This comment in the book (p. 89) "Obviously some rudimentary notion of what it meant to be Christian would have to be conveyed if Christianization were to work as an effective political tool." I am looking for a historically researched book on Christianity as Empire. I know about the book, "Faith in the Face of Empire" by Mitri Raheb, which only peeked my interest. Any comments Cecil? I am interested in the 8th to 10th Century. The first half of the book was informative, but the second half dragged a bit into minutiae on what more obscure rulers did. This is meant to be a general history book, and for the most part, it does a good job of that. But the book does suffer a bit when it gets into lesser-known figures and describes their activities without keeping in focus the main overall themes of the book, and not placing their doings in the greater context of the whole.
I am just not in the mood to read this right now. Maybe in the future I will try again.
—hilarypc88
An interesting and thorough look at the Viking age. Well researched and written.
—heymrl
Heavy going - never really got engaged. A decent reference book.
—xrxrx
Probably the best overview of the Viking era I have read.
—clarie
