Originally read for university. Includes opposing opinions, which I really appreciated. Also includes wildly uncomfortable discussions of and terminology for non-Roman populations ("barbarians"), which I really did not.

I am really enjoying this quite a bit, although its not normally my thing.

I always wanted to learn more about the reasons why the Western Roman Empire fell, but due to the very complex nature of all the local and external economic and political factors, the story was far from a simple "the ruler of nation x conquered Rome and brought the empire to an end" narrative. The fall of Rome was due to a complicated interplay between an economy struggling to produce more military output that was increasingly demanded due to a simultaneous encroachment of Germanic tribes from the European front and the Sassanid Persian Empire from the eastern front and the effects mass immigration of Germanic tribes due to the menace presented by the Huns had on the Empire. Peter Heather does a great job in narrating all these events. What I initially loved about this book was the way Mr. Heather began the story by using a descriptive narrative of a certain event. It felt like the beginning of an exciting novel.

Before moving on to the not so best part about this book, I would like to give a disclaimer that I am writing this review not as a historian who is reviewing the quality of the information present in the book but as a person who chose to read it as a form of leisure. In my opinion, this book can drown the reader into an ocean of details of certain events and an endless list of names and dates in order to give a detailed account of what's happening. The amount of research the author put in to supply us with these details and to use them to come to conclusions demonstrates a lot of effort on his part, but to me, it turned the process of reading them into a chore. I would have preferred a much more straightforward approach with a focus on the general political situation and a faster pace as opposed to detailed descriptions of little skirmishes and battles and details of archeological findings. However, even though these details were numerous, they were almost always followed by a fresh and exciting change of pace which made the "chore" of reading through the details worth it. However, that change of pace was also followed by another plunge into that same ocean. That's why this book took me more than half a year to read but I was glad to have finished it since it informed me in the ways I wanted to be informed. As for those tedious details, I realize that it's part of the craft of being a historian and I in no way intend to use it as a weak point of this book, since I am sure many others are very passionate about them. therefore, the lower rating is simply a subjective preference.
Overall, it was a heavy read that I do not regret finishing.

[b:The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians|285423|The Fall of the Roman Empire A New History of Rome and the Barbarians|Peter Heather|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348345069l/285423._SY75_.jpg|276920] marcó un antes y un después en las líneas historiográficas tradicionales, reviviendo el debate en torno a qué fue lo que pasó con el imperio tardorromano.

Heather toma distancia de la línea "browniana", en auge desde la publicación de [b:The World of Late Antiquity 150-750|189589|The World of Late Antiquity 150-750|Peter R.L. Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1479004699l/189589._SX50_.jpg|183286] en 1971, y destaca la noción de una crisis político-militar, antecedente directo de la desaparición del imperio romano occidental.

Por otro lado, esta obra se constituye como una respuesta crítica a la postura de Walter Goffart, que defendía la noción de unas migraciones bárbaras relativamente pacíficas. Si bien Heather no niega el vínculo e interacción cultural de los grupos "bárbaros" con los romanos, los asentamientos, como bien indica en la segunda parte de la obra, no fueron exclusivamente pacíficos ni secundarios en la política tardoimperial.

La narrativa de Heather es magnífica y su increíble manejo de fuentes hacen de este título una obra imprescindible tanto para el académico como para el aficionado.

This is drier than other histories I've given five stars to, but I still want to give it the highest rating because of the comprehensive nature of its vision. The author, Peter Heather, takes to task the idea that the Roman Empire collapsed because of internal weaknesses brought on by decadence and corruption (i.e. the Edward Gibbons line of thought). Instead he paints a canvas of the late Empire as having very effectively reformed itself in the 3rd and 4th Centuries in response to the rise of the Sassanian Persian Empire. It was as powerful as it had ever been in 376 C.E. when the migration of the Huns into Europe began a century worth of invasions by unifying Germanic peoples. The subsequent chaos and loss of tax base turned the Western Roman Empire into dust. Heather lays out the state of the late Empire's structure and capabilities before showing every step of this massive and dizzying collapse. I had only vague ideas about this huge period in Eurasian history prior to reading and set the book down feeling like I had gotten as comprehensive a reading as is possible in one book.

Fascinating.

This book was much larger than I thought it would be. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Heather deals with an immense amount of information, most of it unfamiliar to the average reader, and does so with an easy style. He also manages to avoid condescending to the readers. At times I wondered why he included certain information because the narratives did not necessarily connect. However, Heather's concluding chapter is a masterpiece in summary. He reviews all the information he presented earlier in the book in a concise, well-structured manner that helps the reader put all the pieces of Heather's narrative together in a way that can do nothing else than support Heather's thesis that the barbarian invasions were the cause of the fall of the Western Roman empire. (It's hard to be convinced otherwise after reading this book.)

A good balance between facts and argument, research and logic, pushing one's own ideas and addressing contrary theories.

This is a thoroughly exciting narrative and analysis of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Throughout, Heather displays a firm grasp of the complex relationship between the Romans and the barbarian hordes that would ultimately destroy the empire. He also analyzes the arguments of other historians on this era and systematically shoots down their arguments with firm evidence and convincing conjecture. An added plus to this narrative is that he attempts to leave nothing out. On an era that is sometimes clouded by lack of evidence and reminiscences of the glory of Rome, Heather gives a clear narrative that can enlighten both laymen and professional historians alike. One drawback to this book is that Heather does tend to write out his analysis for too long. This tends to make reading the book a bit of a chore, but it almost never last more than two pages. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing about the end of one of the greatest periods in western civilization.