Colin Marshall talks to Chris Wickham, Chichele Professor of Medieval

History at Oxford University, Fellow of All Souls College and author of

The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000,

the latest in Penguin’s sprawling History of Europe series. Wickham

integrates textual and architectual evidence to craft a new,

fascinatingly detailed historical experience of the era beginning at

the decline of the Roman Empire and ending at the rise of European

nations as we know them today. Eschewing both teleology and grand

narratives, Wickham presents the Middle Ages not as a mere stepping

stone to modernity but as a fascinating period in and of itself.