Eastern Europe In The Middle Ages 500 1300 2 Vols

Winner of the 2020 Verbruggen prize This book offers an an overview of the current state of research and a basic route map for navigating an abundant historiography available in 10 different languages. The book is also an invitation to comparison between various parts of the region over the same period.

"This book provides a comprehensive synthesis of scholarship on Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. The goal is to offer an overview of the current state of research and a basic route map for navigating an abundant historiography available in more than 10 different languages. The literature published in English on the medieval history of Eastern Europe--books, chapters, and articles--represents a little more than 11 percent of the historiography. The companion is therefore meant to provide an orientation into the existing literature that may not be available because of linguistic barriers and, in addition, an introductory bibliography in English"--

The Routledge Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1300 is the first of its kind to provide a point of reference for the history of the whole of Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. While historians have recognized the importance of integrating the eastern part of the European continent into surveys of the Middle Ages, few have actually paid attention to the region, its specific features, problems of chronology and historiography. This vast region represents more than two-thirds of the European continent, but its history in general—and its medieval history in particular—is poorly known. This book covers the history of the whole region, from the Balkans to the Carpathian Basin, and the Bohemian Forest to the Finnish Bay. It provides an overview of the current state of research and a route map for navigating an abundant historiography available in more than ten different languages. Chapters cover topics as diverse as religion, architecture, art, state formation, migration, law, trade and the experiences of women and children. This book is an essential reference for scholars and students of medieval history, as well as those interested in the history of Central and Eastern Europe.

This book is an authoritative survey of the history of southeastern Europe from 500 to 1250.

This volume deals with the neglected problem of the Olsztyn Group. The prosperity and long-distance contact revealed by this cemetery shows that the West Baltic tribes had considerable influence in early medieval Europe, much more than scholars had been ready to admit until now.

Filling a major gap in medieval studies, Medieval Eastern Europe is the first collection of primary sources in English translation covering the history of the whole eastern region of the European continent between 500 and 1300. Florin Curta, a leading scholar of medieval eastern Europe, gathers sources from a geographic area ranging from the Czech lands in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east, and from northern Russia to Greece. Curta begins with a discussion of why this region has been relatively ignored. His collection includes traditional narrative sources, such as chronicles and annals, as well as treaties, charters, letters, and legal texts. Each primary source is preceded by a brief introduction and followed by guiding questions. Organized chronologically into thematic chapters, the selections touch upon a wide variety of topics, including political developments; conversion to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism; economic and social issues; literature; laws; religious beliefs and practices; and much more.

This book compares community definition and change in the temperate zones of southern Britain and northern France with the starkly contrasting regions of the Spanish meseta and Iceland. Local communities were fundamental to human societies in the pre-industrial world, crucial in supporting their members and regulating their relationships, as well as in wider society. While geographical and biological work on territoriality is very good, existing archaeological literature is rarely time-specific and lacks wider social context; most of its premises are too simple for the interdependencies of the early medieval world. Historical work, by contrast, has a weak sense of territory and no sense of scale; like much archaeological work, there is confusion about distinctions - and relationships - between kin groups, neighbourhood groups, collections of tenants and small polities. The contributors to this book address what determined the size and shape of communities in the early historic past and the ways that communities delineated themselves in physical terms. The roles of the environment, labour patterns, the church and the physical proximity of residences in determining community identity are also examined. Additional themes include social exclusion, the community as an elite body, and the various stimuli for change in community structure. Major issues surrounding relationships between the local and the governmental are investigated: did larger polities exploit pre-existing communities, or did developments in governance call local communities into being?

In The Long Sixth Century in Eastern Europe, Florin Curta offers a social and economic history of East Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe during the 6th and 7th centuries.