Book description
At the start of the first millennium AD, southern and western Europe
formed part of the Mediterranean-based Roman Empire, the largest state
western Eurasia has ever known, and was set firmly on a trajectory
towards towns, writing, mosaics, and central heating. Central, northern
and eastern Europe was home to subsistence farmers, living in wooden
houses with mud floors, whose largest political units weighed in at no
more than a few thousand people. By the year 1000, Mediterranean
domination of the European landscape had been destroyed. Instead of one
huge Empire facing loosely organised subsistence farmers, Europe - from
the Atlantic almost to the Urals - was home to an interacting
commonwealth of Christian states, many of which are still with us today
. This book tells the story of the transformations which changed western
Eurasia forever: of the birth of Europe itself. Peter Heather is
currently a Fellow of Medieval History at Worcester College, Oxford,
having previously taught at University College, London and Yale
University. He is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling
Fall of the Roman Empire
also published by Pan Macmillan.
