• Hardcover
• 288
• UnRoman Britain
• Miles Russell
• English
• 22 August 2020
• 9780752455662

Miles Russell Õ 5 review

Miles Russell Õ 5 review review ✓ PDF, eBook or Kindle ePUB free Õ Miles Russell Summary UnRoman Britain When we think of Roman Britain we tend to think of a land of togas and richly decorated palaces with Britons happily going about their much improved daily business under the benign gaze of Rome  This image is to a great extent a fiction In fact Britons were some of the least enthusiastic members of the Roman Empire A few adopted Roman ways to curry favor with the invaders A lot never adopted a Roman. UnRoman Britain argues that Britain although it may have been a formal part of the Roman Empire for nearly 400 years was never fully Roman p 21 Like the British in India or the Americans in Ira the Roman occupiers established pockets of their culture and co opted the ruling elites but left the countryside and its people alone Pre Roman Celtic culture survived and re emerged when the legions evacuated c AD 410Sadly I ve allowed a backlog of reviews to accumulate on my desk This book which I read than a year ago is one of them But based on the notes I took here are some of the points the authors make Membership in tribal groups was fluid It s a mistake to look at a map of pre Roman Britain with its clearly defined tribes and imagine it reflects a late Iron Age reality After Boudicca s revolt Rome imposed a traditional provincial government It reorganized existing towns and established others along traditional Graeco Roman lines although the archaeological evidence indicates that few were very successful at least compared to similar foundations in Gaul and Spain The Graeco Roman pantheon appears to have had little influence outside of urban centers and military foundations While the Romans ruthlessly exploited Wales and Cornwall s mineral wealth there s little evidence that that bounty found its way into the island s economy Not surprisingly most of the evidence for Romanization is found in the south and east the coasts nearest the mainland and most tightly integrated in the empirewide economy By contrast with Gaulthe British aristocracy seemto have remained insular and uninterested in joining the imperial power structures right to the end p 178 After the legions left Roman culture disappears from the archaeological record no coins no building no manufacturies no villas This can t be attributed to the Anglo Saxons as they didn t arrive until after 450 The authors posit several reasons for this 1 Rapid fragmentation into pre Roman tribal polities There was no self identification as British unlike Gaul or Spain where distinct Germanic kingdoms arose 2 There was no well established Christian presence that might have mitigated the effects of the secular government s disappearance 3 As the book hopes to show what Romanization there was was a thin veneer easily cast aside The final chapter of the book looks at Celtic Britain s transformation into Anglo Saxon England A process thorough and far uicker than Romanization despite indications that the number of Anglo Saxon immigrants was very low 100000 Again the authors offer some reasons for this 1 Anglo Saxon culture was similar to Celtic much so than Rome s 2 Anglo Saxons were infiltrating a country where ancient traditions were at a low ebb the Romans had invaded at a high water mark for Celtic civilization 3 Because of the limited number of Anglo Saxons it s likely they married British women evident linguistically in Old English which owes much to Celtic dialects especially its syntax and succeeding generations were raised in a hybrid culture 4 Roman culture was in decline discredited 5 And though limited as noted above Anglo Saxon immigration was still far greater than RomanThe authors don t discount Romanization but argue that its influence in Britain was far less than previously thought Romanization is not a myth but it was never a conscious policy of any republican or imperial government Rome imposed a distinctive order wherever it held sway and in some cases they transformed the region Gaul Spain in others the Roman veneer was swiftly thrown off BritainTurning aside from the content of the book physically it s an impressive volume Russell and Laycock have provided numerous photos many in color drawings maps and diagrams that illustrate British lifestyles and the paucity of Roman influencesThis is definitely a book I would recommend The issue of tribal identification is a fascinating study in itself and I would recommend Peter Heather and Walter Goffart among others for those interested in recent research into the matter For the interested John McWhorter s Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue The Untold Story of English which I reviewed several years ago offers a brief but fascinating explanation for this The Amber Room The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure years was never fully Roman p 21 Like the British in India or the Americans in Ira the Roman occupiers established pockets of their culture and co opted the ruling elites but left the countryside and its people alone Pre Roman Celtic culture survived and re emerged when the legions evacuated c AD 410Sadly I ve allowed a backlog of reviews to accumulate on my desk This book which I read than a Grass For My Pillow year ago is one of them But based on the notes I took here are some of the points the authors make Membership in tribal groups was fluid It s a mistake to look at a map of pre Roman Britain with its clearly defined tribes and imagine it reflects a late Iron Age reality After Boudicca s revolt Rome imposed a traditional provincial government It reorganized existing towns and established others along traditional Graeco Roman lines although the archaeological evidence indicates that few were very successful at least compared to similar foundations in Gaul and Spain The Graeco Roman pantheon appears to have had little influence outside of urban centers and military foundations While the Romans ruthlessly exploited Wales and Cornwall s mineral wealth there s little evidence that that bounty found its way into the island s economy Not surprisingly most of the evidence for Romanization is found in the south and east the coasts nearest the mainland and most tightly integrated in the empirewide economy By contrast with Gaulthe British aristocracy seemto have remained insular and uninterested in joining the imperial power structures right to the end p 178 After the legions left Roman culture disappears from the archaeological record no coins no building no manufacturies no villas This can t be attributed to the Anglo Saxons as they didn t arrive until after 450 The authors posit several reasons for this 1 Rapid fragmentation into pre Roman tribal polities There was no self identification as British unlike Gaul or Spain where distinct Germanic kingdoms arose 2 There was no well established Christian presence that might have mitigated the effects of the secular government s disappearance 3 As the book hopes to show what Romanization there was was a thin veneer easily cast aside The final chapter of the book looks at Celtic Britain s transformation into Anglo Saxon England A process thorough and far uicker than Romanization despite indications that the number of Anglo Saxon immigrants was very low 100000 Again the authors offer some reasons for this 1 Anglo Saxon culture was similar to Celtic much so than Rome s 2 Anglo Saxons were infiltrating a country where ancient traditions were at a low ebb the Romans had invaded at a high water mark for Celtic civilization 3 Because of the limited number of Anglo Saxons it s likely they married British women evident linguistically in Old English which owes much to Celtic dialects especially its syntax and succeeding generations were raised in a hybrid culture 4 Roman culture was in decline discredited 5 And though limited as noted above Anglo Saxon immigration was still far greater than RomanThe authors don t discount Romanization but argue that its influence in Britain was far less than previously thought Romanization is not a myth but it was never a conscious policy of any republican or imperial government Rome imposed a distinctive order wherever it held sway and in some cases they transformed the region Gaul Spain in others the Roman veneer was swiftly thrown off BritainTurning aside from the content of the book physically it s an impressive volume Russell and Laycock have provided numerous photos many in color drawings maps and diagrams that illustrate British lifestyles and the paucity of Roman influencesThis is definitely a book I would recommend The issue of tribal identification is a fascinating study in itself and I would recommend Peter Heather and Walter Goffart among others for those interested in recent research into the matter For the interested John McWhorter s Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue The Untold Story of English which I reviewed several De ce iubim femeile years ago offers a brief but fascinating explanation for this

Miles Russell Õ 5 review review ✓ PDF, eBook or Kindle ePUB free Õ Miles Russell Summary UnRoman Britain Lifestyle at all and remained unimpressed and driven by deep seated tribal division It wasn't until the late thirdearly fourth century that a small minority of landowners grew fat on the benefits of trade and enjoyed the kind of lifestyle we have been taught to associate with the period Britannia was a far away province which whilst useful for some major economic reserves fast became a costly and tro. I came to this book with high expectations only to find myself disappointed Firstly it s a short book with only ten chapters Secondly the book is an uneven mix of tabloid tirades and archaeological insight frankly much of this book is nothing than a rant and much of the archaeology that is actually discussed adds little depth to the argument despite the slogan of UnRoman Britain that the authors repeatedly assertEven worse is that because this is a short book so much is missed there s no real discussion of changes that would have affected many ordinary people in Britain such as new tools new crops and new diseases Additionally the subjects for actual discussion are brief and far between with some surprising omissions such as nothing at all mentioned about the missing ninth legion or much discussion of the limited of town development through the second century which would surely be a key argumentAll of which result in a frustrating book that spends too much time with angry posturing and too little time creating a narrative that matters There could have been a wonderful and in depth argument made about how Roman culture may or may not have touched people in Britain in different ways but instead this book is an opportunity lostThere are some useful points of reference in it but overall this book veers repeatedly between trying to be populist and trying to be academic and it never really finds a decent balance between both The result is a study that lacks depth and fails to properly justify it s own argument

Summary UnRoman Britain

Miles Russell Õ 5 review review ✓ PDF, eBook or Kindle ePUB free Õ Miles Russell Summary UnRoman Britain Ublesome concern for Rome much like Ira for the British government today Huge efforts by the state to control the hearts and minds of the Britons were met with at worst hostile resistance and rebellion and at best by steadfast indifference The end of the Roman Empire largely came as business as usual for the vast majority of Britons as they simply hadn't adopted the Roman way of life in the first plac. I didn t finish this oneThe introduction sets out his premise and I didn t feel I wanted to know all the details so I took it back to the library after Chapter 3