Europa in der Spätantike does not stand alone, but is one in a series, Kultur und Mentalität, in which three other volumes have already appeared: Europa im frhen Mittelalter 500-1050 by Franz Neiske, Europa in Hochmittelalter 1050-1250 by Peter Dinzelbacher, and Europa im späten Mittelalter by Johannes Grabmayer. To date, none have been translated into English. The purpose of the series is indicated both by the series title and the subtitle given to each volume: Eine Kultur- und Mentalitätsgeschichte. Thus the series, including this particular volume, is a survey firmly rooted in the annaliste tradition of historiography.
It is best to begin with what this book is not, since appearances can be deceiving. Despite it's size and shape (approximately 22 by 28 cm.) and apparent brevity for such a subject (just over two hundred pages), and although it is nicely (though not lavishly) illustrated, it is not a coffee table book or a light survey for the lightly learned. There is little mention of the eastern empire or north Africa, areas that would normally be discussed in any general survey of late antiquity. Political history receives only the most cursory review (five pages) and there is no narrative overview of modern historiography, though the text throughout makes frequent reference to the secondary literature (of which close to five hundred works are listed in the bibliography). Rather, it is a portrait of the mind of late antique humanity, drawn with broad strokes and geographically limited to the European provinces of the later Roman empire.
The relative space given to the principal divisions of the book make this especially clear. A short chapter on basic ethnic and class divisions in late antique Europe ("Aufbau der Gesellschaft") is followed by the briefest of historical reviews and surprisingly little on economic life. Thus the Völkerwanderung and the creation of the ethnic map of late antique Europe are mentioned, but details (e.g. the battle of Adrianople) are missing. The creation of the later Roman colonate is but briefly noted.
The third and fourth chapters are "Einstellung zum Ich" and "Einstellung zur sozialen Umwelt," which could be translated roughly as "inner life" and "social relations." These take up sixty-six and seventy-four pages respectively and form the heart of the book. Subheadings for chapter three include "Body and Soul," "Happiness and Sorrow," "Aesthetic," "Religions," "Death and Dying," "Fears and Hopes," and "Ways of Thought" (Denkweisen). However, despite the various subjects indicated, the principal focus is religious in each of these categories, as is usual in surveys of late antiquity. Chapter four covers other matters customarily associated with social history: "Individual and Community," "Sexuality, Love and Friendship," "Gender, Youth and Old Age," "Force, War and Peace," "Law," "Communication," and "Languages." Here too, however, the effect of the church on each of these appears on every page. Chapter five, "Einstellung zur natrlichen Umwelt," "relation to the natural environment," takes up less than ten percent of the book, covering such matters as concepts of physical space, education, philosophy and the natural sciences. One wishes that more space were dedicated to these topics, but the relative brevity of their treatment reflects the interests of a field still dominated by the legacy of Peter Brown.
The final chapter, "Zur Charakterisierung zur Epoche," similarly reflects the development in recent decades of the chronologically amorphous "late antitquity," as opposed to the earlier, more clear cut view of the "later Roman empire." "Die augenblickliche Tendenz geht in der Forschung deutlich dahin, nicht mehr von einem katastrophenartigen 'Untergan' des Römischen Reiches, sondern von seiner dynamischen 'Transformation' in die frmittelalterliche Kultur zu sprechen." The authors try to maintain a neutral stance between advocates of "friedliche Akkulturation" and "Fortschritt" versus those of violence and "Niedergang." "Doch solche Wertungen zu diskutieren, was nicht das Ziel des vorliegenden Buches." Yet they cite Averil Cameron, whose well-known adherence to the former school does not prevent her from admitting in the Cambridge Ancient History that "barbarians did not merely assimilate; they actually invaded, and destruction did occur"--and the picture they draw of these centuries is nevertheless one of decline (or "Vereinfachung" as they somewhat tendentiously put it), a view rehabilitated in the recent work of Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather.
In such a broad survey, it is inevitable that mistakes and mischaracterisations crop up. Thus the description of Christianity as a religion "der Armen und Sklaven" (58) in its origins is a popular view long since abandoned. The idea that lead poisoning could have anything to do with the fall of Rome (180) is a persistent myth. Gibbon did not write something called The Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire (184). Yet such errors are mercifully few. More importantly, what niche does this book fill? It contains little of interest to the specialist, but that is to be expected. It is too broad in scope and brief in content to qualify as Alltagsgeschichte of late antique Europe. It does not really serve as a handbook either. However, as an overview of attitudes in late antiquity towards such a large variety of subjects, but one limited to the provinces of the western empire, there is nothing else quite like it. This makes it an ideal survey of social history for a graduate student of late antiquity who wants a comprehensive introduction to the subject and needs to improve his German, but who trembles at tackling the six volumes of Seeck's Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt.