The Anglo-Saxons: The Making of England: 410-1066

The Anglo-Saxons: The Making of England: 410-1066

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  • Type:Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date:2021-05-31 18:31:17
  • Update Date:2025-09-06
  • Status:finish
  • Author:Marc Morris
  • ISBN:1643133128
  • Environment:PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Summary

Sixteen hundred years ago, Britain parted company with Europe。 As the Roman legions withdrew, the economy that had supported them collapsed。 A world that had been peaceful, prosperous, and predictable became dangerously insecure。 Rich and poor huddled together for protection in ancient hill-forts, unoccupied since the Iron Age。 Learning and literacy were lost; it is no exaggeration to call this a Dark Age。



Into this ruined world came a new people—foreigners from beyond the Empire’s northern frontier, collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons。 Some were warriors, drawn into the internecine struggles between Britain’s new tribal rulers。 Most were economic migrants, in search of land to farm and a happier future。 Arriving on the shores of southern and eastern Britain, in the centuries that followed they spread northwards and westwards, eventually occupying every lowland part of the island, and in the process they gradually built a new civilization。



The Anglo-Saxons is a quest for the England’s origins。 It takes us from an alien world of slaves, temples, villas, druids and amphorae, to a familiar landscape of shires and boroughs; from the worship of vanished gods like Thor and Woden to the veneration of saints who are still well-known; from a population who spoke Latin and Celtic to one whose language was recognizably the ancestor of the English that is spoken today。



Marc Morris’s invigorating narrative asks what we can really know of life in this lost age, and tackles controversial questions: Did the Anglo-Saxons drive the Romano-British into the fringes of the island, as traditional argued, or peacefully absorb them, as revisionist historians claim? It also explores the later legends that arose to fill the void, such as what truth is there, if any, in the tales of a British resistance led by a hero called Arthur?

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Reviews

Molly

This is an ARC review。 Many thanks to Pegasus Books and Edelweiss。I am a self-proclaimed history nerd and nothing gets me to geek out quite as much as British history。 Therefore, I naturally had to jump on the chance to review this one and boy, am I glad I did!Marc Morris has presented readers with a concise, informative, and remarkably readable history of the Anglo-Saxons。 I was hooked from the first page, as Morris's writing style is so conversational and yet educational。 I particularly love t This is an ARC review。 Many thanks to Pegasus Books and Edelweiss。I am a self-proclaimed history nerd and nothing gets me to geek out quite as much as British history。 Therefore, I naturally had to jump on the chance to review this one and boy, am I glad I did!Marc Morris has presented readers with a concise, informative, and remarkably readable history of the Anglo-Saxons。 I was hooked from the first page, as Morris's writing style is so conversational and yet educational。 I particularly love the little historical tidbits and etymology information he includes in the text - he seems to know exactly when all the Aelfgifus and Aethelreds start to cross the eyes and uses those instances to insert information that draws the reader right back in and even helps to discern the historical players on the page。The Anglo-Saxons begins by introducing Roman Britain and its subsequent fall。 It then charts the arrival and dissemination of Anglo-Saxon culture, the rise of Christianity, the Viking assaults, the emergence of "Englishness," and England's evolution up to the Norman Conquest。 It manages to cover all this in such relatively few pages because there is no unnecessarily or superfluous information; every sentence is a valuable one。 Anyone can relate history, but it takes a particularly skilled historian and writer to produce 500-some pages of such engaging content that the reader is hooked on every page。 Even I sometimes find longer history tomes to be monotonous or repetitive (and I read them for fun!), but I did not have anything near that issue with this one。 I honestly think this is one of the best histories I've read in a long time。If you have any interest in the Anglo-Saxons and British history as a whole, don't walk - RUN - to your nearest bookstore on May 4。 And you should probably carve aside a reading day, because I assure you you won't be able to put this one down! 。。。more