Great historical narrative which leaves you hungry to learn more
I just finished this book and it is an excellent overview of Byzantine history, a subject which is undeservedly glossed over in American education. As other reviewers have noted, this is a condensation of a larger, 3-volume work. While this leads to a quick pace and a bit of confusion with the many similar sounding names (many Johns, Michaels and Irenes not to mention Andronici, Nicofori and of course a few Constantines), there is a perfect solution to those who are interested -- the longer 3 volume work. The maps and lineages in the first few pages are quite helpful, but in the end this confusion is the only thing forcing my review from 5 stars.
I find this is the perfect next step to those who re-discovered the Byzantines from Lars Brownsworth's excellent podcast on the subject. In fact, a fan of those lectures will find many a line lifted right out of the pages of the book. The book does, however, go into quite a bit more detail than the podcasts and I enjoyed having the outline Brownsworth provides being fleshed out into a rounder, more compelling narrative.
Excellent Abridgement
Byzantine history is, like the very word's now-definition, both complicated and slippery. John J. Norwich, however, did history a very great service when he devoted his academic life to the neglected history of this remarkable culture and long-lived empire. This book is, essentially, the "abridged" version of his three-volume masterwork. Indeed, it is because of the work of scholars like Norwich that the Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire, whichever you prefer), as against the powerful subjective dislike of the colussus Edward Gibbon, has finally begun to come into its own again in both European and world history.
This book is designed, specifically, to be a primer on Byzantine history, and to that end, it mashes a vast array of events and people into the space of a few hundred pages. This can be very disorienting and often requires "backtracking" to get the story straight in one's head. But, the quality of the scholarship is so superior, I do not think that is something the reader should mind too much. After all, this is the narrative of a society that survived for hundreds of years and suffered catastrophes that would have felled any lesser civilization, all, at the same time, achieving zeniths in architecture, mosaic art, religous thought, trade and commerce, and military technology unmatched by any other contemporaneous power until the rise of the Ottoman "gunpowder" state. Naturally, any abridgement is going to be rushed at points and some areas will get the short-shrift, lamentable casualties in any such undertaking. But for someone who wants a potent introduction to the Byzantines and their world, I cannot think of a better place to begin. And, it is punctuated by some personality sketches that break up what can be a sometime dry and intimidating read. It especially serves as a fantastic intro to Norwich's three volume history, which is not a set of works any serious student of early European or Middle Eastern history should be without.
Still, I give this book five stars for its breadth, ambition, amazing scholarship, and erudite presentation.
Recommend without reservation.
Byzantine - it's an adjective for a reason
Byzantium has had a bad rap, historically, ever since Gibbon (if not the Crusades). It seems a little unfair - while Rome was an underpopulated malarial swamp, prey to any barbarians who cared to sweep down from the north, the Roman Empire lived on for another thousand years. Even if they didn't speak a word of Latin.
Norwich is devoted to this history, and lovingly describes every heresy, invasion, rebellion, mutilation, fratricide, filicide, patricide and matricide (I don't recall any sororicide, but that may just be my memory). And this is just the condensed version. I shudder to think what horrors are contained in the three volume original.
He is a good storyteller, even if the judgments on whether this or that emperor achieved "true greatness" become a little tiresome. The problem is that it is just one damned thing after another. The broad sweep of Byzantine history - the crucial structures, personalities, and events that allowed the empire to last so long but eventually led to collapse - is hard to make out under all the bodies.
Doubtless this would change with a little more work on my part, but anything called 'A Short History' raises the lazy man's expectations for processed, bite-sized lessons. This book is more like reading a few dozen Darwin awards in one go.
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