"In the fourth century the Roman Empire was under threat. The Barbarians were becoming a powerful force in Europe, and the Huns, the most savage of these tribesmen, were sweeping south towards the imperial frontiers. At the same time the Empire faced growing internal social and economic problems: plague and war had diminished the agricultural population and productivity was falling; the army was under increasing strain in defending the extensive boundaries. Christianity, too, continued to prove an unsettling influence—accepted and established in Constantinople, but not in Rome. In this perceptive and stimulating book, Professor Wallace-Hadrill traces the development of Western Europe from the dissolution of the late Roman Empire to the emergence, in the tenth century, of the individual states of medieval Europe."—Print ed. "Into the comparatively few pages at his disposal, Mr. Wallace-Hadrill has contrived to pack a surprising amount of stimulating discussion, covering many of the problems which have exercised historians during the present century. Attention may be called, in particular, to his judicious summing-up of the contrasting theories of the extent of Mediterranean trade after the fall of the empire in the west, and his reminder of the pitfalls, both in the economic and in other fields, presented by the defective nature of our sources and the state in which they have been preserved....the book reads smoothly, and interest is sustained even when the untidy tenth century, so difficult to summarize, is reached. The author is to be congratulated on a suggestive and valuable essay on a period of European history which has possibly received less attention than it deserves from the present generation of English students."—H. ST. L. B. MOSS, The English Historical Review "Impresses by its sober and patient probing and testing of the mortal remains of these six centuries"—Eastern Churches Quarterly