The Birth of the West
Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century

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 bloo......more

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 civili......more

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. Th......more

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.  Thi......more