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Member: cemanuel

CollectionsResearch (6), Your library (565), Wishlist (560), Fiction (170), Currently reading (1), All collections (1,299)

Reviews22 reviews

TagsMedieval History (844), Late Antiquity (390), Religion (193), Christianity (180), Ancient History (175), Byzantine (65), Ancient Rome (64), Medieval Warfare (63), Germanic (59), Medieval England (54) — see all tags

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GroupsAmateur Historians, Ancient History, Byzantinistik, Medieval Europe

Favorite bookstoresMason's Rare and Used Books

About meI enjoy ancient and medieval history with emphasis on Late Antiquity, Merovingian, Carolingian, and heresy. I do a little trail riding and work in agriculture. I'm happily single and live alone; just me, a nag and a mutt. The mutt owns my house - she just lets me live there. (If I'm reincarnated I want to come back as one of my horses or one of my dogs) I'm not a total antisocial hermit but I do usually read rather than go out when I have spare time - probably like a lot of folks here.

About my libraryExcept for the wishlist, these books are on my shelves (for the most part I've even read them) - or on my PC if they're downloads. Another exception - (How many exceptions before the initial statement becomes useless?) if you see something listed under my "research" collection, I've needed it for something I'm working on and either checked it out from a library or got it via Interlibrary Loan. It also probably means it was pretty high priced.

Now that we have collections, I'm adding my fiction which has been severely reduced from its peak. I really enjoy the features of LT that let me find other people with similar interests and "raid" their libraries. For the most part, my interests don't include fiction any more so I won't include those in my connection info. Seems strange - I didn't start reading history until 1996 and now that's all I ever open.

My background, education and career are in agriculture so I've added my textbooks. I haven't added what's in my office, just what I personally own.

My reviews tend to be a little wordy - hopefully folks will bear with me. Generally I feel like reviewing either a book I'm very impressed with or one that sparks one of my pet peeves so sometimes I do go on. And some of those are fairly academic which takes a bit more anyway. If you prefer something shorter I've included brief comments on quite a few of the books in my library.

For me, the Medieval period begins with Constantine's official recognition of Christianity and ends with Luther in 1517 and I've used tags accordingly.

Someone asked me about my ratings. Like everyone else, my time is limited so I try not to waste my time reading bad books. Generally, when it comes to history, I read books that I've seen recommended (usually by academics) or when I see an interesting title/summary I search the web for a good review. I've been fairly successful with that so most of my books receive pretty decent ratings. Also, if I was going to give a book a "1" it would have to pretty much lack any redeeming qualities (since there isn't a zero). A 2 is pretty bad. I generally don't rate primary/contemporary source material because different people use those in different ways - if you use Froissart for historical accuracy it would rate pretty bad but if you use him to examine historiography of the later medieval period it rates pretty high.

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Real nameCurt Emanuel

LocationFrankfort, Indiana

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Account typepublic, lifetime

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URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/cemanuel (profile)
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Common KnowledgeSeries (112), Awards (120), Characters (2437), Places (496)

Member sinceSep 9, 2008

Currently readingBarbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376 - 568 (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks) by Guy Halsall

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I noted a comment you made regarding the factual accuracy of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". I wonder if you've ever had the opportunity of seeing the British film "Alfred the Great" (ca. late 60's - early 70's). Pretty good, as I recall, if you can get over the pre-CGI production values.
Thank you for the note. I have made my library public so you can browse it.

I first encountered your posts in the Byzantium threads, and I have really appreciated your contributions, so I hope we stay in touch one way or another!
Just a note to say that I'm enjoying your contributions to the "Fall of the West" thread. It's a pleasure to read the perspective of someone who has a real grasp of the issues under discussion.
Thanks for your note. I'll have a look at chilperic's books as well.
You have some absolutely remarkable books, particularly in the areas of Late Antiquity and Byzantine Studies (the only tags I have explored so far). I have a feeling that looking through your holdings will be dangerous for my checkbook!

Regards,
Maki
The Mango et al. edition characterizes Turtledove as 'very inaccurate'. I did a little reading, but without a Greek text I couldn't check specific inaccuracies. There were differences, though (4,000 people killed according to Mango and 40,000 according to Turtledove in one entry). Turtledove is a full translation between the accession of Phocas in 602 and the end of the Chronographia. He reckons that Theophanes is really useful from that point on, as earlier you have Procopius, Malalas, Agathias and Theophylact Simocatta who are all Theophanes' sources. Both translations are based on the standard edition, de Boor's from the 1883-85, and so both have the same line numbering system. Unfortunately de Boor is not available - as far as I can see - on Archive.org, but the Bonn Corpus edition of 1839-41 by Classen is available, and has a Latin translation below (search for Theophanis chronographia). There was a 60's reprint of De Boor, by Olms, I think.

P.S. Roger Pearse on his website says de Boor is available in the US on Google Books.
I've ordered Turtledove from the Bodlean stacks and will compare them tomorrow. I see that Turtledove begins in 602, no doubt with the long entry on the deposition of Maurice. The Greek may be available on archive.org, BTW, as part of the Bonn Corpus (I've not checked, but Procopius and Malalas are).
Curt - Great comment on Ganshof's Feudalism. I've got a bunch of the classics here (Stenton, Stephenson, Bloch, and now Ganshof), but nothing recent (say, post-1960's-ish). Can you recommend anything newer? Thanks :) And The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland looks interesting - any good? Dana
Curt, yes thanks, I really enjoyed Kalamazoo, although I severely underestimated the sheer exhaustion factor. Saw some wonderful papers and got some really positive feedback on changing programs (since our only medievalist on staff just retired with no immediate plans to replace him). I even managed to get out with only a handful of books. Would love to know what you think of Ros McKitterick's book on the Franks, which I see you bought.
Yes, Barbara Rosenwein's "Emotional Communities" is very interesting. I hope you enjoyed Kalamazoo last week; I didn't go this year -- it is just so expensive (and I always end up buying more books than I can really carry!)
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