In Search of the Dark Ages - Michael Wood Kartoniert (TB)

The book "In Search of the Dark Ages", authored by Michael Wood, aims to cover the so-called British Dark Ages (ca 500-1066 AD) for the wider audience. Each book chapter focuses on a different (more or less) historical character, and uses such figure as a starting point to describe their historical period. The characters are Boadicea, King Arthur, the man buried in Sutton Hoo (whoever he was), Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Eric Bloodaxe, Ethelred the Unready, and William the Conqueror. The chapters cover a relatively long time of British history. They are well written, sufficiently informative, at least on the historical figures, easy to read, and entertaining. However, there lies the first issue of this book: it is "too" entertaining. Especially in the first chapters of the book, too much room is given to speculation, and too little to archeological/genetic evidence. On the other hand, the written documents are decently used and extensively quoted, but their reliability, as the author himself acknowledges, is matter of debate. The whole style of the book could be summarized with "let us imagine the British countryside where this and that could have happened", and, where facts did happen, the author does not fail do provide room to imagination. In other words, the hard historical facts are diluted.The second problem of this book is the total absence of maps. The author cites/mentions multiple historical places, archeological sites, and hypothetical locations throughout the book, without ANY reference to maps. It could be argued that the British audience (to whom this book is addressed, since it is also published by BBC books) is familiar with their own countryside. However, I assume little amount of non-British readers are familiar with the locations and placenames of Sussex, Kent, and so on.The book is not devoid of biases. The third problem of the book is the implicit aim of the author to positively highlight the immigration on the British continent. The first line of the book itself is "The modern British are a nation of immigrants". The Celtic and Anglo-Saxon immigrations (the words "Anglo-Saxon invasion" are usedonly when describing the Romano-British point of view) and their lively cultures are described mainly in (and with) positive terms. Whether this is a problem or not probably is matter of taste and opinion of the reader. However, since the hard historical facts are already diluted, this declination of the facts is unnecessary andperhaps detrimental. It is also possible that the author or a good part of the audience would identify themselves as Anglo-Saxon descendants, therefore, since the aim of the book is to reach the general public, it would be in the interest of the author to highlight the arrival of their ancestors as "kinda" pacific. This would also explain the choice of words and the general tone used in the description of certain Anglo-Saxon kings, which could be summarized as "damn you guy, you let the Vikings/Normans invade us". I find this attitude rather common in British historians. For example, I have found this attitude also in a book, by a different author, on King Knut. The "collision of feelings" between the two point of views of Wood could be interesting on the sociological point of view but undermines the quality of the work. In addition, I have found the language used for the description of the Roman conquest of Britain quite derogative, almost at the level of "evil Romans" and "imperialist b******s". However, due to my personal background, the bias could be mine, therefore this last observation should be considered carefully.Overall, as reader interested in Anglo-Saxon history and culture, I find this book only partially satisfactory. "The Anglo-Saxon World" is widely considered the reference book on the topic but it comes, obviously, with a price. "In Search of the Dark Ages" is a much cheaper choice but comes with much less information. The author wrote a book appealing to the (British) reader with casual or general interest on the topic. This book is a good overview on the topic but its aim is primarily to captivate the reader, rather than to provide historical knowledge.