Matthew Innes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has published widely on the social, political and cultural history of early medieval Europe. His book State and Society in the Early Middle Ages won the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Historical Book Prize in 2000 and his research was recognized by the award of a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2004.

• Preface and Acknowledgements.  Introduction: Rome, the Barbarians and the Fate of Western Europe  1. A New Roman Order: State, Church and Society in the Late Empire  2. Barbarians, the Roman Frontier and the Crisis of the Western Empire  3. The Fifth Century West and the 'Fall of Rome'  4. The Western Mediterranean in the Age of 'Reconquest'  5. Arabs, Avars and Amphoras: Causes and Consequences of Imperial Collapse  6. Hispania and Italy: Contrasting Communities  7. Gaul and Germany: The Merovingian World  8. Britain and Ireland: Kings and Peoples  9. 'The Invincible Race of the Franks': Conquest, Christianisation and Carolingian Kingship  10.'Peace, Unity and Concord Among the Christian People': Carolingian Order and its Architects  11. Paradoxes of Empire: Western Europe in the Ninth Century.  Epilogue.  Index

"Innes has done early medieval scholarship a great service. By surveying and synthesising recent research covering such a long period, his book will help others to connect the dots and draw conclusions of their own... This is a very important book... an excellent resource for teachers and students."Warren C. Brown, English Historical Review"... Chapters include very brief summaries and chronologies, plus boxed essays on special topics and bibliographical essays. Graduate students and teachers ofthe subject should find this volume very useful" -- CHOICE June 2008, Vol 45 (C.J. Chandler, Lycoming College)