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The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization by: Bryan Ward-Perkins |
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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 945.6301 EAN: 9780192805645 ISBN: 0192805649 Label: Oxford University Press Manufacturer: Oxford University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 248 Publication Date: June 23, 2005 Publisher: Oxford University Press Studio: Oxford University Press Sales Rank: 191317 Related Items:
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 Rating:  - History as it should be written. Ward-Perkins makes his case (that the Fall of Rome really was an epochal catastrophe) so concisely and elegantly, and without any loss of detail or academic rigour, that it shames many an academic historian whose works are heavy going, even for other historians. The seamless interweaving of documentary and archaeological evidence, the graphics and clear pursuit of a particular historiographical view and its relvance to us today - leavened by occasional donnish humour - make this an easy read. Particularly interesting to read this alongside Peter Heather's (another Oxford historian) book on the Fall of Rome, coincidentally published around the same time but taking a different angle. Rating:  - Not quite.Mr. Perkins is a arqueologist who writes a book on history (for those who d'ont know history studies documents and archaeology studies objects). The result is not convincing: the work is not properly suported by document research and the archaeology part seams to be resumed to pottery finding. The author contradits himself often. At one point he says that the empire was still quite strong on the V century. Further on he says that lack of money resulted on a diminished and weakened army. Another example: the author compares the roman economy to the XX century one; but then he goes on to compare it with the soviet one - the second is defendable; the first is absurd. Mr Perkins has a soft spot for the romans wich I share with him. But ... Read More: Rating: - Elegant and readable introduction to a complex periodThis concise and elegantly written little book makes an excellent introduction to more detailed analyses of a complex period. Ward-Perkins views are trenchant, logical, well-argued and even witty; he refuses to toe the politically correct line which would have us evaluate a crude hand built pot at the same level as Samian ware... the picture he paints of the period between the Roman Empire and the re-emergence of a literate civilisation restores most convincingly the congency of the concept of the Dark Ages. I recently visited Venice to see the wonderful 'Rome and the Barbarians' exhibition, and it is significant that the monograph discussion of this period in the catalogue raisonne refers to this book several times with high praise. Rating: - One Man's Civilisation Is Another Man's Third ReichProfessor Ward-Perkins has done an interesting, if short, book on a majestic theme - the fall of one of history's greatest empires, and its aftermath. His main concern is to debunk a notion, apparently fashionable among historians, which I'm not sure many other people ever shared - the idea that the Fall of Rome wasn't such a big deal. Apparently, there is an historical school which regards the whole business as a mostly peaceful transition from the tail end of the Ancient World into the beginning of Medieval Europe. He collects an impressive pile of evidence that it was far from peaceful, and was indeed pretty catastrophic for many of those who had to live through it. Roman civilisation did not die of natural causes. It was killed, and ... Read More: Rating: - Pottery is fun!Don't be put off, as I initially was, by the technical illustrations and discussions of pottery types that at first sight may make this look like the drier kind of archaelogical textbook. It is in fact a witty and stimulating exposition, with skilfull deployment of supporting evidence of both "hard" and "soft" varieties, of the view that the end of the Roman Empire was indeed a violent, traumatic and destructive episode. His view can be summed up as being if it looks like a collapse, sounds like a collapse and feels like a collapse then that is exactly what it is. Seems fair enough to me! This is not, nor does it claim to be, an in-depth examination of why the Empire fell or a narrative of that fall. Instead, it is an attempt, in my view ... Read More: |
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