Book Report

Book Report

            I am doing a report on two books; the books are from the same author and are both about the same time periods. The first book is called “The Early Middle Ages” and the second is “The Late Middle Ages” Both by James A. Corrick. The books are basically timelines from the middle ages.

            These Books are very interesting I learned a lot about the Middle Ages that I never knew. There is a lot of stuff about the fall of the Roman Empire and how it was over taken by the barbarians in the early middle ages. One interesting thing is that there is actually more than one kind of barbarians. I thought that all of the barbarians were Vikings from other parts of the country. According to the books a barbarian to the Romans was anyone who didn’t speak their language and believe in there customs. Most of the barbarians came from Germany and started to slowly move into the areas the Roman Empire. The book talks about how there are different tribes of barbarians such as the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Franks and the Huns. Not all of the barbarians came from Germany bust most of them did. I thought the book got very interesting when it was talking about how the Visigoths defeated the Romans at Adrianople. In the book it explains that the Visigoths are trying to invade the eastern Roman Empire. The Romans march out about 8 miles from Adrianople to meet the Visigoths in battle. As the war goes on the Romans start getting beat by the barbarian Visigoths. Once the battle is over the Romans only have one third of their army left. The Visigoths had come out on top and won the battle at Adrianople. This is a big deal because this makes the barbarians realize that they have the power to defeat the Romans. Because of this win the Visigoths started going through the roman land and setting up there kingdoms all over what used to be roman territory. As the book goes on the barbarians defeat the Romans but it doesn’t last long because someone else eventually comes along and defeats the Visigoths. This book is full of stories about the Roman Empire and the barbarians. It is a very good resource for anyone who is trying to write a paper or do some type of assignment on the middle ages. Not only is it full of war stories it is full of information on the everyday lives of the barbarians and Romans. It talks about how they live and what they did during the Middle Ages it is all very interesting. Another thing I thought was kind of cool is that barbarians live unlike the other people. A barbarian warrior is usually known by what his family did before him. And if that warrior is caught doing gardening or building house or planting crops he could possibly lose his title as a warrior. The books are full of information on how the middle ages changed throughout time. When the middle ages started the Roman Empire was one of the main things people knew about. By the end of the middle ages the Roman Empire was conquered and not as glorious as it once was.

            I believe that this book helped me a lot in this assignment and anyone doing an assignment on anything during the Middle Ages should use these books. Even if someone isn’t doing an assignment these books are very interesting to read. They are fun to read and every time you read them you learn something new. These books definitely help with assignments because they lay out everything that happened in order and they tell you exactly what you need to know about the events in the middle ages. These books helped me in my assignment and they will help anyone else with what they need to use them for.