The English Historical Review Advance Access originally published online on November 17, 2008
The English Historical Review 2008 CXXIII(505):1506-1508; doi:10.1093/ehr/cen306
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© Oxford University Press 2008. All rights reserved.
Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300-900: The Sword, the Plough, and the Book
California Institute of Technology
Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300–900: The Sword, the Plough, and the Book, by Matthew Innes (London: Routledge, 2007; pp. xvi + 552. Pb. £19.99).
This is not a normal textbook of early medieval history. To begin with, Matthew Innes defines the early middle ages in an unusual way. He begins early, in the era of Constantine, to explore the Christian Roman world from which the barbarian kingdoms of the west emerged. He also ends early, at that moment when west Frankish aristocrats began replacing the heirs of Charlemagne with kings from among their own ranks. By this point, he argues, power had come to depend not on income derived from Roman fiscal or economic structures but rather on the direct possession and exploitation of land. This schema explains the book's subtitle. While the phrase ‘the Sword, the Plough, and the Book’ represents a tip of the hat to E. Gellner's Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human History (1988; rev. ante, cvii [1992], 421), it also evokes the idea of the three orders of medieval society, the fighters, farmers, and prayers, that emerged in the late ninth century and that reflected a new economic, social, and political reality (pp. 12, 544).
It makes good sense to anchor the history of early medieval Europe in that of the Mediterranean world; this strategy enables the author to make it clear, for example, how much European developments depended on Byzantine and Islamic precedent and influence. At the same time, however, it makes for a very big book. Only after five of the eleven chapters does Innes focus on Europe proper. Even then his field of view remains wide, covering Spain, Italy, Britain and Ireland as well as Gaul and Germany. In the final three chapters, Innes concentrates on Frankish Europe and in particular on the Carolingians, whose achievement, he concludes, forged Europe's later medieval identity.
Each chapter begins with a summary and a timeline. The chapter texts are interspersed with separate short essays on specific topics, such as Gothic identity and material culture (pp. 153-5) or Carolingian palaces (pp. 430-2). The chapters end with extensive bibliographical essays that survey, organise, and digest the relevant scholarship and list the primary sources available in English. These essays alone are worth the price of admission. They offer comprehensive and extremely valuable gateways to the most recent research. They also highlight the book's raison d’être: to synthesise this scholarship into a coherent grand narrative. Innes deserves applause for this effort; an attempt on this scale to survey the flowering of innovative work in early medieval studies over the last few decades, and use it to rewrite the narrative of the period, is overdue.
However, this is not a book designed to teach the controversies. Innes unapologetically takes the most progressive and revisionist positions possible on almost all of the hot-button issues in the field. He argues whenever possible for continuity and gradual transition rather than abrupt change; given a choice, he plays down drama, crisis, or massive upheaval. To take but a few examples from very many: the deposition of the last western emperor in 476 was simply one, not particularly significant, point in a process that saw the western Empire gradually dissolve from the inside (pp. 122–3). Barbarian ethnic identities were not biological realities; instead, they were constructed around quasi-legendary origin traditions preserved by a few leaders and adopted by those who elected to join them (passim). The Lombards did not erupt onto the Italian stage after the Byzantines destroyed the Ostrogothic kingdom but rather emerged over a period of time in the context of Byzantine diplomacy; their hegemony in northern Italy developed from a long involvement in Italian politics (p. 240). The instructions left by the west-Frankish Carolingian Charles the Bald in 877, that any counts who died while he was in Italy were to be replaced by their sons, reveal that, in the normal course of things, heredity of office was not automatic (p. 510). Carolingian kingship functioned effectively throughout the ninth century; Frankish magnates tied their loyalties to Carolingian kings in exchange for patronage and participation in decision-making. Only when Charles the Fat left no heirs did magnates decide to elevate men from their own ranks to regional kingships. These new kings were still seen as necessary, but they lacked the legitimacy that had given the late Carolingians their authority (pp. 532–4).
The written sources are as much a part of Innes's story as the human actors; Innes spends a great deal of time showing his readers just how problematic are the sources and how much the problems they pose influence the conclusions that can be drawn from them. He also draws heavily on economic history and on archaeology; his book offers a particularly good introduction to the power of archaeology when it is used alongside more familiar sources.
Innes's prose is for the most part clear and easy to read, though on occasion the going gets tough because of the sheer breadth of material being covered. The text is occasionally marred by proofreading errors that in some places affect its meaning (cf. p. 440, bottom: policies could be ‘reserved’ instead of ‘reversed’). The book will likely come under the most fire, however, for the characteristic which is also one of its greatest strengths: the way in which Innes has nailed his flag to the revisionist mast. Repeated no-holds-barred phrases such as ‘...it is time to kick the habit of discussing the economic transformation of the sixth to eighth centuries in terms of the "Pirenne thesis"’ (p. 188) positively invite criticism from scholars who do not yet accept the arguments for continuity and gradual transformation which Innes has woven together. Moreover, Innes does not always take note of the opposition or deal with possible questions. For example, though he mentions Bryan Ward-Perkins's The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (2005) in his introduction, the work is conspicuously absent from his bibliographical essay on the ‘fall of Rome’, where it would have been most useful. When he talks about the ‘Slavicization’ of former Roman provinces in south-central Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries, he makes it seem entirely a consequence of particular patterns of agrarian settlement that emerged in a particular geographical context after a particularly rapid disappearance of Roman provincial organisation. He does not take on natural questions students might ask about the ways in which culture or language might have contributed to a Slavic identity, even without assuming a biological component (cf. p. 197).
These critiques notwithstanding, Innes has done early medieval scholarship a great service. By surveying and synthesising recent research covering such a long period, his book will help others to connect the dots and draw conclusions of their own. For example, I found my attention drawn repeatedly to people's desire for an active and accessible ruler, protector, and patron who could provide stability and the fruits of power. This desire appears from Innes's account to have been just as present in the Roman provinces of the late third century as it was in early Frankish Gaul in the sixth or in west Francia in the ninth. The motor for much of Innes's story in fact seems to be the way in which it was manifested and satisfied in different and changing contexts.
In my opinion, therefore, this is a very important book. It is an excellent resource for teachers and students. It also gives students and scholars a valuable entrée into the most controversial areas of early medieval studies. Even if one does not accept all of Innes’s arguments and conclusions, his thorough coverage and extensive bibliographies provide immediate and up-to-date access to the latest work and discussions; the very breadth of his narrative will force scholars to confront and grapple with their implications.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||