A review by dustyduck
The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400-1000 by

4.0

This book is an admirable effort and reconciling breadth and depth- something very tricky with a period as broad as this. Beginning with a few identities: geographical, Roman continuity, Latin Christendom, McKitterick and four other specialists use few broad lenses to give an impression of Europe. This is done through some very uncontroversial angles: Politics, Society, Economics, Religion, Culture, and interaction with the wider world. In the space of about 30 pages per chapter, there's a good mix of examples from the 6 centuries this book encompasses, as well as fair attempts by the author to give some caveats and exceptions.

To me, some chapters are better than others: Politics and Economics are quite well-written, but other portions (e.g culture) tend to cover more narrow areas, in my opinion. It's both a limitation of the source material, but there's not much explanation in these weaker chapters as to why the author has focused on such areas.

In any case, a good overview and introductory text. This is my first foray into medieval history for my upcoming undergraduate studies, and I'm intending to do so chronologically. This has given me a good starting point to research more into areas that interest me, and Oxford University Press once again delivers with a well-researched primer.