Review - Book Report/Review Example

Florin Curta is currently teaching medieval history and archaeology at the University of Florida (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 2011). Curta in the book manages to present a revisionist interpretation of the Balkan Slavs. he introduces the book by presenting an eight page summary of the political and ideological agendas that have been misunderstood due to misguided linguistic approaches that has prevailed during times of the 19th century till to date (Curta 2002). Hence, the book presents a refutation to the misconstrued concepts and provides the reader with a significant knowledge about the medieval history and appraisable glimpses in to the studies of the Slavs.

The author of the book has managed well the varied range of studies in numerous different languages. Some of the work in the book has been collected in the original language and reinterpreted and analyzed after translating the available text. Moreover, the book focuses upon demonstrating the new methodologies to study the medieval history especially that relates to the ethnic groups who reflect their culture. With the publishing of the book Curta has exerted immense effort the book to convince the readers by providing strong and firm arguments along with the provision of conclusions that sound convincing in its essence (Wolverton 2003).

The title of the book is considered to be reflective of the content Curta presents in The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region. Hence, the book presents traditional historical and archaeological methods; moreover, it also presents an insight in to the anthropological approach. The book is well organized in to three parts. The first two chapters of the book provide an analysis of the textual evidence. However, the next three chapters summarize archaeological results; while the last chapter on Sclavene leaders; the text based on the leaders is presented in the light of anthropological models.

Nevertheless, interdisciplinary is finds the way out of his pen and into the book in the form of conclusion presented by Curta. However, it is important to mention here that the conclusions presented by Curta in the book The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, knits the analysis in to a single argument in relation to “making” of the Slavs (Wolverton 2003). Although, the book provides the reader with substantial knowledge; however, the book The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region lacks in the providing solid argumentation.

Therefore, it will not be wrong in saying that the author, Curta, bombards the reader with intricate detailed about the available literature and refutes and provides a rebuttal. The book contains numerous surveys that reveal the factual details. This has particularly left out his conclusions and interpretations half said and done. However, while reading the book one must make sure to read the entire chapter in order to know what is the argument leading to; if the book is skimmed through the reader is left confused and with a question mark.

Like in chapter 3, that lays out the Sclavene raids on the Byzantine territory highlights in the final paragraph "all this suggests . that the name 'Sclavene' was a purely Byzantine construct" and "the 'Sclavene ethnicity' is a Byzantine invention" ( (Curta 2002, 118-119). By mentioning the