Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, at times fascinating, always informative.
Review: Norwich's survey of Byzantium is a wonderful tour of a culture that is too little known in the west. The book covers over a millennium and thus the pace is often breakneck. Norwich does a fine job of pointing out the political machinations that were the real reasons behind ostensibly religious events such as the enthronement of patriarchs and the crusades. Throughout the narrative we meet with fascinating individuals such as John the Beautiful, or Frederick Barbarossa. Indeed, there is much western history here as well, as Rome, Venice, and other city states came into contact with Byzantium. The book is an abbreviated version of the three volume History of Byzantium, and is organized well, into digestible chapters.
I have decided to read Norwich's History of Venice next, so masterful a guide is he.
Rating: 
Summary: 1123 Years at Breakneck Speed
Review: This is a very fast-paced and enjoyable history from Norwich, cramming a gigantic amount of history into a rather short book. Here Norwich has condensed his masterwork, a 1200-page trilogy on the Byzantine Empire, into a single volume for maximum impact. The intricate details, references, and notes are left to the trilogy - so this book, while short on evidence and details, is full of action and intrigue. For various reasons the Byzantine Empire has been unappreciated by Western scholars, being condemned to obscurity in favor of the less cultured and shorter-lived Roman Empire. In fact the Byzantine Empire survived for another thousand years after the Romans fell to a bunch of scraggly barbarians, keeping the classic culture of Rome and Greece alive while Europe languished uselessly in the dark ages. In addition to his competent research and sharply enjoyable writing, Norwich performs a real service in bringing to light the religious and cultural accomplishments of the Byzantines. He also has a real eye for the empire's never-ending political intrigues and skullduggery (an example is their love of gouging out their opponents' eyes). Due to this book's focus on the action, it can get confusing at times. Short-lived emperors, and a few empresses, often zoom on by without making much of an impression, while intricate political shenanigans with Europe (especially in the later days of the Empire) are hard to follow. Another problem is the Byzantines' habit of giving everyone the same names, as about a gazillion Constantines, Johns, Michaels, and even Andronicuses blur together in confusion. The lack of detail and clarification in some parts of this book may be frustrating, or may make you yearn to read the much larger trilogy. In either case this breakneck tour of Byzantium is a fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: The best introduction to a fascinating period of history
Review: To "cover" the history of the longest lasting Christian Empire - extending for 11 centuries - in a single volume is no small feat. For me, this particular book was the best re-introduction to this fascinating period of time (my first introduction being an absolutely dreadful school textbook that actually had the effect of keeping me away from anything related to Byzantine history for 20 long years ...)Some scholars will tell you that Norwich is not qualified to write such a book, not being formally trained in Byzantine history. Aside from this short-sighted bitterness of the very few, most will ascertain that this is an awesome read, written very carefully by a superb student of this period. It is a great accomplishment, a book that can intrigue its readers to read it breathlessly until the very last page and then to long for more!
Rating:
Summary: Who says History is boring?
Review: Norwich's Short History of Byzantium is that regrettably rare treasure: a book that gives the reader a full dose of just how fantastic history can be. There is enough murder, intrigue, infidelity, and irony here to make soap operas seem pale. And it's all true! I think another reviewer said it best: if all history textbooks were like this, classes would have been a lot more fun. Norwich is that rare beast: a historical writer with a sense of humor and the ability to actually write. I cannot recall another history book that made me burst out laughing unless it was Gibbons.
Rating:
Summary: The Gibbon of Constantinople
Review: Norwich's "Short History of Byzantium" is a distillation of his three-volume history of the Byzantine Empire. I've read the larger work, and can say that this abbreviated volume captures, for the most part, the essence of Norwich's trilogy: the color, adventure, and insight are all here, along with a tremendous sense of style, leavened with wit. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the empire that emerged from the eastern half of the old Roman Empire, centered at Constantinople, this is the perfect introductory volume. Best of all, the author, like Gibbon, is a wonderful story-teller: a faithful adherence to a fabulous tale of power and empire, punctuated by the most unlikely incidents, narrated in a skilled and, where warranted, jaundiced style -- what more could one ask? Reading the history of this thousand-year-old empire - an empire that produced unparalleled works of artistic beauty - an empire that protected Western Christendom from the impending Turkish onslaught for centuries - wincing as it's flaws overtook it and, stabbed in the back by the West in 1204, left it prostrate - this is the stuff of tragedy. No writer of fiction could ever have created the drama of the Byzantine Empire. I highly recommend this volume, as both history, and literature; and if it whets your appetite, Norwich's three-volume version awaits you: enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Old-Fashioned History
Review: Getting more than 1000 years of history into a modestly sized book is something of an achievement. But Norwich's book accomplishes this task by leaving out what is most important to most contemporary historians: the realities of Byzantine life. Norwich focuses almost exclusively on that tiny minority of political and religious leaders-very much a "great man" view of history. We learn almost nothing of the lives of ordinary people. We are totally in the dark about the arts, philosophy, and technology of the Byzantines.
The writing is at best only adequate. IF you are looking for a rich history of the more cultural aspects of Byzantium, this is NOT it. Norwich is very much of the "old school."
Rating:
Summary: Well-written, dramatic, but what a pace...
Review: Norwich does a very admirable job of trying to put 1100+ years of history into less than 400 paces. As others have mentioned, though, this involves introducing new characters at a dizzying pace, and it can be hard to keep track of all the Leos, Johns, Michaels, Constantines, Eudoxias, etc. Personally, I would like to have seen him spend less time on palace politics (a lot of discussion about how so-and-so's nephew had to be blinded and sent to a monastery) and instead do a few side chapters on economics, military tactics, daily life of the commoners, life in the city of Constantinople, etc. Nevertheless, I understand the problems he was up against trying to edit this down, and found it to be a very solid work.
Rating:
Summary: A short History of Byzantium
Review: A truely wonderful book. John Julius Norwich takes you into a fascinating world and a state that endured a thousand years. Unlike Gibbon, Norwich's love of the history of this lost Empire shines as brighly as the leadership of it's greatest emperors. He pays proper homage to the debt that all of us in the west owe the Byzantines for preserving the legacy of Greek and Roman world and fending off the onslaught of the Islamic tide for 8 centuries until the emergence of the Renaissance. A must read for those who love history.
Rating: 
Summary: Shorter, but not better
Review: Don't short-change yourself. Read the three volume original, if you can find it in the library. What you lose in brevity, you gain in insight.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent intro to Byzantium
Review: This book is an excellent intro to the topic, without getting bogged down in the details that the three-volume set would inevitably do. If you want a high-level view of Byzantium, you can't do better than this. The author has an excellent style that will hold your interest in the topic. I grant you, it will leave professionals looking for more; hence some of the lower ratings. But if you aren't a professional, or if Byzantium isn't your specialty, it will do as an introduction. And you can always get his three-volume set if you need more.
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