3/5

Anyone who knows me well is aware of my affinity for high quality history podcasts. So when I found this book at the library, I was intrigued to learn the author had a long running podcast on the same subject. Despite my issues with some of the wording of his thesis, I felt that Brownworth did an excellent job arguing for the historical significance of the Byzantine Empire.

For so much of my education, I felt like the instant a course covered the 6th century, suddenly the focus was shifted to the English channel and away from the Mediterranean. This is done to provide context for the rising Western European powers who will dominate the early modern period. However, the Bleeding Edge of technology, trade, culture and administration was still in the Mediterranean. Any good book on the Venetian Republic can convince you of this, but often the Italians like to ignore the presence of the Byzantine state’s influence. To better understand late-Antiquity and much of the Middle Ages, the Byzantine empire is where one must turn. From the Christianizing of the pagan European kingdoms, to the Islamic invasion of the Mediterranean, and finally the rise of the Turks in the east, all is contextualized well via the viewing point of the Byzantines. It is no accident that the beginning of the early modern period is often marked as the fall of Constantinople and end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.