Books like Mohomet et Charlemagne by Pirenne, Henri

A sweeping, narrative history of the Middle Ages that blends cultural, religious, and social insight with updated scholarship and new biographical sketches, offering a fresh, engaging view of medieval life.

Under the emperors' rule, the cultural lives of all Rome's subjects were utterly transformed. This book is a study of this process - conventionally termed 'Romanization' - through an investigation of the experience of Rome's Gallic provinces in the late Republic and early empire. Beginning with a rejection of the concept of 'Romanization', it describes the nature of Roman power in Gaul and the Romans' own understanding of these changes. Successive chapters then map the chronology and geography of change and offer new interpretations of urbanism, rural civilization, consumption and cult, before concluding with a synoptic view of Gallo-Roman civilization and of the origins of provincial cultures in general. The work draws on literary and archaeological material to make a contribution to the cultural history of the empire which will be of interest to ancient historians, classical archaeologists and all interested in cultural change.

Jeff Sypeck’s *Becoming Charlemagne* retraces how the Frankish king Karl, crowned by Pope Leo III in 800, built a medieval empire through warfare, diplomacy, and alliances with leaders from Byzantium, the Abbasid Caliphate, and Jewish communities.

"Charlemagne's persona - derived from a blending of myth, history, and poetry - assumes a constitutional value in France, where for more than ten centuries it was deemed useful to trace national privileges and undertakings back to Charlemagne. His plasticity, Morrissey argues, endows Charlemagne with both legitimizing power and subversive potential. Part 1 of the book explores a fundamental cycle in the history of Charlemagne's representation, beginning shortly after the great emperor's death and continuing to the end of the sixteenth century. Part 2 discusses the remythologizing of Charlemagne in Renaissance and Reformation France through the late nineteenth century."--BOOK JACKET.