Empires and Barbarians

Peter Heather's 2009 study of the great migrations that transformed Europe from 375 to 900 AD — arguing that the movement of peoples (Huns, Goths, Vandals, Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Slavs) was not random chaos but organized processes of state formation.

Rehabilitates the Migration Period as organized state formation — Heather demonstrates that the Goths, Franks, Saxons, and Slavs were not destroying civilization but building new polities in response to Roman collapse, and that the spread of agriculture, literacy, and political organization eastward across Europe was a profound achievement.