Good history books on the Byzantine Empire? History of the Middle East/N.Africa?

[Flaxbee]

Basically, anything covering the eastern Mediterranean / north African areas from Late Antiquity - Late Middle Ages...

I know there are tons of history books out there, but I'm interested in something well-written and captivating, not a dry-as-dust accounting.

And I realize there may be many books covering broad history or specific regions and times.

I'd be interested in all of them.

I get ambitious and buy books that end up being extremely tedious, like scholarly submissions to academic journals, which is not what I'm after at this point.

Which historians write well?

[madinmaryland]

1. Hey! When are you going to come see Sonia?

and the rest of the gang!

[Flaxbee]

6. One of these days...

our work lately has us heading further south, rather than northwards...

when we do head that way, I'll let you know!

[sarge43]

2. You might want to check out these

The Great Sea by David Abulafia -- a history of the Mediterranean

Lost to the West by Lars Brownworth -- history of the Byzantine Empire

Susan Wise Bauer's histories of the ancient and medieval era world and they do cover all the existing civilizations of the time period.

Amazon.com has a "Look Inside" sample for all four, so you can try before you buy.

[Flaxbee]

7. thank you! Those all sound interesting - will also check my library first ...

Have not heard of Susan Wise Bauer before.

Appreciate your post!

[Chan790]

3. Oddly, the best I ever read was a history of the papalcy...

so it wasn't even a book explicitly being written on the Byzantine empire...it just went into so much detail because the interplay and rivalry between Rome, N. Africa and Constantinople was so central to the larger theme of the book. I don't recall the author but the title was Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. It's a textbook with lots of glossy pictures of architecture and artifacts and it actually covers from the founding of the church through JP II but more than 2/3 of the book deals with the period between Peter and the fall of Constantinople through the Crusades. The author is not terribly fawning over the popes either, more Joe Friday "Just the facts ma'am."

It's one of my favorite history books from college. You might have an easier time finding it in the library than for sale though. It's a dense read and IIRC it was about 400 pages long.

[sarge43]

4. If the author is Eamon Duffy, Amazon has it, both hard cover and paperback.

If Amazon has it, it should be available through other sites.

[Chan790]

10. I believe it was.

Thanks.

[Flaxbee]

8. thanks, Chan790. I find the papacy fascinating ... will defintely check this one out

Local library has it, as does Amazon (if it's by Eamon Duffy, that is...)

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Have you looked at Norwich's "shorter" book?

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780679772699-10

I will add the caveat that I haven't actually read it. I did read this one:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780813511986-4

... which I'm afraid you might find "dry as dust". Bear in mind that we can only study that which survives, which means we know the genealogy of all the monarchs, regents, and usurpurs, who left behind monuments and edicts, but not so much about the 99% of the day. That is usually deduced from archaeology and reconstruction of vanished manuscripts, so it tends to be pretty conjectural, and it's hard to learn anything without dealing with some of the scholarly argument. (I'm currently reading "Carthage Must Be Destroyed" -- the history of Carthage is particularly problematic, since the Romans not only destroyed the city--and virtually all of its literature--and later built their own colony on top of the ruins, but engaged in propagandizing so extensive that it's hard to know what is real history and what was fabricated by Roman (and Greek) authors.)

Here's a popular account of a crucial episode in Byzantine history. Even the capsule description is pretty vivid:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780143113812-6
Of course, you might find a book about a massively fatal plague a bit of a downer. Caveat emptor.

Lewis' book on the Middle East is informative, but not spellbinding, as you'd expect from a book of such broad scope:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/95-9781439190005-0
I also read this Lewis book, but it's been a while -- remember it as interesting, but no details:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781842121955-1
Lewis has written an incredible number of books on the ME, Islam, and the Arabs; click on the author's name in either of the above links.




ETA: You might check to see if there are library copies of some of these, rather than purchase them. Some of Lewis' books have been bestsellers, and the Norwich books seem to be popular library purchases.

[Flaxbee]

9. thank you, eppur_se_muova! Great links, all

Looking forward to much reading!