzhak. Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, A.D. 481-751. Brill, 1995.
James, Edward. The Franks. B. Blackwell, 1988.
Kitchen, John. Saints' Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian Hagiography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Anglo-Saxon England
Hills, Catherine. Origins of the English. Duckworth debates in archaeology. London: Duckworth, 2003.
Jones, Michael E. The End of Roman Britain. Cornell University Press, 1998.
Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. Penn State Press, 1991.
Rollason, David W. Northumbria, 500-1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Yorke, Barbara. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, 1990.
Yorke, Barbara. The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain C. 600-800. Pearson/Longman, 2006.
Western Europe 700-1000: Carolingian world, specific rulers, political history, culture, etc.; various regions
Bachrach, Bernard S. Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
Barbero, Alessandro. Charlemagne: Father of a Continent. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Becher, Matthias. Charlemagne. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Bowlus, Charles R. Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788-907. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
Brown, Warren. Unjust Seizure: Conflict, Interest, and Authority in an Early Medieval Society. Cornell University Press, 2001. [Legal/economic history, monasticism]
Collins, Roger. Charlemagne. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.
Duckett, Eleanor Shipley. Carolingian Portraits: A Study in the Ninth Century. University of Michigan Press, 1988.
Dutton, Paul Edward. Charlemagne's Mustache: And Other Cultural Clusters of a Dark Age. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Dutton, Paul Edward. The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire. University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
Fichtenau, Heinrich. The Carolingian Empire. University of Toronto Press, 1978.
Fouracre, Paul. The Age of Charles Martel. Harlow, England; New York: Longman, 2000.
Hodges, Richard. Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne. Duckworth, 2000.
Hummer, Hans J. Politics and Power in Early Medieval Europe: Alsace and the Frankish Realm. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Maclean, Simon. Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the End of the Carolingian Empire. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
McKitterick, Rosamond. History and Memory in the Carolingian World. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Nelson, Janet L. Charles the Bald. London; New York: Longman, 1992.
Nelson, Janet L. Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe. London; Ronceverte, WV: Hambledon Press, 1986.
Nelson, Janet L. The Frankish World, 750-900. London; Rio Grande: Hambledon Press, 1996.
Noble, Thomas F. X. The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680-825. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.
Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages, C. 800-1056. Longman, 1991.
Sypeck, Jeff. Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800. New York: Ecco, 2006.
Verhulst, Adriaan E. The Carolingian Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Vikings (note that few books on this topic suitable for this assignment exist)
Forte, Angelo, Richard D. Oram, and Frederik Pedersen. Viking Empires. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Sawyer, P. H. Kings and Vikings: Scandinavia and Europe, A.D. 700-1100. Barnes & Noble, 1994.