It only gets that extra half star because it was well-researched. But by god this was one of the most boring tedious stuck-in-the mud history books I’ve read. 

I’ve seen other reviewers describe it as “seeing the trees instead of the forest” and they are so right. There are so many individuals smushed into single paragraphs that sure show Wickhham did his homework and then didn’t want all his hard work to go to waste and just put it all in there to the detriment of an enjoyable reading experience. What is left is a confusing dense disaster that I cannot in good conscience recommend to anyone. The structure of this book compounded this. While the themes made sense, it pulled so much out of context that it all feels disconnected despite being all on the same continent. 

I honestly should have dnf’ed this but my pride couldn’t stand the sunk cost fallacy. I ended up skimming a lot here because I honestly couldn’t care less what certain individuals got up to without truly supporting the broader “argument” in this book. I sure feel no more enlightened on the period Wickham refused to call the dark ages despite the terminology also indicating the lack of sources that survived and not the intellectual stagnation people associate with the European Middle Ages. Both are true. This book has literally shown me that. It does not diminish my respect for the period either, to know that people had to restart intellectual discussions and state creation. 

The Inheritance of Rome is the wrong title for this book. It should be called: “Trees in the European Forest: a detailed account into the early medieval lives of many *many* early medieval  lives.” Mainly because the original title was answered within the first 200 pages of this book.