The Inheritance of Rome
Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000
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Narrated by:
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James Cameron Stewart
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By:
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Chris Wickham
About this listen
Prizewinning historian Chris Wickham defies the conventional view of the Dark Ages in European history with a work of remarkable scope and rigorous yet accessible scholarship. Drawing on a wealth of new material and featuring a thoughtful synthesis of historical and archaeological approaches, Wickham argues that these centuries were critical in the formulation of European identity. Far from being a middle period between more significant epochs, this age has much to tell us in its own right about the progress of culture and the development of political thought.
Sweeping in its breadth, Wickham's incisive history focuses on a world still profoundly shaped by Rome, which encompassed the remarkable Byzantine, Carolingian, and Ottonian empires, and peoples ranging from Goths, Franks, and Vandals to Arabs, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings.
Digging deep into each culture, Wickham constructs a vivid portrait of a vast and varied world stretching from Ireland to Constantinople, the Baltic to the Mediterranean. The Inheritance of Rome brilliantly presents a fresh understanding of the crucible in which Europe would ultimately be created.
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The Civilization of the Middle Ages incorporates current research, recent trends in interpretation, and novel perspectives, especially on the foundations of the Middle Ages and the Later Middle Ages of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A sharper focus on social history, Jewish history, women’s roles in society, and popular religion and heresy distinguish the book.
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Recommended for students
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In God's Path
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- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
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In just over a hundred years - from the death of Muhammad in 632 to the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 - the followers of the Prophet swept across the whole of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. Their armies threatened states as far flung as the Franks in Western Europe and the Tang Empire in China. The conquered territory was larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest expansion, and it was claimed for the Arabs in roughly half the time.
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Islamic conquest history from the outside
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Does exactly what it claims to clarify
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In this Captivating History audiobook, you will discover how important the Sasanian Empire was to history and how their legacy became an integral part of what we today think of as Islamic culture.
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A Useful Survey of an Important Empire.
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A classic of Japanese history, this audiobook is the preeminent work on the history of Japan. Newly revised and updated, A History of Japan is a single-volume complete history of the nation of Japan. Starting in ancient Japan during its early pre-history period, A History of Japan covers every important aspect of history and culture through feudal Japan to the post-Cold War period and collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. Recent findings shed additional light on the origins of Japanese civilization and the birth of Japanese culture.
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Content great - pronunciation not so much
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The Missing Years
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Although frequently vilified, Iran is a nation of great intellectual variety and depth, and one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world. Its political impact has been tremendous, not only on its neighbors in the Middle East but also throughout the world. From the time of the prophet Zoroaster, to the powerful ancient Persian Empires, to the revolution of 1979, the hostage crisis, and the current standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Michael Axworthy vividly depicts the nation’s rich history.
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Lazy Narration
- By Arya Pourtabatabaie on 11-05-16
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Until about 1800, the West and the Islamic realm were like two adjacent, parallel universes, each assuming itself to be the center of the world while ignoring the other. As Europeans colonized the globe, the two world histories intersected and the Western narrative drove the other one under. The West hardly noticed, but the Islamic world found the encounter profoundly disrupting.
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A history of the world before the West mattered
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Ancient Rome
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Great review and understanding of Christianity
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Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
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Few forests, but lots of trees
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What listeners say about The Inheritance of Rome
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DJ
- 01-24-22
A Magisterial Survey
Every so often, you read a work of history in which the author manages to combine breadth and depth sufficiently successfully that you're not sure whether you've read a survey or a detailed analysis. Chris Wickham's "The Inheritance of Rome" is one such book. Wickham covers a temporal span of 600 years and a geographic span from Iberia to Iran, and from Egypt to England. His basic thesis -- that the early Middle Ages were neither a complete break from the Roman world nor a seamless transition from it, but rather a sort of cracked mirror of the Western Empire, mimicking many of its aspects in smaller, more fragmented form -- is given enough support to see the theme across various times and places. At the same time, however, he is quick to point out circumstances where the data don't fit the mold, and to make clear that it is the mold, not the data, which must give way. Particularly interesting is his analysis of the later part of this period, where the effects of the collapse of Abbasid and, more particularly, Carolingian power in some ways recapitulated, in smaller form, the effects of Roman decline. A couple of nits: sometimes, Wickham's neo-Marxist lens seems too heavy handed. There are a few too many references to the exploitation of the peasants by the aristocrats; more significantly (given that such exploitation did in fact occur), it is not until the Conclusion that he really undertakes to explain *why* this might happened, rather than presenting it as a historical inevitability. Also, the initial parts of the book, covering the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries, come across as rather fragmentary -- here they did this, there they did that -- but that is almost certainly a consequence of the equally fragmentary nature of the evidence. These are quibbles.
The narration, by James Cameron Stewart, is also excellent. His diction is clear, his pronunciations consistent (not an easy thing with so many places and names in so many languages). He conveys the sense of the text, as well as its content, something not all narrators do successfully. An amusing tic: Audiobooks are of course recorded in small sections. Stewart tends to speak both faster and at a rising pitch as a section goes on. When he picks up with what is obviously the next block of recording, the speed and pitch revert to baseline.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Diego Lira
- 10-05-20
Great book
I really liked how comprehensive this book is. You see lots of different perspectives, with due care taken to not generalize nor use anachronisms (e. g. Not using modern sensibilities to judge social hierarchy of the period).
The bad side is that it assumes some previous knowledge: Any reader looking for an introduction to the period will feel a bit lost after the author casually mentions Charles the Bald, Ottonians, Basel II and many others more famous figures as if their context is known. Maybe that's true if you went to school in Europe - I doubt it's true elsewhere.
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- stephen
- 02-12-19
Dry facts read without feeling
Gave up after a couple hours because it was mostly a litany of names and places read in a purely informational tone. Disappointing because I'm fascinated by this time period.Maybe it gets better as it goes along.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Justin A. Kalman
- 06-16-21
Marvelous and Staggered
I say in preface that this volume is instrumental to and understanding of medieval Europe, and has filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of the era. I’m extremely grateful to the author and glad for the read.
Be ready to adjust yourself to the broken cadence and style of the read. It can prove distracting, and breaks up the flow of information. You may require, as I did, several listens.
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- Lyle
- 02-26-24
In depth well defended and well defined in terms of scale. Successful in what it set out to do.
This reader has a particularly choppy style which always makes the books he reads less of a fluid listen than say Derek Perkins. In particular with the plethora of names and locations his rhythm takes away from this book.
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- Lady Wesley
- 02-02-22
Read, don’t listen
This book is long and dense and rather dull, and the narrator’s almost total lack of inflection makes it even duller. Nevertheless, I learned a lot about the era formerly known as the Dark Ages, and so I liked it overall.
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- Jefferson Garner Kent
- 05-13-19
Good Story
Makes use of limited sources in creative ways to make up for a lack of primary sources and evidence in a period that is not well known.
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- James
- 11-08-22
Basically just kings and battles for 600 years
This is all style history writing that gives you very little information about what happens below the level of royalty and aristocracy. This guy never heard of heard of Braudel. It really got tedious, especially his obsession with telling the listener what year this or that emperor, king or other potentate died. Pretty boring history of just political behavior and nothing about social life, technology and what life was really like during this period, it really wasn’t the dark ages, but this book makes it seem like it was.
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- C. Hager
- 08-20-24
Detailed History of the Early Roman Centuries
The book is comprehensive but goes into almost too much detail about the period. The narrator is precise but is very pedantic in tenor and droning in his tone.
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- Timothy
- 07-20-18
Wonderful book by a talented writer and historian
This is a wonderful book by a talented writer and historian. As the title suggests, the continuity between Roman times and the early middle ages is an important theme in the work. The author blends secular and ecclesiastical history together in a way that never becomes tedious and provides insight into both the eastern and western inheritance of Rome and the post-Roman Islamic world. It never bogs down in political history and gives the reader a view of the social and cultural history of the period. The narration is great, 32hrs by any single narrator can get stale, but this one never does. Highly recommended
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29 people found this helpful