Speros Vryonis (1928–2019)

Contrary to what one might expect, this is not about modern-day historians wrioting about the middle ages. It is the views of history of actual medieval writers, mostly early medieval --Augustine, Einhard, Liutprand for the west, Procopius, Psellus and Anna Comnena for Byzantium, and Al-Baladuri, Ibn Khaldun and Usama ibn Munqidh for Islam. The juxtaposition of the three cutures is interesting, though aside from al-Baladuri most of the sources are easily available in English elsewhere.

5647. Byzantium and Europe, by Speros Vryonis, Jr. (read 4 Sep 2019) I have done some reading on Byzantine history but it has been awhile and I thought it would be good to read this book, which was published in the U.S. in 1967,and which is a part of the History of European Civilization Library. The author was a history professor at UCLA. He traces the history of the Byzantine Empire from its founding by Constantine I in the fourth century till May 29, 1453, when Constantinople fell to the show more Turks. The book has a list of all the Byzantium Emperors from Constantine I to the last emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologus, who died the day Constantinople fell. The Empire did pretty well in the 9th and 10th centuries, but suffered a defeat in battle in 1071,and it was the victim of the Fourth Crusade which went astray in 1204, All in all, the account is of interest. There are lots of illustrations in the book tho I found them of little interest. There is an adequate bibliography, but the newest book listed is a 1965 book. One interested in The subject could do worse than read this not overly long book. show less

Not a good introductory history since it is a general overview by subject and not chronology.