Thursday, September 13, 2012
"Show me your largest, heaviest books, please."
No, that's not quite what I said in the library today. Yet I came out with four books, two of which are 800+ pages. They are both, by the way, by early medievalists (Wickham [2005] and McCormick [2001]). So, ADM, Jonathan... If I throw out my shoulder, can I blame you somehow?
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Not for McCormick! I take no responsibility for him. (What on earth are you doing, Dr. N.?) Prof. Wickham, on the other hand, I have been known to express enthusiasm about, and yes, it is a heavy book...
Is it strange that when you mentioned "heaviest book" I thought of Wickham? One of my students was ruefully commenting on how that same volume tore a hole in her backpack the other year. . . .
So have you read them yet? Go check in!
Jon, I'm trying to get some background about how people have written about Mediterranean unity.
Sadly, I've just added two more doorstops to the list. ::sigh::
The names that keep clanging round me on this front are Horden & Purcell with their The Corrupting Sea. I'm betting that's one of those doorstops, but it is at least une dureée plus longue than the exclusively early-medieval stuff. But there is also David Abulafia's new history of the Mediterranean (I forget the title but it's nearly that) which also wants to consider how people have done that, so that might allow you some shortcuts...
Horden & Purcell were indeed other culprits on my list. Goitein and Abulafia wait in the wings.
I'm not sure what will give out first: my back or my brain.
Coming back to this late, I feel that it's important that you know, if you don't already which probably you do, that there is an abridge version of Goitein which comes in at only I think one volume rather than three or seven or whatever the full deal is. Best of luck!
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