Writing about the Merovingians in the Early United States

Gregory I. Halfond is Professor of History at Framingham State University. His prior publications include The Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils, AD 511–768 (2010), The Medieval Way of War (2015), and Bishops and the Politics of Patronage in Merovingian Gaul (2019).

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1: Sources of KnowledgeChapter 1: American Writers and Merovingian Historiography: Reception and EngagementChapter 2: Schoolbooks and the Teaching of Merovingian HistoryPart 2: Locating Meaning in Merovingian HistoryChapter 3: National Character and Historical Parallelism in a Revolutionary AgeChapter 4: Adjudicating Political Legitimacy in the Early American Republic (1790–1816)Chapter 5: Early Medieval Unfreedom and the Debate over Slavery (1840–1860)ConclusionBibliographyIndex

This is a very original book—I do not believe I have ever before seen a discussion of how early American writers treated the Merovingians. Halfond has done an enormous amount of research in newspapers, magazines, political and historical works, and schoolbooks. He also brings the reader interested in the Merovingians for their own sake up to speed on the most recent scholarship on the era. This slim but dense volume should generate attention from Americanists as well as medievalists.