12-02-2012, 09:18 PM
Peter Heather, while intelligent, knowledgeable and critical, not to mention very nice when we met, represents a minority in questions of migration during late antiquity/early middle ages, among the scholars specializing in that era, that is.
A vividly readable and precise English overview is given by Guy Halsall: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568. It is the radical opposite position to Heather, and if you search the older RAT-forum-posts you will find Halsall’s opinion on Heather in rather frank words. (To be fair, he is not any less frank about that topic in person).
A more specialized case is made by Michael Kulikowski: Rome’s Gothic Wars, who deconstructs the idea that the Goths migrated from Scandinavia thoroughly, albeit with imho unnecessary harsh antagonism to Herwig Wolfram.
Herwig Wolfram should probably be called Gothicus Maximus :grin: , as his books on that subject are still standard and must-read literature for every one studying the Goths. His best known book, Die Goten, has been translated into English (History of the Goths). It is, by its very nature, a bit dated though.
His successor in Vienna, Walter Pohl, followed his tracks. In English, you will find the volume he edited on ethnic identity very useful: Strategies of Distinction. The Construction of Ethnic Communities 300-800.
While Peter Heather sells more books, and while – I stress it again – he is a most excellent scholar imho, the above named titles may give you a better of current trends in academia in late antiquity/early middle ages... in my humble opinion.
But this should not be mistaken as a single, unified position. All the authors above also have a lot of conflicting points!
A vividly readable and precise English overview is given by Guy Halsall: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568. It is the radical opposite position to Heather, and if you search the older RAT-forum-posts you will find Halsall’s opinion on Heather in rather frank words. (To be fair, he is not any less frank about that topic in person).
A more specialized case is made by Michael Kulikowski: Rome’s Gothic Wars, who deconstructs the idea that the Goths migrated from Scandinavia thoroughly, albeit with imho unnecessary harsh antagonism to Herwig Wolfram.
Herwig Wolfram should probably be called Gothicus Maximus :grin: , as his books on that subject are still standard and must-read literature for every one studying the Goths. His best known book, Die Goten, has been translated into English (History of the Goths). It is, by its very nature, a bit dated though.
His successor in Vienna, Walter Pohl, followed his tracks. In English, you will find the volume he edited on ethnic identity very useful: Strategies of Distinction. The Construction of Ethnic Communities 300-800.
While Peter Heather sells more books, and while – I stress it again – he is a most excellent scholar imho, the above named titles may give you a better of current trends in academia in late antiquity/early middle ages... in my humble opinion.
But this should not be mistaken as a single, unified position. All the authors above also have a lot of conflicting points!
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![[Image: regnumhesperium.png]](http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3673/regnumhesperium.png)
