ezra






Indiana University



HISTORY H610



Essential Readings in

Early Medieval History

 



(jump to schedule)

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Dr. Deborah M. Deliyannis Spring Semester 2010
Office:  Ballantine Hall 708 Place:  BH 235
Office Hours:  W 1:30-3:30 or by appt. Time:  W 6:50-8:50 pm
Phone:  855-3431
email:  ddeliyan@indiana.edu

 

 

Description

 

This course is intended to familiarize students with key issues and scholarly debates in the history of the early Middle Ages in western Europe (for the purposes of this class AD 400-1000).  We will discuss topics such as (but not restricted to) the "Fall of Rome", ethnicity, urbanism, Christianization, literacy, gender roles, and the origins of "feudalism", and we will consider both textual and material sources of evidence for these topics.  Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions every week.  Each student will write a book review, which will be presented in class, and will produce a bibliographic essay on the topic of the student's choice, which will also be presented in one of the last class meetings.

 

 

Course requirements

 

            30%     Participation in discussions

            20%     2 book reviews (10% each)

            15%     A 10-minute presentation on the research project.

            35%     A 15-20 page bibliographic essay

 

Participation:  A large part (30%) of the course grade is based on class participation.  You are expected to do the reading for each week, and come prepared to discuss it.  Your participation grade will be based as much (or more) on what you say as how much you say.

 

Book reviews:  Each student will write two book reviews, which will be presented to class (10 mins) on the day listed on the syllabus.   Most of the books listed are monographs, and some are collections of essays.  The book reviews should be between 1000 and 1500 words long, and should take the format of a scholarly book review (any journal's format may be used).  These books have been reviewed, of course, when they were published; I recommend that you NOT look at those reviews when writing your own, but you should, of course, look at reviews of other books to get an idea of the way you might go about it.

 

Bibliographic essay:  You will write a 10-15-page bibliographic essay, on a topic of interest to you and related to the early Middle Ages in some way.  A few suggested topics, or suggestions for defining a topic, can be found at the end of this syllabus, but you should write on what is of interest to you.   You must turn in a statement of your topic on Feb. 3, and you must have discussed it with me first (during office hours or by appointment; talking about it before or after class is not sufficient).  A preliminary bibliography for your paper must be turned in on Feb. 24.  Some of the materials you may need may not be in our library, and you will be expected to order them from interlibrary loan.

 

Presentation:  This project will result in a 10 minute presentation in the last two class meetings.  This very short presentation may be done from notes or read from a text; you should BRIEFLY explain what your topic was, and what you discovered about its bibliography.  SINCE EVERYONE WILL BE PRESENTING IN ONE CLASS MEETING, YOU WILL HAVE TO STAY STRICTLY TO TIME.



Course resources

 

All required readings for this class will be available as PDF files in the Oncourse Resources folder, or will be on reserve in the Kent Cooper Room in the Wells library, or will be available online via IUCAT.  The sources are noted on the syllabus.  Many of the books are available for purchase through retailers such as Amazon (or directly from the presses), and if you feel that you will want to own these books, I encourage you to buy some of them.

 

Required books that can be purchased for a reasonable sum are:

         Bitel, Lisa M.  Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400-1100.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2002.

         Brown, Peter Robert Lamont.  The Rise of Western Christendom:  Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition.  Blackwell Publishers, 2003.

         Herrin, Judith.  The Formation of Christendom, rev. ed.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

         Hodges, Richard and Whitehouse, David.  Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe:  Archaeology and the Pirenne Thesis.  London:  Duckworth, 1983.

         Little, Lester K., ed.  Plague and the End of Antiquity: the Pandemic of 541-750.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2007.

         McCormick, Michael.  Origins of the European Economy:  Communications and Commerce AD 300-900.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2001.

         Verhulst, Adriaan.  The Rise of Cities in Northwest Europe.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1999. [used copies available]

 

           

Rather than listing "additional readings" on the syllabus, I have made available to you, in the Oncourse Resources folder, an EndNote bibliography that I used to construct this class.  Each entry is annotated with "keywords" that roughly correspond to the subjects on the syllabus, so that you can search it easily by topic.

 

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

 

 

Tentative class schedule and readings

 

 

Jan. 13          Introduction:  what are the Early Middle Ages?

 

 

Jan. 20          The Fall of Rome and the End of Antiquity, or, What is Late Antiquity?

 

                  Readings:        Croke, Brian.  "A.D. 476:  The manufacturing of a turning point," Chiron 13 (1983):  81-119.  PDF

                                          Wickham, Chris.  "The Fall of Rome Will Not Take Place."  In Little, Lester K. and Barbara H. Rosenwein, eds.  Debating the Middle Ages:  Issues and Readings, pp. 45-57.  Malden:  Blackwell, 1998.  PDF

                                          Gillett, Andrew.  Review Article: "Rome's Fall and Europe's Rise."  The Medieval Review 07.10.12, 2007.

                                          Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G.  "The uses and abuses of the concept of 'decline' in later Roman history, or, Was Gibbon politically incorrect?" with comments by Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, Mark Whittow, and Luke Lavan, in Recent Research in Late Antique Urbanism, ed. Luke Lavan (Portsmouth, NH:  2001), pp. 233-245.  PDF

                                          Marcone, Arnaldo.  "A Long Late Antiquity?  Considerations on a Controversial Periodization."  Journal of Late Antiquity 1 (2008):  4-19.  online through IUCAT

                                          James, Edward.  "The Rise and Function of the Concept 'Late Antiquity'." Journal of Late Antiquity 1 (2008):  20-30. online through IUCAT

                                          Ando, Clifford.  "Decline, Fall, and Transformation." Journal of Late Antiquity 1 (2008):  31-60. online through IUCAT

                 

 

Jan. 27          The Plague of 541-750

 

                  Readings:        Little, Lester K., ed.  Plague and the End of Antiquity: the Pandemic of 541-750.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2007. reserve RA644.P7 P39 2007

 

                  Book(s) for review:  

                                          Goffart, Walter.  Barbarian Tides. The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.  reserve D135. G65. 2006

                                          Halsall, Guy.  Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2006.  reserve DG311 .H35 2007

                                          Heather, Peter.  The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.  reserve D135. G65. 2006

                                          O'Donnell, James J.  The Ruin of the Roman Empire.  New York:  Ecco, 2008.  reserve?  (Wells missing)

                                          Ward-Perkins, Bryan.  The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.  reserve DG311 .W36 2005

                                          van Dam, Raymond.  Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul.  Berkeley & Los Angeles:  University of California Press, 1985.  IUCAT E-book

                                         

                       

Feb. 3           The Western Economy after Rome's "Fall"

                        paper proposals due

 

                  Readings:        Hodges, Richard and Whitehouse, David.  Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe:  Archaeology and the Pirenne thesis.  London:  Duckworth, 1983.  reserve D121 .H63 1983;

                                          McCormick, Michael.  Origins of the European Economy:  Communications and Commerce AD 300-900.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2001.  reserve HF3495 .M333 2001 (?); read pp. 1-24, two chapters of your choice, and 778-798.

                                          Sarris, Peter. "Continuity and Discontinuity in the Post-Roman Economy," Journal of Agrarian Change 6 (2006):  400-413.  online through IUCAT

 

                  Book(s) for review:  

                                          Sarris, Peter.  Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.  reserve DF568 .S37 2006

                                          Verhulst, Adriaan.  The Carolingian Economy.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2002.  reserve HC41 .V47 2002

                 

 

Feb. 10         Urbanism

 

                  Readings:        Ward-Perkins, Bryan.  "Continuitists, Catastrophists, and the Towns of Post-Roman Northern Italy," Papers of the British School at Rome 65 (1997):  157-176.  PDF

                                          Carver, M. O. H.  Arguments in stone:  archaeological research and the European town in the first millennium.  Oxford:  Oxbow, 1993.  reserve CC175. C37. 1993

                                                                        or

                                          Verhulst, Adriaan.  The Rise of Cities in Northwest Europe.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1999.  reserve HT131 .V467 1999

 

                  Book(s) for review:  

                                          Ward-Perkins, Bryan.  From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Urban Public Building in Northern and Central Italy, A.D. 300-850.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.  reserve NA4303.I8 W37 1984

                                          McCormick, Michael.  Eternal Victory:  Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Early Medieval West.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1986.  reserve DG89 .M25 1986

                                          Squatriti, Paolo.  Water and Society in Early Medieval Italy, AD 400-1000.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1998.  reserve HD1697.I8 S6 1998

                 

 

Feb. 17         Ethnicity and Identity

 

                  Readings:        Geary, Patrick. "Ethnic identity as a situational construct in the Early Middle Ages." Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 113 (1983):  15-26. PDF

                                          Hines, John.  "The Becoming of the English:  Identity, Material Culture and Language in Early Anglo-Saxon England."  Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 7 (1994):  49-59. PDF

                                          Wolfram, Herwig, "Origo et religio.  Ethnic traditions and literature in early medieval texts."  Early Medieval Europe 3.1 (1994):  19-38.  online through IUCAT

                                          Pohl, Walter.  "Telling the Difference:  Signs of Ethnic Identity," in Walter Pohl and Helmut Reimitz, eds.  Strategies of Distinction:  The Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300-800, pp. 17-69.  Leiden:  Brill, 1998.  PDF

                                          Gillett, Andrew.  "Ethnogenesis:  a Contested Model of Early Medieval Europe."  History Compass 4.2 (2006):  241-260.  PDF

                                          Curta, Florin.  "Some remarks on ethnicity in medieval archaeology."  Early Medieval Europe 15 (2007):  159-185.  online

 

                  Book(s) for review:

                                          Amory, Patrick.  People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.  reserve DG504 .A56 1997

                                          Effros, Bonnie. Merovingian mortuary archaeology and the making of the early Middle Ages.  Berkeley:  University of California Press, 2003.  reserve GT3180 .E34 2003

 

                 

Feb. 24         Christianity and the Church      

                  Preliminary Bibliography Due

 

                  Readings:        Herrin, Judith.  The Formation of Christendom, rev. ed.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. reserve BR232 .H47 1989

                                                                        or

                                          Brown, Peter Robert Lamont.  The rise of Western Christendom:  triumph and diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition.  Blackwell Publishers, 2003.  reserve BR162.2 .B76 2003

                                         

                  Book(s) for review:  

                                          Russell, J. C.  The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1994.  reserve BR203 .R87 1994

                                          Markus, Robert A.  Gregory the Great and His World.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1996.  reserve BX1076 .M37 1997

                                          McKitterick, Rosamond.  The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms 789-895.  London:  Royal Historical Society, 1977.  reserve BR255 .M32 1977

                                          Noble, Thomas F. X.  The Republic of St Peter, the Birth of the Papal State 680-825.  Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.  reserve DG797.1 .N62 1984

                                          Rosenwein, Barbara H.  Negotiating Space. Power, Restraint and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe.  Ithaca:  Cornell University Press, 1999.  reserve JC116.I3 R67 1999

 

 


Mar. 3          Saints and Popular Religion     

 

                  Readings:        Brown, Peter R. L.  The Cult of the Saints: its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1981.  IUCAT E-book

                                                            or

                                          Flint, Valerie I. J.  The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1991.  reserve

 

                  Book(s) for review:

                                          Head, Thomas.  Hagiography and the Cult of Saints:  the Diocese of Orleans 800-1200.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1990.  reserve BX4659.F8 H43 1990

                                          Van Dam, Raymond.  Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1993. IUCAT E-book

                                          Geary, Patrick.  Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1990.  IUCAT E-book

 

 

Mar. 10        Islam and the European Middle Ages  

 

                  Readings:        Bulliet, R.  Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period:  an Essay in Quantitative History.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press, 1979.  IUCAT E-book

                                          Humphreys, R. S.  Islamic History:  A Framework for Inquiry.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1991.  Wells reserve Z3014.H55 H85 1991  read chs. 1-4

                 

SPRING BREAK

 

Mar. 24        Women and Gender     

 

                  Readings:        Bitel, Lisa M.  Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400-1100.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2002.  reserve HQ1147.E85 B57 2002

 

                  Book(s) for review:

                                          Arjava, A.  Women and Law in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1996.  IUCAT E-book

                                          Schulenberg, Jane.  Forgetful of their Sex:  Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1998. reserve BR195.W6 S38 1998

                                          Lynch, Joseph H.  Godparents and Kinship in Early Medieval Europe.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1986.  reserve BV1478 .L96 1986

 

 

Mar. 31        Orality vs. Literacy       

 

                  Readings:        McKitterick, Rosamond.  The Carolingians and the Written Word.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1989.   IUCAT E-book

                                          Richter, Michael.  The Oral Tradition in the Early Middle Ages.  Typologie des sources du moyen Âge occidental, 71.  Turnhout:  Brepols, 1994.   reserve Z6203 .T992 fasc.71

 

                  Book(s) for review:

                                          Geary, Patrick.  Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1994. IUCAT E-book

                                          Goffart, Walter A.  The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550-800):  Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1988. IUCAT E-book

                                          McKitterick, Rosamond.  Charlemagne:  the Formation of a European Identity.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.  reserve DC73 .M38 2008

                                          Story, Joanna.  Carolingian Connections:  Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia c. 750-870.  Aldershot:  Ashgate, 2003.  reserve DA152.2 .S76 2003

                 

 

Apr. 7           Social change:  Peasants and the Rural Economy

                        paper proposals due

 

                  Readings:        White, Lynn T.  Medieval Technology and Social Change.  Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1962.  IUCAT E-book:  reach ch. 2

                                          Wickham, Chris.  "The Other Transition: From the Ancient World to Feudalism," Past and Present 103 (1984):  3-36.  JSTOR                     

                                          Brunner, Karl.  "Continuity and Discontinuity of Roman Agricultural Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages."  In Del Sweeney, ed., Agriculture in the Middle Ages - Technology, Practice, and Representation, pp. 21-40.  Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.  PDF

                                          Devroey, Jean-Pierre.  "Men and Women in Early Medieval Serfdom:  the Ninth-Century North Frankish Evidence."  Past and Present 166 (2000):  3-30.  JSTOR

                                          Sarris, Peter, ed. Aristocrats, Peasants and the Transformation of Rural Society, c. 400–800  Journal of Agrarian Change 9.1 (2009).  Read P. Sarris, "Introduction," pp. 3-22, and Jairus Banaji, "Aristocracies, Peasantries and the Framing of the Early Middle Ages," pp. 59-91.  online through IUCAT

                 

                  Book(s) for review:

                                          Bois, Guy.  La mutation de l'an mil:  Lournand, village maconnais de l'Antiquité au féodalisme.  Paris:  Fayard, 1989.  reserve DC801.L886 B7 1989

                                          Bonnassie, Pierre.  From Slavery to Feudalism in South-Western Europe.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1991.  reserve HT757 .B66 1991

                                          Thomas N. Bisson, "The 'Feudal Revolution'", Past and Present 142 (1994):  6-42; and the responses by:  Dominique BarthŽlemy, Past and Present 152 (1996):  196-205; Stephen White, Past and Present 152 (1996):  205-223; Timothy Reuter, Past and Present 155 (1997):  177-195; Chris Wickham, Past and Present 155 (1997):  195-208; and Thomas Bisson, Past and Present 155 (1997):  208-225.  JSTOR

 

 

Apr. 14         Social change:  the "feudalism" question, part 2        

 

                  Readings:        Brown, Elizabeth A. R. "The Tyranny of a Construct:  Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe."  American Historical Review  79 (1974): 1063-1088.  JSTOR

                                          Reynolds, Susan.  Fiefs and Vassals:  the Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1994. IUCAT E-book:  read chs. 1-5

 

 

Apr. 21         Social change:  the "feudalism" question, part 3        

                 

                  Readings:        White, Lynn T.  Medieval Technology and Social Change.  Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1962. IUCAT E-book:  reach chapter 1

                                          Bachrach, Bernard. "Charles Martel, Mounted Shock Combat, the Stirrup, and Feudalism," Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 7 (1970): 49-75.  PDF

 

 

Apr. 28         Student presentations  

 

                 

 

Term papers due the assigned final exam slot, Friday, May 7, at 7:15 p.m.

 

 

 

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A list of surveys and textbooks:

Angenendt, Arnold.  Das Frühmittelalter:  die abendländische Christenheit von 400 bis 900.  Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1990.

Brown, Peter Robert Lamont.  The rise of Western Christendom:  triumph and diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition.  Blackwell Publishers, 2003.

Collins, Roger.  Early Medieval Europe 300-1000, 2nd ed.  Basinstoke:  Palgrave, 1999. 

Davis-Weyer, Caecilia.  Early Medieval Art, 300-1150.  Sources and Documents in the History of Art.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall, 1971.  Medieval Academy reprints for teaching, 1986.

Dhondt, Jan and Michel Rouche.  Le haut Moyen Âge:  VIIIe-XIe siècles. Paris:  Bordas, 1976.

Diebold, William.  Word and Image:  An Introduction to Early Medieval Art.  [600-1050]  Boulder, CO:  Westview Press, 2000.

The New Cambridge Medieval History:  vol. 1: c. 500-c. 700, ed. Paul Fouracre (2005); vol. 2:  c. 700-c. 900, ed. Rosamond McKitterick (1995); vol. 3:  c. 900-c. 1024, ed. Timothy Reuter (2000).  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.

Fried, Johannes. Die Formierung Europas, 840-1046.  München : Oldenbourg, 1991.  Wells

Heitz, Carol.  La France pré-romane:  archéologie et architecture religieuse du Haut Moyen Âge, IVe siècle-an Mille.  Paris:  Errance, 1987.

Innes, Matthew.  Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300-900 – The Sword, The Plough And the Book.  London:  Routledge, 2007. 

Le Jan, Régine.  La société du haut Moyen Âge:  VIe-IXe siècle. Paris:  A. Colin, 2003.

McClendon, Charles. The Origins of Medieval Architecture:  Building in Europe, A.D. 600-900.  New Haven:  Yale University Press, 2005.

McCormick, Michael.  Origins of the European Economy:  Communications and Commerce AD 300-900.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2001.

McKitterick, Rosamond, ed.  The Early Middle Ages:  Europe 400-1000.  Oxford University Press, 2001.

Riché, Pierre.  Écoles et enseignement dans le Haut Moyen Age:  fin du Ve siècle - milieu du XIe siècle.  Paris:  Picard, 1989. 

Rouche, Michel. Histoire du Moyen Âge, vol. 1, VIIe-Xe siècle. Brussels:  Éditions Complexe, 2005. 

Smith, Julia M. H.  Europe after Rome:  a new cultural history 500-1000.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2005.  

Wallace-Hadrill, J. M.  The Barbarian West, 400-1000.  Oxford:  B. Blackwell, 1996.

Wickham, Chris.  Framing the Early Middle Ages:  Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2005.

Wickham, Chris.  The Inheritance of Rome:  Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000.  Harmondsworth:  Penguin, 2009.


Journals

Studi Medievali, Ser. 3, Spoleto, Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, vol. 1 (1960) - vol. 50 (2009) +

Frühmittelalterliche Studien, Jahrbuch des Instituts für Frühmittelalterforschung der Universität Münster, vol. 1 (1967) - vol. 42 (2008) +

Anglo-Saxon England, vol. 1 (1972) - vol. 37 (2009) +

Early Medieval Europe, "from the later Roman Empire to the eleventh century", vol. 1 (1992) - vol. 17 (2009) +

Antiquité Tardive, Association pour l'Antiquité Tardive, vol. 1 (1992) - vol. 15 (2007) +

Journal of Late Antiquity, "ca. AD 250-800", vol. 1 (2008) - vol. 2 (2009) +

 

Book series

Atti delle Settimane di Studio, Spoleto, Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo (http://www.cisam.org/index.php), vol. 1 (1954)-vol. 56 (2009)

Transformation of the Roman World, 14 vols., Brill, 1997-2004, "from the Late Roman Empire to the Early Middle Ages (4th-8th centuries) in Western and Central Europe"; continued as Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages, "from the late Roman Empire to the tenth century"

Brepols, Studies in the Early Middle Ages (Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York), 2000+ (23 vols. published to date)

 


Regional Histories (in English)

Arnold, C. J.  An Archaeology of the early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.  London:  Routledge, 1988.

Brown, Thomas S.  Early Medieval Italy 600-1216.  Harlow:  Addison Wesley Longman Higher Education, 2004.

Collins, Roger.  Early Medieval Spain:  Unity in Diversity, 400-1000, 2nd Edition.  New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1995

Collins, Roger.  Visigothic Spain 409-711.  Oxford:  Blackwell, 2004.

Curta, Florin.  Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Curta, Florin.  The Making of the Slavs - History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region c.500-700.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Drinkwater, J.  and H. Elton (eds.) Fifth-Century Gaul – A Crisis of Identity?  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Geary, Patrick.  Before France and Germany.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1988.

Glick, Thomas F.  Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages:  Comparative Perspectives on Social and Cultural Formation.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1979.

Haldon, John. Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Heather, Peter, ed.  The Visigoths from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century – An Ethnographic Perspective.  Woodbridge:  Boydell, 1999.

Hunter Blair, Peter.  An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2003.  (orig. pub. 1956).

James, Edward.  The Franks.  Oxford:  Blackwell, 1988.

Kennedy, Hugh.  The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: the Islamic Near East from the sixth to the eleventh century.  London:  Longman, 1986.

La Rocca, Cristina, ed.  Italy in the Early Middle Ages.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2002.

Merrills, A.H., ed.  Vandals, Romans and Berbers.  New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa.  Burlington, VT:  Ashgate, 2004.

Moorhead, John.  Theodoric in Italy.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1993. 

Nelson, Janet L.  The Frankish world, 750-900.  London:  Hambledon, 1996.

Pohl, Walter. Die Awaren : ein Steppenvolk im Mitteleuropa, 567-822 n. Chr.  Munich:  Beck, 1988.

Reuter, Timothy.  Germany in the Early Middle Ages.  London:  Longman, 1992.

Stenton, F. M.  Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1947.

Wickham, Chris.  Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400-1000.  Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press, 1981

Wolfram, Herwig.  A History of the Goths.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1989.

Wood, Ian, ed.  Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period:  An Ethnographic Perspective.  Woodbridge:  Boydell, 1996.

Wood, Ian.  The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751.  London:  Longman, 1993.