Framing the early Middle Ages : Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800

"In Framing the early middle ages Chris Wickham links documentary and archaeological evidence together, and creates a comparative history of the period 400-800. He sets out thematic analysis of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt. The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes: states and their funding, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are discussed region by region, in a way not attempted before. Wickham argues that, without this, the broader development of Europe and the Mediterranean cannot be properly understood."--BOOK JACKET.  Read more...
States --
Geography and politics --
The form of the state --
Aristocratic power-structures --
Aristocracies --
Managing the land --
Political breakdown and state-building in the North --
Peasantries --
Peasants and local societies: case studies --
Rural settlement and village societies --
Peasant society and its problems --
Networks --
Cities --
Systems of exchange --
General conclusions.