The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe)

Author - Peter Brown ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Wiley-Blackwell was reviewed on 4-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:0631221387 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe) Reference Book. Classifications : Europe History Humanities New & Used Textbooks Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books General AAS History Humanities New & Used Textbooks Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books Christianity Religious Stud . Click the following link to view the cover of The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe).

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1) Paperback Book The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe) by Wiley-Blackwell. This is great book, easy to read, well laid out and full of nice pictures. I did really enjoyed it, at least while it lasted. The book is not an absolute reference for the historical period but it has enough information to give the reader a good idea of the historical period and what was about! Mr. Brown did a excellent job, once again!¤

2) Paperback Book The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe) by Wiley-Blackwell. This book is wide ranging, well-written, and full of vivid detail. One of the most important aims of this book is to situate the history of the end of the Roman Empire in the west in its broader context and to trace how Christianity, particularly western Christianity, arose out of that wider context. It is a triumph in aiming at understanding how the people of a period viewed themselves. The views the Romans had of themselves in, say, 500 AD is an important grounding for the student who has been taught that civilization had ended by the last decade of the fifth century. This is too short a space to review the book properly, but I will add a more personal note to encourage the prospective reader: this book is a joy to read; Brown has a fine and distinctive style that mixes the concrete and the universal in a way few historians can. This is a history of ideas, more than anything, and the student of ideas will find the book worth its weight in gold.

It goes without saying that one can disagree with Brown on various points, but his achievement stands, criticism aside. I, for one, find that he emphasizes the growing Christian culture at the time to the expense of a realistic appraisal of the state of society after the last western emperor was deposed. One might read this book in conjunction with Ward-Perkins´ THE FALL OF ROME, which provides a detailed archaeological perspective.¤

3) Paperback Book The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe) by Wiley-Blackwell. I had this book for a class on Medieval Europe. This book was our main text for the first half of the course and I spent quite a bit of those two months reading this book... I probably would have liked this book more had I had longer to read and understand it. It´s arranged in a very confusing way and it´s terrible to write essays over. My professor said that Peter Brown is brilliant, and I think he probably really is. Unfortunatly, I was too lost to appreciate it. If things were arranged more chronologically and if some clear distinctions were made in people groups this book would be more greatly appreciated.¤

4) Paperback Book The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe) by Wiley-Blackwell. The book goes beyond the rather narrow sounding scope of the title; Brown nicely covers the changes in politics and economics that fostered (or hindered) the spead of Christianity from Ireland to the Middle East. The subject matter is cogently presented and enjoyable to read, unlike other scholarship of this era where authors tend to prove to the reader how much they know leaving the reader somewhat in the dust. Fascinating (at least to me!) is the number of texts that Brown cites that show the changes in orthodoxy from one century to another in various geographical areas, and how those texts came to be preserved. Conclusions are based on either these texts or archiology, not flights of a priori fantasy that all-too-often formed the basis for earlier works on this period. All in all, a book of great scholarship, but most approachable.¤

5) Paperback Book The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe) by Wiley-Blackwell. Let me say first that I have been a great admirer of Peter Brown for many years. His "World of Late Antiquity" was a seminal work that inspired a generation of scholars to look past the tired old concepts of the fall of the Roman empire, and his biography of Augustine, recently updated, is magnificent.

It was with some excitement then that I sat down to see what Brown had to say in a work that covers a larger span of time than most of his previous studies. And it was with a sinking heart that I realized, after a few pages, that this one-time master of prose has lost his way.

In his lengthy introduction, Brown seems determined to undermine every preconception we may have about Europe´s evolution in late antiquity and the early middle ages. To reinforce his point, he puts quotation marks around a myriad of words and phrases: "Roman", "barbarian", "imperial", "Western." For a page or two this seems like a reasonable way of signalling that these words may not mean what we think they mean. But the trouble is, he never stops: the quotation marks multiply, sometimes occurring a dozen times on a page, and seldom less than once per paragraph. And it becomes impossible to know what he is trying to signify. If he finds words like "Roman" and "barbarian" useful, why doesn´t he simply define what he means by them, rather than distancing himself from them? It seems pointless to contrast barbarian and Roman, if you believe that the one is not really barbarian, and the other not really Roman.

And it gets worse. What are we to make of the fact that Irish kings ruled over "plains"? Do the quotation marks signify that the kings called them by that term (or its Gaelic equivalent), or that they were not really plains? Why the quotes around "Carolingian minuscule", not just on introduction but in subsequent references -- was the script not truly Carolingian, or not truly minuscule?

I don´t know who should take the most blame here, Brown for repeatedly flagging words as not meaning what we think they mean, without bothering to find alternatives that he feels are more accurate, or his editor for letting him get away with it.

I realize other readers may not be as bothered by this sort of thing as I am, but I found it baffling and, ultimately, offputting. I seldom return a book, and I never thought I would return one of Peter Brown´s, but that is what I did in this case.


¤

6) Paperback Book The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd Edition (The Making of Europe) by Wiley-Blackwell. This book offers a vivid, compelling history of the first thousand years of Christianity. For the second edition, the book has been thoroughly rewritten and expanded. It includes two new chapters, as well as an extensive preface in which the author reflects on the scholarly traditions which have influenced his work and explains his current thinking about the book´s themes.

• New edition of popular account of the first 1000 years of Christianity.
  
• Thoroughly rewritten, with extensive new preface of author´s current thinking.
  
• Includes new maps, substantial bibliography, and numerous chronological tables.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 1-Nov-2008, 06312213879780631221388, 940-300-290-350-730-870-8

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