The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather

One of the author's stated goals is the integration of that information, which often tends to be specific and compartmentalized according to the specialty of the historian involved, with source material from surviving writings into this more over-arching narrative. Large strides have occurred in the study of Late Antiquity in the last forty years that have turned many of the accepted beliefs of that era on their head.

Heather gives an important and probably understated overview of the status of scholarship on the period known among contemporary scholars as the Late Antiquity, AD 300-600 (I'm rather hearted by the fact that he continues to use the BC/AD nomenclature). In the words of the author, the fall of the Western Roman Empire was one of the definitive markers in European history alongside the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution.

Perhaps my only disappointment is with the bibliography, seeing the attention to detail given in the layout of this work I wished Heather would have included a narrative bibliography rather than a mere listing. The layout is also well thought out even containing 19 pages of succinct biographies of key individuals mentioned, a timeline, a glossary of important terms of late antiquity, a healthy amount of notes one would expect from a scholar and a bibliography. It is a daunting task, even for an established professor of classics to tackle, and Peter Heather tackles it with an intelligent, well-argued work of over 450 pages that takes the reader on an examination of the military and political aspects of that era. Its causes are a contentious and well-traveled path scholars (and amateurs) have argued since Gibbon. The fall of the Western Roman Empire is a topic that is at the heart of any complete analysis of Roman civilization and one that has held immense fascination for centuries.

The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather