Book suggestions on the Frankish empire.

[Razgovory]

Thanks guys.  It's really a period I know very little about.  I hope to remedy that.  Thank God for the internet.  I can order a 70 dollar book you wouldn't even be able to find in a one horse town like like Jefferson City less then 10 bucks.

[Grinning_Colossus]

You could presumably have gotten it through inter-library loan... you just wouldn't have known of its existence.

CKII has made me curious, too. All those Karlings.

[Agelastus]

For military matters:
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Carolingian-Warfare-Prelude-Empire/dp/0812221443/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377288133&sr=8-1&keywords=bachrach+carolingian
On my wish list; haven't read yet, but he is supposed to be a specialist in this area.

He's also supposed to be controversial with ideas that would be considered "left field".

Admittedly, this was related to me by three different lecturers at King's College London over 15 years ago when I was doing a 10000 word dissertation on Carolingian warfare during the reign of Charlemagne; he may be considered orthodox now.

[The Minsky Moment]

What are the ref tags for minsky? You have a side gig?

Just looked up all the books I read that I could recall related to the subject.
Except the Bachrach one; I just remembered the name.

[Razgovory]

Got the first book in the mail today.  I realized that Minsky referenced it a few years back by it's French name.

[The Minsky Moment]

Is that the Michel Rouche book?  My recollection is that book was bit heavier on the Merovingian side, although it might just be that was the part that stuck in my mind.  The Merovingians tend to be more interesting, in a HBO miniseries sort of way.

[Razgovory]

Nope the Feudal Transformation.  You were discussing something with Shelf, and he mentioned a theory and you asked if it was "La Mutation feodale"  It's certainly not for a novice though.  I have a decent grounding in Latin, and the middle ages but I still get lost sometimes.  It would help if a the authors defined a Latin term before using it.  They sometimes get around to explaining it.  For instance I know what Latrocinium means but I had to look up Vicarii.

[The Minsky Moment]

Nope the Feudal Transformation.  You were discussing something with Shelf, and he mentioned a theory and you asked if it was "La Mutation feodale"  It's certainly not for a novice though.  I have a decent grounding in Latin, and the middle ages but I still get lost sometimes.  It would help if a the authors defined a Latin term before using it.  They sometimes get around to explaining it.  For instance I know what Latrocinium means but I had to look up Vicarii.

Knowing the Latin wouldn't necessarily help because the nature of the title changes changes over time and space - if a term is left untranslated, it is probably because it isn't really translatable without losing nuance.

BTW the Rouche book is pretty good "The Roots of Europe" ("Racines d'Europe").  Not sure if there is a an English translation.  There is a good discussion in there of tanistry.