Books about Visigoths from Amazon.com

Visigoth is a portrait of the American male — gritty, violent, and fascinating The protagonists in this collection of stories come from all walks of life — hockey players, middle managers, political hopefuls, and wayward husbands — but all share a tendency to turn towards violence when life begins spinning out of control. In "The Flyweight," an all-star high-school wrestler struggles with his own success and the expectations of others when he begins hearing voices after a schizophrenic breakdown. "Visigoth," the title story, depicts a college hockey player unable to understand that his relationship with an English professor is over. The novella "Free Fall" focuses on a cycle of escalating violence in small farming and mining towns and the effect that it has on the main character and his family. Sharp, inquisitive, and witty, Visigoth challenges the reader to question the popular glory of violence in all its manifestations..
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The work of top scholars in Visigothic studies... Using all evidence available, the volume addresses the evolution of the Visigoths in early medieval history. CHOICE Indispensable for all scholars of the Visigoths. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW Books on the Visigoths and Visigothic Spain in English are rare, so this is a welcome addition to their ranks... wide-ranging collection (which) has much to offer, not just to Spanish studies but to students of late antiquity in general. CLASSICAL REVIEW Between 376 and 476 the Roman Empire in western Europe was dismantled by aggressive outsiders, `barbarians' as the Romans labelled them. Chief among these were the Visigoths, a new force of previously separate Gothic and other groups from south-west France, initially settled by the Romans but subsequently, from the middle of the fifth century, achieving total independence from the failing Roman Empire, and extending their power from the Loire to the Straits of Gibraltar. These studies draw on literary and archaeological evidence to address important questions thrown up by the history of the Visigoths and of the kingdom they generated: the historical processes which led to their initial creation; the emergence of the Visigothic kingdom in the fifth century; and the government, society, culture and economy of the `mature' kingdom of the sixth and seventh centuries. A valuable feature of the collection, reflecting the switch of the centre of the Visigothic kingdom from France to Spain from the beginning of the sixth century, is the inclusion, in English, of current Spanish scholarship. Dr PETER HEATHERteaches in the Department of History at University College London..
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Features translations and commentaries on two texts from this historical period..
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Ulfila was a fourth-century Christian bishop and missionary who first brought Christianity to the Visigoths He is credited with having created the Gothic alphabet, and he wrote the earliest translation of the Bible into a Germanic language. In this classic and still valuable short study of early Christianity among the Goths, E.A. Thompson first describes the background to the Visigoths' conversion from paganism, discussing their material culture, relations with the Roman Empire, social organization and religion. He then goes on to describe the conversion and its aftermath and to assess Ulfila's achievement in the earliest history of Christianity among the Germanic people..
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In 673, the recently elected King Wamba of Spain was confronted with a separatist rebellion in Visigothic Gaul and other territories in the northeast of his realm. After recapturing Barcelona and Gerona, the ruler crossed the Pyrenees at the head of his armies and, taking one fortress after another, followed the retreating rebel forces to the final bastion of Nimes. From there Wamba led them back to Toledo as captives in a triumphal procession. Soon thereafter, Julian, a young priest at the court of Toledo, wrote his "Historia Wambae regis", an account of Wamba's accession to the throne and his victory in the first campaign under his command. Julian's work is one of few political narratives of the early middle ages. The author found himself at the beginning of a career that would raise him to the apex of the ecclesiastical hierarchy as bishop of Toledo, but that would also see him involved, suspiciously, in the deposition of Wamba that same year. "The Story of Wamba" offers the first complete English translation of Julian's work. The text is fully annotated and preceded by a thorough introduction to its historical and literary backgrounds. The historical study focuses mainly on the tension between royal and aristocratic power during the reigns of Wamba and his two predecessors, Chindasvind and Reccesvind. The position of the church, caught in these secular conflicts, is analyzed in detail as is the plight of Julian, the son of converted Jews, as he took his first steps at court and in the Visigothic church. The literary study focuses on the political vocabulary of the text, the ideological messages implicit in its various sources and models, and its unique combination of classical, late antique, and medieval elements..
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