MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 03859cam a2200505 i 4500
001 11847164
005 20160623134257.0
008 150825s2016 maub b 001 0 eng c
010 $a 2015033363
020 $a9780674088771$q(alk. paper)
020 $a0674088778$q(alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)ocn921310657
035 $a(OCoLC)921310657
035 $a(NNC)11847164
040 $aMH/DLC$beng$erda$cHLS$dDLC$dOCLCO$dYDXCP$dBTCTA$dOCLCF$dBDX$dOCLCQ$dERASA$dNNC
042 $apcc
043 $amm-----$aaw-----$aff-----$ae-sp---
050 00 $aDF571$b.H354 2016
082 00 $a949.5/013$223
100 1 $aHaldon, John F.,$eauthor.
245 14 $aThe empire that would not die :$bthe paradox of eastern Roman survival, 640-740 /$cJohn Haldon.
264 1 $aCambridge, Massachusetts :$bHarvard University Press,$c2016.
300 $axii, 418 pages :$bmaps ;$c25 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
500 $a"Based on the Carl Newell Jackson Lectures"--Half title page.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 363-409) and index.
505 0 $aIntroduction: Goldilocks in Byzantium -- The challenge: a framework for collapse -- Beliefs, narratives, and the moral universe -- Identities, divisions, and solidarities -- Elites and identities -- Regional variation and resistance -- Some environmental factors -- Organisation, cohesion, and survival -- A conclusion.
520 $a"In the middle of the sixth century the eastern Roman (Byzantine) empire was the largest state in western Eurasia. A century later it was a fraction of the size, its eastern provinces torn away by the early Islamic conquests in the middle of the seventh century. It had lost three-quarters of its lands and probably more of its tax revenues. How did it survive beyond the year 700 CE? Surrounded on all sides by challenges, most particularly from the dynamism and strength of the Islamic Caliphate, it should not have done: massively outnumbered and out-resourced, its territory repeatedly and continuously laid waste, its towns turned to fortresses, its population decimated by warfare and plague, even the capital, Constantinople, the largest city in the western world, besieged and threatened. Yet it did survive. By bringing together evidence for beliefs, identities and attitudes, administrative structures and the search for resources, the organization of its armies and the system of crisis management in its tax system, this book seeks to locate and describe the mechanisms of survival. The author places all these developments into their environmental context, looking at how the Byzantine state benefited from small-scale climatic changes--of which it was, of course, largely unaware--and how, together with other elements, these created the conditions that permitted the eastern Roman empire not just to survive, but indeed to recover sufficiently to mount its own major challenge to the Islamic world in subsequent centuries."--Provided by publisher.
651 0 $aByzantine Empire$xHistory$y527-1081.
651 0 $aByzantine Empire$xForeign relations$zIslamic Empire.
651 0 $aByzantine Empire$xPolitics and government$y527-1081.
650 0 $aWar and society$zByzantine Empire.
650 0 $aHuman ecology$zByzantine Empire.
650 7 $aDiplomatic relations.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01907412
650 7 $aHuman ecology.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst00962941
650 7 $aPolitics and government.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01919741
650 7 $aWar and society.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01170447
651 7 $aByzantine Empire.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01209292
651 7 $aIslamic Empire.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01244134
648 7 $a527 - 1081$2fast
655 7 $aHistory.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01411628
852 00 $bglx$hDF571$i.H354 2016
852 00 $bglx$hDF571$i.H354 2016g