The Birth of the West

by Paul Collins

The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne’s empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. To many historians, it was a prime example of the ignorance and uncertainty of the Dark Ages. Yet according to historian Paul Collins, the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture’s birth, of the emergence of our civilization into the light of day.

The Birth of the West tells the story of a transformation from chaos to order, exploring the alien landscape of Europe in transition. It is a fascinating
narrative that thoroughly renovates older conceptions of feudalism and what medieval life was actually like. The result is a wholly new vision of how civilization sprang from the unlikeliest of origins, and proof that our tenth-century ancestors are not as remote as we might think.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, France, Medieval, Medieval History, Germany

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Paul Collins is an Australian religious author.
Born in the then very working class suburb of Richmond in the city of Melbourne, Australia on 12 August 1940, Paul Collins is an historian, broadcaster and writer. His parents, Veronica and Michael Collins, ran corner shops that were ‘open all hours’. Educated in Catholic primary schools and at the Christian Brothers College, Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, Collins entered the junior seminary of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1956.

Professed as a religious in 1960 and ordained a Catholic priest in 1967, he served first (1968-1969) as a teacher at Downlands College in Toowoomba, Queensland. He then moved to the parish of Moonah in Hobart, Tasmania, where he was an assistant priest from 1970 to 1973. Moving to Sydney in 1974, he was appointed a lecturer (teaching church history and directing pastoral studies) at Saint Pauls National Seminary (1974-1977) in Kensington. From 1977 to1979 he was parish priest of Randwick in Sydney. He then went to Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts as a post graduate student (1979-1981), returning to Australia to work briefly as a research officer for the Catholic Social Welfare Commission (1981). He then returned to the United States as Deputy Director of Weber Center, Adrian, Michigan, where he taught theology, church history and ministry. He also briefly taught theology at Saint Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan.

In 1984 Collins began full time studies for a Ph.D. in history at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, graduating in 1989. He published his first book Mixed Blessings (Penguin) in 1986 while at the ANU and briefly taught Australian History at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1987. He has a Masters degree in theology (Th.M.) from Harvard University, and a Doctorate in Philosophy (Ph.D) in early Australian history from the ANU, and is a Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London in Speech and Drama.

For almost a decade from January 1988 he worked full-time in varying capacities in TV and radio with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. From 1993 to 1996 he was Specialist Editor Religion for the ABC. He also acted as co-ordinator of Radio National in Melbourne and for a brief period was acting-general manager of Radio National. For the first three years of the ABC TV program Compass (it began in 1988) Collins acted as a presenter, interviewer and commentator. From 1990 to 1995 he was the presenter of the program Insights on Radio National. He has also presented and participated in many programs on all ABC networks.

Between 2004 and 2006 Collins worked on a contract basis for the ABC presenting Sunday Spectrum on Sunday mornings on ABC TV. Some 150 episodes of this half-hour in-studio interview program were produced covering ethical, religious, faith and spirituality issues.

Since leaving the ABC full-time, he has continued to be called on as a commentator on Catholic affairs, the papacy, the Vatican, as well as environmental and population issues on ABC Radio and TV, SBS television and radio (where he acted as lead commentator on SBS Radio during World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008), the BBC, PBS in the United States, NHK Japan, and Danish and New Zealand TV, Sky TV News, as well as many commercial TV and radio stations in Australia. Collins covered the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005, and from Rome the election of Benedict XVI as an English-speaking expert for many media outlets across the world.

He has written regularly for most of Australia’s leading newspapers and magazines, as well as for the London Tablet, The National Catholic Reporter in the United States and for several magazines in Germany and Aust

Reviews

[Jamie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vikings were raiding from the north and west, Magyars from the east, Saracens from the south. The papacy was at its lowest ebb, with corrupt and incompetent popes chosen by Rome’s local mafia families. The great empire of Charlemagne had dissolved into a mosaic of feuding kinglets. Europe was a bloody, chaotic place, and it is amazing that anything resembling civilization managed to survive, and even more amazing that from this unpromising start the modern nations of Europe were able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and begin to assert authority and order. The end of the Dark Ages were very dark indeed.

The first half of the book has a chapter for each of the major regions: what would become Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and the British Isles. Each is a somewhat confusing account of cousins and half brothers and bastard sons plotting against each other, perfectly willing to make deals with common enemies like the Vikings when it served their short term interests, and murdering with abandon. Having a good geography reference would also be handy because there are many place names that the average reader will not know. These chapters focus on the powerful forces of chaos and dissolution, which seemed to be pushing civilization to the brink of collapse. Reading them reminded me of lines from Hugh MacDiarmid’s poem Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries:

In spite of all their kind some elements of worth
With difficulty persist here and there on earth.

And yet, somehow, order slowly began to emerge, helped by both a strong and reasonably stable German nation, and by the civilizing effects of the Church, which provided education, a sense of identity that extended beyond the local feudal manor, and served as a counterbalance to some of the worst tendencies of the bandits and thugs who comprised the local “nobility. The effects of the changes were cumulative. A combination of military victories, strategic alliances, and the conversion to Christianity of the Vikings and Magyars helped stabilize Europe’s northern, eastern, and western borders, and the growing power of the proto-states drove out the Saracens and put and end to their raids.

The second half of the book looks at the complicated diplomatic and military maneuvering between the rulers of Germany, Italy, West Francia (modern day northern France), Burgundy, Poland, and Hungary. It also looks at key institutions such as the monasteries, and at the lives of commoners working the land. There is a great deal of interesting detail in these chapters that fleshes out how people actually lived during these turbulent times.

In the end, modern Europe’s emergence from the Dark Ages has the feel of a near-run thing which, save for a few strong kings and clergymen, might have all come crashing down, and then life in Europe would have continued to be short, nasty, and brutish for centuries to come. This book sheds light on an era that is not widely understood, and it is well worth reading

[Czarny Pies · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am giving this book a mere 2-star rating despite the fact that I agree with the author's Catholic vision of European history which he states in the following manner in his concluding chapter:
"What I have tried to outline in this book is the story of the birth of Western Culture that we all share as the inheritors of the European tradition. Our culture was born in the tenth century. The driving force of that birth was Western Christianity and more specifically Catholicism. ... Our problem is that we are caught up in a cultural amnesia, a forgetfulness of our origins. That is why it is so important to recall the birth of the West and to acknowledge the cultural components that have made our civilization what it is." (pp. 451-452) I am complete agreement with this point of view. My problem is that I felt at times that I could have done better job than the author at making his case.
Collins argues that Europe was in a profound political, military, religious and cultural crisis in 900 A.D. Over the next 100 years measures would be taken that would ultimately resolve all the outstanding threats.
At the the beginning of the 10th century, Muslims controlled Sicily and most of Spain in addition to threatening the Byzantine Empire. Viking raiders were devastating Ireland, England and Northern France. The Holy Roman empire was in disarray. Worst of all the was the state of the papacy. The popes ineffective, corrupt and debauched nonentities who were deposed and installed at a dizzying pace by warring noble clans in Italy.
In the course of the 10th century, the Ottonian dynasty would re-establish the Holy Roman Empire. The Vikings would convert to Christianity and joint Europe's political system. The Reconquista of Spain by the Catholic kingdom of Leon would have begun. Bohemia and Poland would be converted to Catholicism and brought into the European system. Best of all the Cluniac (or Benedictine) reforms would bring fresh spiritual and intellectual energy to the Monasteries of Europe. In 999 A.D., Otto III, the Holy Roman Emperor would install a Frenchman, Gerbert of Aurillac, as Pope Sylvester. As a monk, Gerbert had become an expert in astronomy. He would later introduce Arabic numerals and the Abacus to Italy. As Pope he would continue to support the Cluniac reforms, promote learning and ensure that the Papacy was allied with the Holy Roman Emperor in his struggles with the Italian nobility.
Collins, a Catholic priest and intellectual, clearly identifies with Gerbert. His reflexion on his career and personality is interesting. He also takes a long look at Liutprand of Cremona, a bishop and historian who acted at one point as a diplomat for Otto I. Again, Collin's thoughts on this cleric who served a virtuous emperor are insightful.
The problem is that Collins never has anything of substance to say about any of the kings, nobles and emperors who appear in his narrative. He constantly recounts salacious stories from contemporary chroniclers about these individuals even where he suspects the tales are false. He cites authors like Jane Austen and Umberto Eco but does not exhibit a particularly strong command of the current academic literature. Having completed his studies when the Annales historians were in the ascendancy, he comments that in reality feudalism was messier than these writers suggest. He notes that in the last 50 years the views of the Annales School have been challenged by a younger generation of academic historians but fails to articulate a coherent view of Medieval society.
The primary problem is that Collins is a prolific writer (15 books) and polemicist not a scholar with a taste for prolonged research. "The Birth of the West" was written with dash but in haste. There are simply too many better books on the era for anyone to want to waste his or her time with it.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 3 out of 5]

This turned out to be a very frustrating read. Collins uses a mixture of primary and secondary sources with a dual German and Italian focus to discuss how the chaos of the tenth century set the stage for later trends towards nationalism and consolidation of papal power, giving rise to western civilization as we know it. And he tries to do this by highlighting individuals who attempted to create order (either benevolent or tyrannical) and those who tried to thwart them, tipping the balance first in one direction, then the other.

Unfortunately, the chaos of the tenth century also seems to infect the structure of the book. Collins regularly jumps back and forth between decades and countries over the course of a page or even a paragraph. Characters are referred to for a few pages, abandoned for half the book, and then abruptly picked up again hundreds of pages later without reintroduction. (This is not helped either by the fact that several of the characters share the same names nor by Collins' fascinatingly random use of commas, making it difficult to know who is doing what to whom.) And while I really enjoyed the digressions into what was going on in Britain and the Arab countries at this time, Collins failed to either connect those chapters to what was happening in his focus area of Europe or fully analyze what went differently there and what the implications were for how culture developed in those areas.

In the end, there were a number of fascinating stories and personalities here, and I learned things about the early medieval church that completely exploded my notions of papal rule, but the book suffers from ADD, leaping from point to point and back again without focus or depth. I would have loved Collins to organize his information more clearly so I could enjoy his work instead of struggling so hard just to make sense of what I was reading.

[H Wesselius · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tenth century is not the century one associates with the birth of the west and after reading this book, one still will not associate it with the birth of the west. Somewhat jokingly, Collins asserts he should've named his book; How the Germans Saved Civilization, and here he is more accurate. The Birth of the West is essentially the story of how the Saxon kingdom brought law and order to the west, reformed the papacy, and centralized authority. If this was the sole focus of the book, it would be a success but its not.

The more heady claim; the birth of the west is not successfully made. The Saxon law and order only succeeded in stopping the slide into greater localism and reversed the corruption of the church but it did not lay the foundation of the modern western state nor its culture and ideology. Instead, the Saxon kingdoms would fall apart into hundreds of German states and the Holy Roman Emperor would become a nominal title. The papacy would sink back into corruption. It would be the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, and the rise of the nation state which would form the basis of the West.

Collins runs quickly through a rendition of historical occurrences from the Arab world to Ireland and everything in between, but he does little with all that information other than distract the reader. He should've stuck with the Saxons and the Carolingian successors.

At times the reader may perceive an author hoping to give a greater role to church and state as the basis for the West, that is, emphasizing "Christendom" or Judeo-Christian foundations at the expense of the secularism of the Renaissance/Enlightenment and the paganism of ancient Greek philosophy. Despite all this, its still an enjoyable read into a century rarely discussed.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an easy book to like, although it is not a very well-organized book it must be admitted.  The author talks about the West being born out of the end of Late Antiquity in the conflict between Christendom and its neighbors and the internal conflicts that existed in the post-imperial world.  This is in general a pretty sound idea, and the author certainly has a point in looking at Western society as being strongly influenced by Catholicism on the one hand as well as imitatio imperii on the part of civil governments.  The author does not in any way sugarcoat the ugliness or brutality of society at the time, but also shows the way that some intelligent people were able to preserve enough culture that society as a whole was able to overcome the collapse of organized rule over much of Western Europe.  The result is an appealing work that is somewhat rambling but at the same time something that also is full of a lot of intriguing stories that are well worth reading and reflecting upon and that does not overstay its welcome.

This book is more than 400 pages long, five parts, with eighteen chapters.  The book begins with a discussion of the Viking fury and how it was remembered in a prologue.  After that the author discusses the relationship between Rome and the world around it (I), with chapters on the physical landscape of the tenth century (1), powerful Roman women (2), and the nadir of the papacy in the face of domination by local thugs (3).  The author discusses the European world in chaos (II), with chapters on the enemies of Christians (4), the disagreements and rivalries between kings (5), salvation from savagery (6), France (7), Spain (8), England (9), and the Celtic lands of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales (10) and how all of those realms dealt with the question of authority and self-defense.  The author discusses the second spring of the Ottonian revival (III) with chapters on the work of the polymath Liutprand of Cremona (11) as well as the efforts of Theophano and Otto II (12) to increase the standing of Germany.  The author looks at life in the tenth century (IV) with chapters on monks and nuns (13), ordinary people (14), and faith and the church (15).  Finally, the book ends with a millennial vision (V) that involves Gerbert (16), the reign of Otto III (17), and the coming of the end of the First Christian millennium (18), after which there are acknowledgements, a couple of family trees, abbreviations, notes, bibliographies, and an index.

The author focuses on the birth of the West in the creation of a multi-state Europe and it is curious to hear him admit his own particular advocacy of certain elements (like the Roman Catholic Church) being essential to European identity.  The author does at least point out that a lot of elements were involved in the creation of Europe.  Literacy that was largely preserved through religious education was connected with the politics of central governments struggling to control their areas while also having to deal with complex internal and external military threats are not necessarily unfamiliar to those who have read about the early Middle Ages.  That said, even if this book tells a somewhat familiar tale of what happened after Rome fell but before the Crusades and later periods brought Europe to the attention of the world, it is a tale that is told with a lot of humanity and a lot of affection for many of the people involved, and the author is wise to critically look at the sources involved.  It is remarkable just how few sources there are to examine when it comes to certain areas of history and certain time periods, and of course how slanted those sources that survive are, demonstrative of the biases that have always been present in perspectives.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Birth of the West by Paul Collins

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZF95JZ9/...



It may be an understatement to say that Europe in 900 AD sucked. This was the darkest of the dark ages. This was “when things were rotten.” If you were a southern European, the odds were that Saracens would enslave you. If you were a northern European, odds were that Vikings would enslave or kill you. If you were in Central Europe, odds were that Magyars would ride their horses into your village and enslave or kill you. If the foreigners didn’t get you, then the internecine warfare among your nobles would kill you. European states were dissolving all around you. Saracens had strongholds in southern France and the coast of Italy. Vikings conquered most of England and set enclaves in France and England. Magyars had conquered all of the Hungarian plains.

The Medieval Warm Period was a good thing. Climate was mild. Crops were growing. But, really, all that was doing was raising fresh crops of barbarian invaders.

And the papacy was a mess. The central institution of Europe was using its prestige to settle scores among the aristocrats of Rome. Rome was a backward city of 30,000 or so. The century before, the Saracens had come up to the walls of Rome and almost conquered it. Without some German or other providing military backing, the whole project was going to fall apart.

And the heady days of the Carolingians was almost over. The dynasty had lost its vigor and soon the last of dynasty would lose its grip on power. As a result, along with the Vikings, France was becoming an anarchy where the kings of West Francia and East Francia had effective control only over the land they stood on. This anarchy was helped by the Frankish custom of dividing up their territory among their sons, which led to “East Francia” (Germany) and “West Francia” (France) becoming a thing. There was also a third piece in the middle – Lotharingia – which really didn’t take off but may help explain the existence of Italy and the Netherlands. Burgundy was an “also ran” piece of Lotharingia that didn’t make it out of the Middle Ages.

Things were a mess, but out of this mess, as Paul Collins explains, Europe was born. The Vikings and Magyars became good Christian citizens within a few generations, as the Saxons had become good Christians in the prior three generations. The Saxons – now removed from their pagan ancestors by three generations – provided a new dynasty – the Ottonian – via Henry the Fowler, Otto I, Otto II, and Otto III. This dynasty knit Germany into a cohesive unit that expanded into Slavic territory, defeated the Magyars, and ended the Saracen occupation of Europe east of the Pyrenees.

Oddly, in the 900s, France was far more anarchic than Germany. At this point, if you were going to place a bet on which part of the Carolingian Empire would form a cohesive state, the bet would not be on France. Nonetheless, the collapse of the Carolingian dynasty opened up an avenue for a new dynasty to become monarchs of France. Thus, Hugh Capet – founder of the Capetian dynasty – became King of France in 987 AD, but his power did not extend far from the walls of Paris. The Capetian dynasty would more or less rule France until the French Revolution.

This is an interesting book to read and Collins writes with an accessible and engaging style. He orders his material geographically, starting with Rome and offering a Cook’s tour through Europe. Unfortunately, this leads to a fair bit of repetition and cross-over as the same character is viewed from one perspective – say, Rome – and then another – e.g., Germany. I must have read about Hugh Capet’s accession four different times in four different geographic regions.

Collins’ narrative is a survey of Europe during this age, which is useful for providing a broad view of the subject. He also drills down where necessary with interesting facts. One of my favorites was the Saxon monk Gottschalk (804 AD – 869 AD.) Gottschalk was pledged to a monastery as a child. He sued for his release, which was granted, and he became a wandering teacher. During his wanderings, he developed a theology of predestination – which might have anticipated John Calvin. He was condemned as a heretic and was flogged and excommunicated. He died “begging for sacraments that he had been denied for 20 years.” The story of Gottschalk was forgotten until rediscovered by a Benedictine monk named Dom Germain Morin in the library of the Bern University in 1931.

The idea that these documents were lying around for 1100 years seems nothing short of Indiana Jones.

My base knowledge of this period of European history was limited. I knew that there was an Ottonian dynasty and that the Roman papacy was at a particular low point at this time, but not much more. If you have a mild interest in the subject, this is a very good introduction to the subject.

[Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author was obviously enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his work but unfortunately I did not find it contagious. A highschool student's nightmare, filled with names and dates. The story bounced around like a ping pong ball in a tornado and was hard to follow. Much detail but not much analysis and not enough maps. Never enough maps. Go to Google to follow the story as it has a great many maps of the era.

The book covers the breakup of Charlemaine's Empire in the mid-800's, the development of France under Viking invasions and settlement into a great number of small more or less independent regions and the solidification of a Germanic Holy Roman Empire during the 10th century under the Saxon kings Otto I, II, III. It also follows the development of Roman Catholicism and especially the Papacy. Being Pope was a hazardous undertaking with a very rapid turnover as local Roman clans battled each other and the Ottos. There is a good description of the role of monasteries and monastic life and the role of religion in the lives of ordinary people.

It weas during this period that the Church came down hard on clergy of all categories marrying. It has nothing to do with enhancing spirituality and everything with preventing family squabbles over inheriting church lands.

[victor harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some interesting stories about the papal and political rivalries in Europe but the writing leaves a great deal to be desired. Basically a collection of facts, names, and dates that never connect to an overarching theme. This is the type of history writing that discourages people from enjoying history. Probably suitable for a scholar doing research but that would be the extent of the appeal.

[Shawn Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, detailed, readable overview of a weird fuckin' century. Worth it for the Cadaver Pope interlude alone.

[Rachel Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting parts, but also some obvious and weird biases, and I have never seen so many exclamation points in a non-fiction book before.

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously well researched and amazing detail, but overwhelming. Lisa’s review says it best: no focus and depth, jumps around and suffers from ADD. Had to put it down after a third finished.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some truly fascinating facts and stories throughout this otherwise convoluted telling of the birth of the west. My feelings about this book, that clearly has a lot of passion behind it, is that it jumped all over the place, occasionally hundreds of years backwards and forwards which made it hard to keep up with, but there were moments that I learned a lot in an entertaining way. My 3 star rating may be on the low side and I wouldn't be surprised if I revisit this one in the future.

[Cubey Pages · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collins undoubtedly knows much about this time period, but his skills as a writer severely lack. This book has plenty of historical information about the political, social, and religious developments of the ninth and tenth centuries in Western Europe, but the organization of said information is honestly abysmal.

Unless you are an expert in this time period it is practically impossible to keep up with even the most important names and figures, notwithstanding the dozens of others that pop up for a paragraph or two. This is not simply because there are many names, but rather that Collins constantly jumps back and forth between people (who, in medieval European fashion, often have either similar or identical names) in such a poor manner. After reading a chapter (of which, quite frankly, many are snooze fests) you might barely be able to recall the actual developments of the chapter's subject because you're too busy trying to discern who did what. But of course, this is not a textbook; Collins is making an argument. So not only must you struggle to follow the flow of his writing and keep track of the history, you must also try to understand the point that he is making.

And what point is he making? Essentially it is that the tenth century was where centralized government and the beginnings of the idea of a powerful European nation-state were concretely formed under the likes of Otto I's Germany and the consolidated power of the Catholic Church. This is not an absurd argument to make, and there is much to support this claim in Collins' writing. However, taking the time to read this book is simply not worth it. I understand the main point and even agree with it, but there was much that I could not bother to try to retain in my head.

Another thought that constantly entered my mind was that this was plainly too broad of a subject to cover in a single book. Collins attempts to not only explain but also analyze the progress of the entirety of Western Europe across two centuries, as well as then argue his stance all in just over 400 pages. Again, it's not that Collins lacks for information but that it's merely too much disorganized information for one reader to readily ingest. One of the biggest factors to the constant confusion is that Collins often opts to forgo discussing events in chronological order. While I can respect trying to discuss by subject/person and thinking outside of the box, for a topic as comprehensive and foreign to many prospective readers as two centuries of medieval European political growth this was not the right decision.

This was a book that I finished for the sake of finishing. While one can learn much about the tenth century with Birth of the West, I can hardly say that it will be a captivating and enjoyable read. Collins certainly knows his stuff, but his writing is disappointing to say the least.

[Alexander Seifert · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I couldn't get into this book at first. It's a period of history that I've always wanted to learn more about (dark age Europe), but I stalled out hard in the first few chapters.

The thing is, I'm not sure WHY. I think it was more of a reflection of stress in my life that prevented me from really getting into the text, because when I returned to this book after about a month and a half of it getting beat to death in my work backpack, I blitzed through the remaining 75% of it.

The book provides a very detailed look at the culture and societies of various European 'states' (air quotes because such concepts didn't exist in the 10th century). Strangely enough, each location that was focused read like a very fascinating story, whether it was the often ridiculous intrigue of 10th century Italy or the erosion of centralized French authority. The contrast between the centralization of Germany and the decentralization of France was well-played, especially since that script flipped just a few centuries later.

The notion of 'the birth of the west' was a central push of the final chapters, with an emphasis on the evolution of the church and culture as a whole. It was neat to see a treatment of how society reacted to Y1K, as well as seeing a portrait of a church that seemed almost foreign to me.

If you can endure the first few chapters, this book is a very great read for this period of European history.

[Subodh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone looking at Europe of the tenth century would be excused for believing that the Continent had sunk irretrievably into chaos and anarchy. Charlemagne's effort at unification had failed spectacularly in the hands of his incompetent descendants. The Vikings were plundering Europe, Britain and Ireland and the local chiefs - they hardly deserved the title of Kings - were unable to resist them. The papacy was ridden with corruption and intrigue. Yet out of this chaos the Renaissance emerged four hundred years later.

Paul Collins believes, and he does a fairly good job of convincing the reader, that the process which culminated in the Renaissance and Enlightenment had its seeds in the tenth century Europe. He identifies two forces as being responsible for this revival - one the Holy Roman Empire that acquired a new vigor under the three Ottos, and the Church with people like Gerbert d'Aurillac who became Pope Sylvester II at the turn of the millennium. It was not smooth sailing for either of them and they often worked at cross purpose, but eventually they were able to create enough order in both secular and religious establishments to launch a process of revival.

The book reads well, almost like a novel. I am happy to recommend it to other readers.

[Brayton Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough subject material, but oddly disjointed; the author tries to cover a billion different subjects by turns, starting with a survey of environmental conditions, bouncing to coverage of Italian politics at the height of the pornocracy, then going over the state of affairs in every single region in Western Christendom, including, for some reason, Ireland. Then a synopsis of tenth-century life in villages, then monasteries and the church, and finally some coverage of the Saxon/Imperial court of the three Ottos. It doesn't really add up to a coherent story, and he tends to get bogged down in long paragraphs full of the kind of MEGO details that people expect in a story about the era ("Then Lambudard the Hairy usurped the throne from his brother's widow Goduwihten, who was descended from Alfred on both sides by way of a bastard son of Bishop Rhincmar of Glockenspiel; however, Lambudard himself died of chilblains before six months had passed, to be replaced by Wehttan the Feeble-Nosed in 933.").

With that said, there are some fun details, and he covers important bits one has a hard time finding elsewhere. One only wishes he had more discipline.

[Charlie Byers · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot of great research, here. I just kept wishing the editing had been up to the same standard. I think the author could have made his main argument much more persuasively (and briefly) with some more paring down and re-writing. As it is, this feels like a collection of papers that the author is trying to organize into a book-length project by adding a few sentences of connective introductions and conclusions, and it doesn't really work. The individual parts are very informative and well-researched, but it's hard to understand why they were published in this form.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. Learned some new things. The book was not dry as a text-book, in fact it was one of the better history books I've read, as far as narrative goes. I would indeed recommend it. So I do.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I am just over 100 pages into this book but I have also skipped around when looking for information on specific topics and I feel like I can give this book an accurate and fair review.

The Good:
This book is a great wealth of information. The sheer amount of events covered, historical figures fleshed out, relatively unknown places travelled to is amazing and makes the book worth it just for the facts available. Then there is the author himself. From what I have read Collins is a very competent and qualified historian with a wealth of knowledge that is articulated in his book. His ideas about national and European identity I would generally agree with but with reservations. The idea that cultures of countries such as France, Britain, Italy, Germany, and Spain (the main areas covered by the book) developed at this time any you can make a case the process for national identity was started. And lastly there is his re-examination of the Medieval era that is generally in line with the larger trend of recent Medieval research, that being that it was not as bad and horrible as earlier "Enlightenment" historians claimed while flaunting their "Superiority".

The Bad:
While there is a treasure trove of knowledge in this book, the way it is written can be like the booby traps protecting it at times. As good as a historian Collins may be, he really needs someone to proofread his work better because it can be a struggle trying to follow him talking about four simultaneous characters named "John", half of whom were brought up 20 pages ago and not referenced since, while jumping around genuinely interesting but ultimately distracting anecdotes with a sentence structure that will have you reading the same paragraph over and over to make sense of it. Then there is the second half of the author's goal and establishing a case for the development of European identity. I can see that he may have mistaken "Pan-European" national/cultural identity with "Pan-Christian" identity which is more historically accurate, and while he does a good job at stressing the weakness of even that identity when talking about Christian Europeans fighting each other with the help of Muslim warriors or Pagan Vikings, he comes off a little nationalist at times. Like when talking about Arab Muslim advancements in the Medieval era he says "It is often forgotten in postmodernism's enthusiasm for multiculturalism and postcolonialism that almost all of this knowledge was nonetheless derived by the Arabs from Greek and Middle Eastern Christian sources... The Arabs were a conduit for this knowledge rather than the originators of it" (p. 107). While that is factually correct and someone could make a case for an excessive focus on multiculturalism/postcolonialism, he ignores the contributions Arabs made using this knowledge and seems to be jealous that they are admired for it. He does however have another section on Muslim Spain that does go deeper into this relationship though which I have not read thoroughly enough to comment on yet.

Conclusion:
Despite some disagreements I may have with the author, possible biases at play, and the awkward writing, overall I still highly recommend this book. Use it in comparison with other works (such as "The Inheritance of Rome" which has the opposite objective), read it critically with who the author is in mind, and power through the annoying but short awkward parts because it is really worth it.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tenth century Europe may have been a chaotic mess, but Paul Collins believes that the process which ended in the Renaissance and Enlightenment had its beginnings in the tenth century Europe. Collins attempts to show how various individuals (e.g. the 3 Ottos and Gerbert d'Aurillac/Pope Sylvester II) injected vigour into the Holy Roman Empire, reorganised the Church and bring some semblance of order to the State.

The book (briefly) covers the breakup of Charlemagne's Empire in the mid-800's; the development of France under Viking invasions and settlement into a large number of smaller semi-independent regions; and the solidification of a Germanic Holy Roman Empire during the 10th century under the Saxon kings Otto I, II, III. It also follows the development of Roman Catholicism and the Papacy. There is also a fairly decent description of monastic life, as well as the role of monasteries and religion in the lives of ordinary people.

Collins weaves a sometimes convoluted narrative, starting somewhere in the middle, going back to the beginning, discussing historical events, then focusing on individuals in a biographical manner, hopping around different regions in Europe from Spain and Britain to Byzantium. The first chapter was a bit tedious but the pace of the narrative picked up by the second chapter and the story became more interesting. There are a few maps in the book but I would have preferred a few more. I would also have found a timeline useful. A more structured approach would also have been more useful as well as more analysis. The author dropped the ball a few times by failing to connect his various chapters to the main thesis of the book, making this something of a collection of juicy facts but failing to show how they relate to the birth of the west.

I would not recommend this book to the history novice but it may prove interesting to someone who has some familiarity with events after Charlamagne.

[Michael G. Zink · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Birth of the West drew me into a story I did not know well, and told that story well. It is the story of Christendom in the tenth century, the geography we now describe as Western and Central Europe, or “the West” to use the author’s term. It is an impressive piece of research.

The arc of the story relates how western civilization began to emerge from the disorder that followed the collapse of the western Roman Empire in the fifth century, the barbarian invasions, and the subsequent Islamic conquests from the seventh century onward. Western Europe struggled through this collapse of the old order, and for centuries had to navigate social and economic disruptions, and invasions from many adversaries - Viking raids, expansionist Islamic rulers, and invading Slavic armies.

This book tells the story of Western and Central Europe beginning to find its feet again during the tenth century, with stability beginning to emerge, especially within the renewed Holy Roman Empire ruled by the three Saxon kings named Otto. The story can be a little difficult to follow because many of the leading personalities of that time are not very well known today, but the difficulty in following all the twists and turns of the tenth century conveys some of the uncertainty of the time. Paul Collins does a fine job placing the “West” in proper context by regularly referring to events in the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world and the Slavic word that were relevant to the evolution of politics and society in western Christendom. It is not an easy, breezy read but it is a story that would be of interest to anyone genuinely interested in European history.

[Nemezida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh yes, I do love history books! And today, we’ll talk about the volume “The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century” by the Australian historian Paul Collins.

As we can see from the title, it’s about the 10th century in Europe, which the author considers the time of recovery after the Dark Ages and the birth of the West. He describes the events of this century in Rome, in the territories of modern France, Germany, England, Spain, Ireland and Scotland. The essential role of the consolidating force assigns to the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire, with the German Emperor at the head.

I’ve heard that there are some questions for Collins about his interpretation of feudalism, but I’m not a historian by profession. I’m an ordinary reader. I liked how unbanal and exciting (albeit somewhat chaotically) the author tells about the 10th century. He draws attention to the interaction of churchmen and the nobility, the modification of monasteries, wars between feudal lords, Viking attacks, the history of the papacy, the communication of the West with Byzantium, and the conversion of the inhabitants of Eastern Europe to Christianity... All of this is detailed and entertaining.

Now I wish to read “The Decline of the West” by O.Spengler )) I understand that this book won’t be similar to the work by Collins, but the title isn’t consonant by chance.

[A Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collins effectively illuminates the crucial 10th century as a transformative period that laid the groundwork for what would become modern Europe. He explores the decline of the Carolingian Empire, the rise of new powers in Rome, Germany, and France, and the complex interplay of political, religious, and social forces at work. Collins doesn't just focus on the political narratives but also gives considerable attention to cultural, religious, and societal developments. His portrayal of the 10th century is one of a tumultuous and dynamic age, with the reemergence of urban life, the reform of monasticism, and the beginnings of what would eventually evolve into nation-states.

The book is well-researched and Collins has a knack for bringing historical figures to life, offering insights into their personalities and motivations, and making the reader feel the immediacy and uncertainty of the era.

[R.G. Ziemer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed look at Western Europe in the 10th century, focusing on those major regions that exerted so much influence on the development of our world: Italy, France, and Germany. A quick glance at the maps reminds the reader of how different the political map was at that time, with the ROman world a shambles, the unified Francia of Charlemagne coming apart, and the German lands as fragmented as ever. Collins shows us how things came together in great detail, explaining the relationships between Popes, Kings, and Emperors, plus the warlords and wannabes that continually threatened any attempt to create order. A theologian himself, Collins seems to provide an insider's view of the ROman Catholic church that I don't recall reading before.
Other influences are not ignored. THe author also includes chapters on Spain, Brtitain and Scotland to show how they fit into the mess.
Very informative, sometimes surprising, and entertaining throughout.

[Stacy K · Rating 3 out of 5]

One damn thing after another is how my medieval studies professors often described medieval literature. If you like cunning analysis delivered in that great medieval style, this book is for you. I found it so jarring I had to read it in extremely small chunks just to contain the chaos. The Life of Margery Kempe or Cola di Rienzo is probably a better fit if you want slice of life from a later, slightly less chaotic medieval era. Collins focuses on clergy and kings responsible for shaping what came after the Roman Empire and it is extremely exhaustive. I felt there was little analysis though into why France was so chaotic at this time and the summary comments were just dismissive and weird.

[Brendan Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very mixed bag. Some chapters, like Ch15: "Faith and Church in the Tenth Century," are exactly what you'd want from a book like this. A nice broad overview of the subject in Europe at the time with interesting examples.

But then others, like Ch16: "Gerbert, the Magician of the Millennium," are just a laundry list of names and dates, one event following the other with no real sense of place or importance.

If you already have a sense of the medieval period this is a decent source for diving into The Iron Century. But if you're looking for an introduction to the period or want to understand The Birth of the West in a broader sense. I think you'd be better served elsewhere.

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good on the Carolingian disintegration and papacy of that time, and very fun writing about about the personalities. Some errors give doubts about accuracy.
- Once Pepin II is called Pepin III.
- A Henry is once called Henry the Quareller and once Henry the Wrangler, without any explanation that they are actually the same person.
- Obermarsberg is called Obermarsburg.
- Sergius is called a likely Greco-Roman, ignoring that there was a patrician family of that name in the earliest days of Rome.

[Ray Nimmo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift, so I was worried when I came on here to see it rated low compared to other history books I've enjoyed (3.47 to the usual 4+). But I must say I enjoyed it a lot. I liked the writing style and the different topics covered. Collins gives you historical information on the different civilizations and also dives into specific personalities and how people lived. If you're like me and you're instantly wary of the rating, don't be. I'd suggest giving this a shot.

[Matthew Gilmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book.
Collins works hard to break the standard historiographical cliches; he dismisses the idea of "feudalism" as a mere construct--not well-informed by the complexity of reality. But at the conclusion he still falls back on that terminology.
His description of the church is unfortunately rather rushed.
Some reviewers seem to have not gotten the point that the first 9/10s of the book is the introduction to the story of Otto III and Pope Sylvester II--a very deep context.

[Kate McNeil · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book filled with interesting historical facts and events, told incredibly poorly. This book lacks a sense of organised, cohesive narrative structure, throws names one after another with abandon, focuses very heavily on church figures at a great cost to understanding any form of local context or day to day life, and makes broad sweeping statements in an almost gossipy manner about things that are presented as fact but come across as more likely to be opinion.
Give this book a pass.