The Inheritance of Rome

The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 is a 2009 history book by English historian Christopher Wickham at the University of Oxford. It is a broad history of the Early Middle Ages, the period after what is commonly called the fall of the Western Roman Empire (though multiple reviewers argue Wickham is critical of the view that Rome fell). The book received mostly positive reviews.

Reception

A reviewer at the University of Oxford said Wickham's analysis is potent for challenging "two of the predominant misconceptions held about the Middle Ages; firstly, that the 10 centuries or so that spanned between the fall of Rome and Renaissance were wholly unsophisticated and brutal [...] and secondly that this period acted as the birthing of what we may call a 'modern nation'". The reviewer also called the book "remarkably easy to pick up and read [...] a gentle but engaging introduction into [the] period".

John R. Vallely of the Historical Novel Society said that while the book is for somewhat knowledgeable readers rather than novices, such readers "will be impressed at his analysis of a world staggered by political turbulence but resilient in its response." Tyler Cowen lauded it as one of the best history books he had ever read, praising its “[fluid] integration of historical and archeological sources” and its “illuminating discussion of how family control made it incentive-compatible to invest so much wealth in monasteries”, among other things.

In The Telegraph, Dominic Sandbrook dubbed The Inheritance of Rome a "worthy competitor" to Gibbon's history, commending "Wickham's awe-inspiring command of his sources" and "vast geographical and comparative range, so that we get a sense not just of one society, but of half a dozen or more". He called the author "a pithy and compelling guide through the narrative complexities of Constantinople politics" and praised Wickham for showing how both the Byzantium and the Abbasid Caliphate "were the heirs of Rome". Sandbrook described the book as "a superlative work of historical scholarship" that illuminates murky corners of the time period.

The Independent's Boyd Tonkin wrote that "this epic of European history between 400 and 1000AD leaves no cliché unchallenged." He said that "gripping as Wickham's narratives prove from Scotland to Byzantium, his impatience with myth for a time leaves us with history as one damn thing after another.