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Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Probably the best book on the subject I've been interested in this period of the history for a while but never found a book good enough to explain all the events. This book is thoroughly researched, scholarly yet written in a style and language easy to follow. A couple of reviewers have put foward the point that this book is more about the rise of the barbarians than the fall of the Roman empire. I'm afraid this is not correct as the two are inextricably intertwined. This book comes with the highest recommendation.
An enthralling account of the fall of Rome This is a book which is as every bit of epic as its subject matter. Peter Heather writes in an accessible, easy-to-follow manner making this book ideal for the layperson, scholar and student. Rather than seeing the end of the western Roman Empire as a result of internal decline and internecine warfare (the Edward Gibbon approach), Heather argues that the Empire fell due to the rise of the Germanic tribes north of the Danube, both economically and politically into supergroups, which became too strong for the... more info
Contemporary but flawed While this is not a bad history I would echo some points made by other reviewers here; not so much about The Fall of Rome as The Rise of the Barbarians and marred by some inaccuracies, would-be hip phrases and chapter headings and particularly by suppositions being referred to as facts. It is also over-long and suffers a tendency to digression in places. For those wishing to delve into the fall of the empire in the west it would be preferable to begin with Michael Grant's excellent 'The Fall of the Roman... more info
Excellent Account of a Monumental Event The "Fall of the Roman Empire" casts a huge shadow. A vast Empire, one of the "great civilisations" of history, went in barely a century from being the "sole superpower" to a mere plaything of barbarian tribes. Why did it happen? All sorts of reasons can be offered, and Heather offers several, but what it comes down to is that this is simply what empires do - they rise, they exist for a time - years, decades or (as in Romes's case) centuries - and then they fall. Rome had already had a better "innings"... more info
