Home / Education / Historian Rewrites Post-Roman Era
Historian Rewrites Post-Roman Era
23 Oct
Summary
- Chris Wickham shifted focus to ordinary people in post-Roman history.
- He argued the era after Rome's fall was creative and dynamic.
- His work analyzed local economies driving growth across continents.
Historian Chris Wickham, who passed away at 76, revolutionized the understanding of the post-Roman Empire period. He championed a "history from below" approach, shifting focus from elites to the common people, who constituted 85-95% of the population.
Wickham argued that the era after Rome's collapse was not a decline but a creative and dynamic period. His comparative studies highlighted the agency of peasants and local communities in shaping this new world, often finding it less oppressive than Roman rule.
His research extended globally, examining economic systems from medieval Italy to the Indian Ocean trade. Wickham demonstrated how internal regional economies, driven by local production and trade, were key to economic growth, challenging traditional views of luxury trade.
His academic career spanned significant roles at the University of Birmingham and Oxford University. Wickham was also a dedicated advocate for the humanities and open access publishing in the UK. He was a generous mentor to many scholars across various disciplines.
