The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe

by P.M. Barford

More than 270 million people in Europe speak one of the many Slavic languages and dialects, but the origins and development of Slavic culture are still among the most difficult problems facing archaeologists. P.M. Barford's book is a remarkably comprehensive and accessible synthesis of the most recent archaeological discoveries, linguistic research, and literary-historical evidence about the origins of the Slavs. Much of this evidence, gleaned in the wake of recent political changes in Eastern Europe, has been unavailable in English.During the early medieval period, the Slavs expanded from their original homeland in the Ukraine to colonize vast areas and to found most of the modern nations in Eastern Europe. With first-hand knowledge of the archaeology and other research, P. M. Barford vividly portrays daily life in Eastern Europe from the early fifth to the end of the tenth century A.D., a period of profound transformation. Barford's rich and accessible survey provides the latest thinking on issues central to ongoing and sometimes fierce debates about the origins of various Slavic nations. For example: Was the first Russian state Slavic or Scandinavian? Was the first Bulgarian Empire Turkic or Slavic? Newly compiled maps and a generous number of illustrations chart the main cultural changes that took place over six centuries in the Slavic regions of Europe.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval History, Medieval, European History, Russia, Academic

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed summary of Early Slav culture and state development with a discussion of alternative explanations of archeological and other data. This account is about or somewhat better than what I expected, with much detail that is times dry; but again this was also expected in the type of work I was looking for.

[Hans Luiten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grondig werk over de geschiedenis van de Slaven van 600-1000. Met vooral interessante hoofdstukken over hoe in verschillende perioden, bv. onder het communisme en daarna, op een hele andere manier naar het verleden van deze Slaven werd gekeken, als eenheid of juist niet, onderworpen aan de Duitsers of juist niet, als beschaafd of juist niet #begrijpjijcentraaleuropanog

[Mariana Escobar]

Great book to start researching