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  • The Anglo-Saxon World by Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan
  • John Kennedy
Higham, Nicholas J. and Martin J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2013; cloth; pp. xv, 477; 100 colour illustrations, 40 line drawings, 60 maps; R.R.P. US$45.00; ISBN 9780300125344.

Chronologically, the scope of this this book is even broader than its title implies: Chapter 1, ‘Britain in and out of the Roman Empire’ treats the entire period of Roman rule in Britain, not just its final decades; while the final chapter, number 8, ‘The Transformation of Anglo-Saxon England’, is largely devoted to developments after the Norman Conquest. Both of these chapters are the work of Nicholas Higham, who is also responsible for Chapters 2 and 3, ‘The Origins of England’ and ‘From Tribal Chieftains to Christian Kings’. Chapters 4 to 7, in a book with a broadly chronological arrangement, are the work of Martin Ryan – ‘The Mercian Supremacies’, The Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings, c. 825–900’, ‘Conquest, Reform and the Making of England’ (dealing with the first three quarters of the tenth century), and ‘The Age of Æthelred’.

Each chapter is followed by two essays, each normally six or seven pages long, with a general heading ‘Sources and Issues’. These deal with diverse topics – ‘Gildas’ and ‘King Arthur’ (here identified as probably originating in folklore) in the case of Chapter 1, for example, and ‘The Bayeux Tapestry’ and ‘Domesday Book’ at the end of the final chapter. Regrettably, these are not listed in the table of contents. Eleven of the essays are by Higham, the remaining five by Ryan. The only jointly authored section is an excellent and very readable ‘Introduction’ discussing the relevance of the Anglo-Saxons today and outlining developments in the study of the Anglo-Saxon period since 1066.

As befits a one-volume survey, the work tends to steer a middle path when discussing the many obscure and contentious issues that arise, making clear when matters are in dispute. Regarding the ‘Adventus Saxonum’, for example, Higham concludes that ‘Overall … the evidence favours large-scale population continuity alongside significant migration’ (p. 104). His later observation that ‘Behind the rhetoric, the Normans had imposed an alien regime on an unwilling people by force … constructing a racially segregated state in which the minority treated the majority with contempt’ (p. 412) is a rare deviation from a measured tone.

In a ‘blurb’ on the book’s back cover Michael Wood states that it ‘will be of value to specialists but accessible to the much wider range of readers who are fascinated by this formative period in British history’. However, some members of both groups will experience a little disappointment. Serious students will regret the absence of any footnotes in a work very frequently asserting that more recent scholarship has overturned or seriously challenged longstanding interpretations. (The detailed chapter bibliographies are a [End Page 172] valuable but not entirely satisfactory substitute.) The ‘general reader’ with a layman’s interest in the period may find the detailed discussion, particularly in the earlier chapters largely based on archaeology, somewhat arid in places. Though beautifully produced and richly illustrated with many impressive colour photographs this is no coffee table book. It requires careful reading of a text that occasionally makes demands on the reader.

Its claim to cover the ‘world’ of the Anglo-Saxons is largely justified. Old English poetry and Anglo-Saxon visual arts receive little attention, but diverse disciplines, including history, archaeology, numismatics, environmental science, and genealogy, are brought to bear on illuminating many aspects of religious and secular life during the long period covered. Recent developments, such as the discovery of the Prittlewell Chambered Grave and the Staffordshire Hoard (both the subject of essays) are considered. This study is likely to replace the highly regarded The Anglo-Saxons (Penguin, 1982), edited by James Campbell, a work it resembles in scope and physical appearance, and may well establish itself as the standard one-volume study of Anglo-Saxon England for several years to come.

John Kennedy
Charles Sturt University
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