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readingthroughthelists's review
4.0
“At any one time there will always be one or more discourses that dominate the way in which the past is being read. It is, therefore, not just the interpretation of individual events that should constantly be held up to scrutiny: so too should the more general discourse in which the interpretation is situated. What we do with the past and why we are doing it is a question that no one can afford to ignore.”
The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages provides an extensive (if not exhaustive) list of the major scholars who have contributed to the study of the Early Middle Ages from the 17th century to the present. While the book is long, the thesis is simple: every great scholar was influenced in his interpretation (Wood lists no female scholars), to a greater or lesser degree, by the age in which he lived. The question Wood addresses: what values were imparted by the age and how did they color each scholar’s interpretation of the facts?
Someone unfamiliar with modern discourse on the Early Middle Ages will probably get very little out of this book, but someone who has read a fair bit of it should find it interesting to trace our “modern” interpretations of the period back to their 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century roots.
I do wish Wood had focused more on “recent” (late 20th and 21st century) scholarship: his last chapter begins by referencing names like Chris Wickham and Guy Halsall, but then he goes straight into a discussion of museum exhibitions across Europe and never comes back to the present. Perhaps one can’t assign motivations to living scholars.
4 stars.
The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages provides an extensive (if not exhaustive) list of the major scholars who have contributed to the study of the Early Middle Ages from the 17th century to the present. While the book is long, the thesis is simple: every great scholar was influenced in his interpretation (Wood lists no female scholars), to a greater or lesser degree, by the age in which he lived. The question Wood addresses: what values were imparted by the age and how did they color each scholar’s interpretation of the facts?
Someone unfamiliar with modern discourse on the Early Middle Ages will probably get very little out of this book, but someone who has read a fair bit of it should find it interesting to trace our “modern” interpretations of the period back to their 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century roots.
I do wish Wood had focused more on “recent” (late 20th and 21st century) scholarship: his last chapter begins by referencing names like Chris Wickham and Guy Halsall, but then he goes straight into a discussion of museum exhibitions across Europe and never comes back to the present. Perhaps one can’t assign motivations to living scholars.
4 stars.
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