The Inheritance of Rome

May 9, 2024 10:46 AM

Author:Chris Wickham

The idea that with the decline of the Roman Empire Europe entered into some immense ‘dark age’ has long been viewed as inadequate by many historians. How could a world still so profoundly shaped by Rome and which encompassed such remarkable societies as the Byzantine, Carolingian and Ottonian empires, be anything other than central to the development of European history? How could a world of so many peoples, whether expanding, moving or stable, of Goths, Franks, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, whose genetic and linguistic inheritors we all are, not lie at the heart of how we understand ourselves?

The Inheritance of Rome is a work of remarkable scope and ambition. Drawing on a wealth of new material, it is a book which will transform its many readers’ ideas about the crucible in which Europe would in the end be created. From the collapse of the Roman imperial system to the establishment of the new European dynastic states, perhaps this book’s most striking achievement is to make sense of an immensely long period of time, experienced by many generations of Europeans, and which, while it certainly included catastrophic invasions and turbulence, also contained long periods of continuity and achievement.

From Ireland to Constantinople, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this is a genuinely Europe-wide history of a new kind, with something surprising or arresting on every page.

Reviews

The most up-to-date account of Antony and Cleopatra, one of the most famous love stories of all time . . . tirelessly documented through original source documents that are used to explode some common myths.

—— Big Issue magazine

Her research is careful and deep; her prose is lively and graceful; her sympathy for her central character is strong but wholly without sentimentality; her depiction of the worlds in which Cleopatra lived is detailed, textured and evocative. If there is a better book about Cleopatra for today's reader, I don't know what it is.

—— Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley

a fascinating and at times gruesome and moving read, and is an ideal introduction to the whole subject of the SOE...thoroughly recommended

—— BBC Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

A startlingly revisionist book... The most provocative and clear-eyed history of the party yet... It is a tribute to Pugh's scholarship that almost everybody will learn something new from this thoughtful book

—— Dominic Sandbrook , Sunday Times

A stimulating survey

—— Kenneth O'Morgan , Literary Review

A timely book... colourful, frequently entertaining

—— Daily Telegraph

Worth it for serious students

—— Ann Treneman , The Times

Solid and lasting...thoroughly resourced and researched

—— Anthony Howard , Sunday Telegraph

The appalling end of the last Romanov and his enchanting family is well described by Helen Rappaport ... Utilising sources only recently accessible, she traces the story from abdication to slaughter, including much fascinating detail...

—— Literary Review

Rappaport exhumes the last days of the Romanovs and, relying on archival sources and neglected memoirs, tries to offer the most up-to-date account possible... Vivid...

—— Scotland on Sunday

Eminently readable but still fastidiously researched, no compromising on scholarly or evidence-based investigation... There is a very powerful sense that you are reading the words of someone who is witnessing the sights and sounds of the place first hand, is returning to primary sources and conjuring up the atmosphere with an accomplished writer's eye. The trouble with reading any book about the Romanovs is the sure and certain knowledge of how it will end, yet despite this the book feels fresh and spell-binding ... Compelling reading

—— dovegreyreader.com

Utterly absorbing, a really good read, sensitive and balanced and surely the definitive last word on the subject

—— Dr Harry Shukman, Emeritus Fellow of Modern Russian History, St Antony’s College Oxford

Rappaport narrates her story in an original fashion, focusing on the final two weeks inside the Ipatiev House before the murders

—— Times Literary Supplement

Brilliantly shows how history is never simple but always enthralling when written with this style

—— The Bookseller

Extraordinary and powerful ... Having uncovered enlightening new sources, Rappaport has produced a highly accessible account of the last 14 days in the lives of the former tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their children

—— Western Daily Press

Riveting account of turbulence, social upheaval and murder in early 20th-century Russia, which draws on new evidence uncovered in the icy, remote city where Tsar Nicholas and his family met their bloody deaths. Juxtaposing fascinating domestic details with analysis of the international political scene, the author strips away the romance of their incarceration and the mythology surrounding their murders to reveal an extraordinary human situation and its seismic worldwide repercussions

—— Sainsbury’s Magazine

Rappaport precisely imagines those last few days ... As the pages turn quickly towards an end that is never in doubt, a picture emerges of a devout, loving and rather commonplace family

—— Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

The great strength of Rappaport's book is her tight focus on the royal family's final three months in the Iaptiev House... She has told the human story, and the truly appalling tale of what man can do to man

—— Independent (Ireland)

A tragic and thrilling account ... Ekaterinburg is really a twofold triumph for Helen Rappaport ... On top of the impressive level of research that Rappaport has conducted in order to produce Ekaterinburg, she also has an excellent and engaging writing style and succeeds in maintaining the tension and mood throughout ... Gritty and compelling

—— suite101.com

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