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A History of the Byzantine State and Society
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A History of the Byzantine State and Society Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
A great disappointment
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| I apologize for the low ranking, but it stems from several factors. I had been anticipating this book; I had heard that Treadgold would replace previous authors as the master of the "general survey". What I got was essentially a badly organized textbook. I can see how this would be very valuable as a reference work or academic text, but it was not a readable history. The topics were jumbled, the emphasis on economic and political minutiea at the expense of culture and narrative was unfortunate, and the chapters did not flow. I would give it three stars for the obvious hard work and reference value except for Treadgold's attitude. He slams virtually every previous Byzantine scholar (Gibbons, Norwich, Ostrogorsky) as useless, petty, or inaccurate. Even if some of these guys are out of date, they blazed the trail for future work and he should give them respect as fellow scholars instead of insulting them and their life's work. This joyless bitterness may be what makes the prose so little fun to read. For the book-lover who wants a readable history with narrative and style as well as accuracy, this is a dud. Call me low-brow, but I like to be able to enjoy my books. |
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