at times, exhausting and cluttered, but also laden with interesting passages that shed light on this volatile period". He said that "the most tedious" chapters are those on cultures organized immediately after the Roman Empire's fragmentation, due to the chapters' reliance on archaeological evidence. He criticized the section on the Merovingian era as "replete with names and dates, but utterly lacking in significant context, motivation, or revelation", considering this evidence the Early Middle Ages are indeed a period obscured by a dearth of reliable information despite Wickham's view. Brady called the portions on the more stable polities "a fuller, more colorful depiction of their inner workings [...] much more enlightening", ultimately crediting the author with as thorough a depiction of the time period as is possible. References Editions Hardcover, Viking Adult, Paperback, 2009 non-fiction books 21st-century history books History books about Europe Medieval studies literature