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P. M. BARFORD, The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2001. Pp. 416. $27.97.
Tracing literary, linguistic, and cultural evidences, P. M. Barford provides the reader an overview of current understandings regarding the early Slavs. Divided both chronologically and topically into thirteen chapters, the author considers the formation of the Slavic ethos, daily life, the social structure, warfare, pagan religions, and the Christianization of Slavdom. Eighty pages of maps and archeological diagrams arranged in sequential order in the appendices illustrate points discussed in the prose. Through the arrangement of such analysis and diagrams, the author seeks to deliver an introductory text for the general reader and western medievalist (xiii), supplementing the lack of eastern historical training in most colleges and seminaries.
An especially strong facet of this volume is Barford's use of ancient literary sources, including those from Jewish and Islamic perspectives. The...