Peter Browns The World of Late Antiquity essays

Peter Browns The World of Late Antiquity essays Peter Browns The World of Late Antiquity The Late Antique period is recognized from AD 150 to 750. For many historians, the central focus of this era revolves around decline and fall; however, this is not the case for Peter Brown, author of 1971s The World of Late Antiquity. Brown saw the Late Antique period as a study of social and cultural changes. Instead of focusing merely on the declines of empires, like many of his contemporaries, Brown goes deeper with his research to describe the Late Antique period as an era in which the most deep rooted of ancient institutions disappeared for all time (p.9). By 476, the Roman Empire had vanished from Western Europe, and by 655, the Persian Empire had disappeared from the Near East. What makes Brown unique in his portrayal of the era is that instead of studying just the cause and effect of the civilizations downfall, he examines the changes that occurred and mens reaction to them. By doing so, Brown is able to show his purpose for writing the book. He believed there were t oo many books concerning just the downfalls of the era, and wanted people to know that the period was also one of outstanding new beginnings. Brown also wanted to show that the Late Antique period defined the far-reaching impact of both Christianity on Europe, and Islam on the Near East. His thesis centers around social and cultural changes and specifically states: I hope that the reader will put it down with some idea of how, and even why, the Late Antique world came to differ from classical civilization, and of how the headlong changes of this period, in turn, determined the varying evolution of western Europe, of eastern Europe and of the Near East (p.7). The World of Late Antiquity is organized into two parts titled the Late Roman Revolution and Divergent Legacies. Part one, the Late Roman Revolution, is divided into two chapters, society and rel...