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Virtual Macedonia Bookstore - Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $18.70
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Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 949.502
EAN: 9780691131511
ISBN: 0691131511
Label: Princeton University Press
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 440
Publication Date: 2008-02-03
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Studio: Princeton University Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A Good Survey of the Subject
Comment: Because the Byzantine Empire lasted 1,129 years (from Constantine's founding of Constantinople in 324 AD to Sultan Mehmet II's capture of the city in 1453), the historian writing about the empire faces a daunting task. Write about it in the traditional chronological manner, and space limitations will force a laundry list approach with little meaningful content.
What Judith Herrin (a professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College, London) has elected to do instead is to break the subject down into 28 topics under 4 general subject headings and then deal with each topic chronologically:
I. FOUNDATIONS OF BYZANTIUM
1. The City of Constantine
2. Constantinople, the Largest City in Christendom
3. The East Roman Empire
4. Greek Orthodoxy
5. The Church of Hagia Sophia
6. The Ravenna Mosaics
7. Roman Law
II. THE TRANSITION FROM ANCIENT TO MEDIEVAL
8. The Bulwark Against Islam
9. Icons, a New Christian Art Form
10. Iconclasm and Icon Veneration
11. A Literate and Articulate Society
12. Saints Cyril and Methodios, `Apostles to the Slavs'
III BYZANTIUM BECOMES A MEDIEVAL STATE
13. Greek Fire
14. The Byzantine Economy
15. Eunuchs
16. The Imperial Court
17. Imperial Children, `Born in the Purple'
18. Mount Athos
19. Venice and the Fork
20. Basil II, `The Bulgar-Slayer'
21. Eleventh Century Crisis
22. Anna Komene
23. A Cosmopolitan Society
IV VARIETIES OF BYZANTIUM
24. The Fulcrum of the Crusades
25. The Towers of Trebizond, Arta, Nicaea and Thessalonike
26. Rebels and Patrons
27. `Better the Turkish Turban than the Papal Tiara'
28. The Siege of 1453
Conclusion: The Greatness and Legacy of Byzantium
The core of the book consists of 333 pages, which means that each topic is limited to an average of 12 pages. As a result, the writing is information-dense, slowing the reader's progress. Additionally, the author's writing style is academic (i.e., somewhat tedious), although the shortness of the chapters makes reading the book manageable.
There are 41 photographs of varying quality, many in black and white. They appear to have been chosen haphazardly. NOTE: A good source of high quality reproductions of Eastern Orthodox religious icons is Holy Image, Hallowed Ground (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum).
As the above discussion suggests, this is a book that will primarily interest an academic reader. Those interested in a more comfortable approach may wish to consider Kenneth Harl's excellent course for the Teaching Company
Great Courses World of Byzantium Parts 1 and 2 (365 and 366) (Teaching Company)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Quick Depth
Comment: Judith Herren's study of Byzantium is a quick jaunt into the stream of history for the novice or expert. Anecdotal but thorough, the book sweeps through more than a thousand years of history without pausing for tendentiousness. A fine book.
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Summary: Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
Comment: Well written and easy to read. Some interesting insights that I have not read in detailed accounts of Byzantine history.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A readable history of Byzantium
Comment: On page xiii, the author notes that a couple workers in hard hats, after having seen from her office door that she taught Byzantine history, wondered what Byzantine history was. She tried in a few minutes to explain, and they followed up by asking "why she didn't. . .write about it for them?" And, indeed, she decided to write this volume for a broader audience. Her goal in this book (Page xiv): ". . .I want you to understand how the modern western world, which developed from Europe, could not have existed had it not been shielded and inspired what happened further to the east in Byzantium."
Byzantium originated as the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, while Rome still stood as the center of the Western Empire. Over time, the Western Empire declined and fell (pace Gibbon). The book considers the evolution and development of Byzantium and the Eastern Empire from its start as a Roman bastion in the fourth century (under the Emperor Constantine, after whom the city Constantinople was named) to its final fall in 1453.
There is much material covered in this volume. It is not organized along a strictly chronological template, although there is some temporal ordering--from its foundations to the medieval era to its final demise. However, in each of these sections, there is coverage of a variety of aspects of the Eastern realm. The Foundations portion considers Greek Orthodoxy, the great churches, such as Hagia Sophia, continuing links with Rome and, after its fall, Italy, and Roman Law.
As we move toward the Medieval era, the author, Judith Herrin, points out the key role of Byzantium in protecting Europe from Islam, by standing as a bastion between Islam and Europe. Also considered is the art and religious artifacts (such as icons) of the Empire. Greek fire, a key part of Byzantium's defenses, is discussed, as are other factors such as the economy, politics, sometime internal instability as intrigues sometimes led to the replacement of one emperor by another.
Finally, the inevitable fall, as Byzantium became more and more compressed, surrounded by a new force--Turks. Finally, in 1453, the Turks with their heavy cannon, breached the walls of Byzantium and its existence as an independent state ended.
Some nice features: a list of many of the emperors and the dates of their rule (pages 354-356), a chronology of major events (pages 357-361), and fairly well drawn maps (pages 363-373).
There is, of course, so much more detail. The book is solidly written by Herrin (the words don't flow magically, but the language is accessible to most people). Her appraisal of the major role of Byzantium in western history goes into much greater depth than what I am able to mention. Each reader will have to determine how convincing her arguments are, as she strove the answer the two workers.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not a traditional history of the Byzantine Empire - it's a series of essays on different aspects of the Byzantine Empire
Comment: This not a history of the Byzantine Empire - rather it's a series of essays on different aspects of the Byzantine Empire with an overriding defensive attitude about the derogatory way the empire has been portrayed throughout history. The idea, apparently, is to try to present the important facets or characteristics of the empire in such a way that perhaps people who would not be interested in a straight history of the subject might be challenged to read about it, and change the attitude, which still prevails to a large extent, that there wasn't much to admire or even be interested in about the late Roman Empire which was ruled from Constantinople from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. Basically, it's a highbrow Complete Idiot's Guide to the Byzantine Empire.
That having been said, I like the strategy and I like the book. By skipping the chronological history of the empire (which at 1100 years takes a while to tell and buries anything really interesting) it picks and chooses aspects of the history, telling you why the empire was important. Whether it was Hagia Sophia, or iconoclasm, or eunuchs, or the siege of 1453, the two dozen or so things that are important are highlighted and given a chance to breathe.
My favorite (largely I think because of the music) history of Byzantium is still John Romer's TV series from about 1998, but this book adds quite a bit to it by providing if less poetic, more persuasive analysis of many issues.
For example, I never really understood before what the driving force behind iconoclasm was - Romer makes it seem just another random bizarre theological dispute - something the Byzantines were always prone to. Its advocates' motives are never really explained, and it's presented largely as the sort of tyrannical invasion on freedom of worship that we can be expected to abhore. Herrin, however, explains that it arose when the empire was sustaining repeated military defeats, and since God obviously would not allow his chosen to be defeated, there had to be some reason behind it - something the Byzantines were doing that they were being punished by God for. The emperor eventually decided that it had to be divine displeasure with the common practice of venerating or "worshiping" idols, which did admittedly have strong roots in pagan practice. From their perspective, iconoclasm made perfect sense as an attempt to get back into God's good graces. Far from a tyrannical whim, it was, from their perspective a responsible, and even a courageous act.
All in all, a good book, and a good addition to my growing library on Byzantium.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism--gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization. Avoiding a standard chronological account of the Byzantine Empire's millennium--long history, she identifies the fundamental questions about Byzantium--what it was, and what special significance it holds for us today. Bringing the latest scholarship to a general audience in accessible prose, Herrin focuses each short chapter around a representative theme, event, monument, or historical figure, and examines it within the full sweep of Byzantine history--from the foundation of Constantinople, the magnificent capital city built by Constantine the Great, to its capture by the Ottoman Turks. She argues that Byzantium's crucial role as the eastern defender of Christendom against Muslim expansion during the early Middle Ages made Europe--and the modern Western world--possible. Herrin captivates us with her discussions of all facets of Byzantine culture and society. She walks us through the complex ceremonies of the imperial court. She describes the transcendent beauty and power of the church of Hagia Sophia, as well as chariot races, monastic spirituality, diplomacy, and literature. She reveals the fascinating worlds of military usurpers and ascetics, eunuchs and courtesans, and artisans who fashioned the silks, icons, ivories, and mosaics so readily associated with Byzantine art. An innovative history written by one of our foremost scholars, Byzantium reveals this great civilization's rise to military and cultural supremacy, its spectacular destruction by the Fourth Crusade, and its revival and final conquest in 1453.
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