| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 285 words from this article are provided below; about 554 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Europe: Ancient and Medieval

Richard Abels. Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. (The Medieval World.) New York: Longman. 1998. Pp. xviii, 373. £14.99.

There have been a number of books about King Alfred the Great of Wessex published in the run-up to the 1100th anniversary of his death in 1999, but this is by far the best of them. Richard Abels has produced a work for which there has long been a vacancy on the market: that is, a scholarly, accessible biography of the ninth-century king that provides both an introduction to the latest research and an overview of the reign. Chapters describing the main phases in the king's career are followed by others examining his military and economic reforms, his translations and campaign to revive Christian learning, and his laws and methods of government. An impressive amount of material is covered in a relatively short space with trenchant commentary provided. Some of the most original contributions concern Alfred's wars with the Vikings, where good use is made of evidence of Viking activities in Francia to help interpret the accounts in Anglo-Saxon sources. There are particularly interesting observations on tactics, with discussion of the exact location of battle sites and of the archaeological evidence for weapons and armor, and on treaty-making between Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, where the case is made for Alfred anticipating his descendant Æthelred II in having to buy off his enemies through the payment of tribute. Abels would support those who see the Vikings as formidable opponents, but without that meaning they have to be depicted as excessively blood-thirsty heathens looking for every opportunity to practice such delights as "the blood eagle torture." . . .

There are about 554 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.