Title: Europe after Rome : a new cultural history 500-1000 /
Authors: Smith, Julia M. H.
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Middle Ages.; Civilization, Western.; Europe History; Europe Social life and customs.
Abstract: "Europe after Rome offers an integrated appraisal of the early Middle Ages as a dynamic and formative period in European history. The book overturns traditional narratives, replacing them by an entirely fresh approach to the period c.500-1000, and arguing that the post-Roman world was characterized by great diversity of experience and perception. To explain how the men and women who lived in this period ordered their affairs, the author uses an innovative methodology combining cultural history, regional studies, and gender history. Extensive use of original sources introduces all levels of society from slave to emperor, allowing individuals to speak to us in their own words."--Jacket.
Contents: Fundamentals -- Speaking and writing -- Living and dying -- Affinities -- Friends and relations -- Men and women -- Resources -- Labour and lordship -- Getting and giving -- Ideologies -- Kingship and Christianity -- Rome and the peoples of Europe.