Rating: 
Summary: An unfortunately heavy abridgement
Review: I got this as a gift not long ago and picked it up shortly thereafter: I wasn't through the reign of Justinian before I put it down and went to my local library to pick up the first book of the unabridged three volume set. I've about finished the first volume, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, and its clear to me that this abridgement does no justice to the original work.In fact, I think the author would agree with me (as any author would who must suffer the torture of dicing up his beloved work). The book opens up with something close to a masked appeal to the reader to read the entire set instead of settling for the compacted skeleton. This book looks to be roughly 1/3 of the original text, and covers over a millenium of material: you can imagine what a rush job this is. You will pick nothing up from this: its too brief to put things in proper perspective, all of the 'dressing' is cut out so that you won't get a clear understanding of the characters of the people described, etc. But worst of all, the fun of the book is sucked out. The author is extremely witty, full of subtle jokes and clever ideas, most of which have been cut out. So what's this abridgement good for? Well, it still has value, I guess. There are tons of plates, maps, and charts in it, which are infinitely helpful. Also, if you know the history, or have read the original three volumes and want to brush up, I imagine this is a great tool. If you're broke and just want to learn the most basic of the basics, I guess chipping in for the paperback might be a better option, too. Otherwise, throw this aside and pick up the unabridged version.
Rating: 
Summary: "A Masterpiece"
Review: Starting with the Empire's foundation by Constantine in A.D. 330 and ending with its fall in 1453, John Julius Norwich artfully consolidates the Empire's illustrious history in one indispensable single-volume, and colors the age like no one before. Eleven centuries of art and warfare, politics and theology, Popes and patriarchs, emperors and kings, are all vividly characterized and staged under the genius of Norwich's compelling narrative. This is a must have for anyone interested in the Roman Empire's classic shift from the West to the East.
Rating: 
Summary: The Fascination of a Forgotten Culture
Review: Byzantium isn't truly forgotten - not by historians at least. Byzantine culture and history is intricately intertwined with the end of the Roman era, the rise of Islam, the Crusades, and the coming of Medieval Europe. And as Norwich shows in this book, its story should be better known. This is a condensation of his full 3-volume history, and a fascinating read. If you opened it at random and glanced at a page, you might think it a simple summation of ruler after ruler and crisis after crisis. Not so. Norwich has a talent for making it all interesting. This book isn't a scholarly tome, but history as it should be written for the layman. It's deftly written, no small feat when you imagine how difficult it must have been to condense from the original. If you enjoy history you'll want to read this, and possibly (like me) to move on to the full 3 volumes.
Rating:
Summary: Short History of Byzantium
Review: Since most high school history books gloss over Byzantium and its place in history, I found this book to be very informative. However, there is a lot of information in the book and some may find it to be too much, too fast. But, if one merely wants to know something about this important civilization, this is a good place to start. I went on to read the "trilogy" by this author and found those works to be very good as well.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Surprise
Review: Reading this book is like looking in your closet and discovering a valuable antique that you never knew you had. It is a shame that we rarely learn about Byzantium in the West, but this book goes a long way towards correcting that and it does it in an enjoyable, engaging style. The only drawback is that this is the "Short" history and it occasionally shows.
Rating:
Summary: Byzantium soup, condensed but not dehydrated
Review: It's not easy for an author to put 1,000 years of history into 1,000 pages of text and still provide enough detail so that the reader comes away with more than a simple chronology. This book manages the task well. It is a condensation of Norwich's three volume history of Byzantium, and he gives us a good overview of Byzantine history and culture. By necessity, it's a top-down view that focuses mostly on the history of the rulers rather than on the history of the ruled. The strong points: Norwich manages to present the high points of what could have been a mind-numbing pageant. He has a wry sense of humor. He brings in some of the cultural and architectural elements and does well at explaining arcane religious quarrels that roiled society. He evaluates the intelligence and competence of the many players and rather than giving us just the dry facts he speculates that this or that sudden and unexplained fatal illness was probably parricide or fratricide or plain old homicide. And the useful maps and family trees at the beginning of the book help the reader find his or her way through the maze of places and emperors. The weak points: What's missing here is a better job of proving context. Norwich does well enough at linking the history Byzantium with major events in the West, but he does a less effective job of linking it to the contemporanius history of the Arabs. And he links it in only the sketchiest way to events in the Persian empire. The lack of context is particularly noticeable if you compare the book to Jason Goodwin's "Lords of the Horizon" on the Ottoman empire, or Bernard Lewis' "The Middle East", both of which provide excellent historical context. So he gets four stars and not five -- but the book is enjoyable and very well written.
Rating:
Summary: Should be called...
Review: ...a "Short History of -Byzantine Emperors-" I have thoroughly enjoyed Norwich's book, spiced as it is with many anecdotes that bring history alive for the reader. But his work seems to be centered around only the lives of the many Emperors throughout the 1,000 years of Byzantium. He throws in a few of the Patriarchs of Constantinople to boot. But there is so much more to be had. The culture, the details of the wars fought, the advances in sciences -- all these could be wrapped up into this tidy volume. Instead, we get a series of "X was deposed by Y, who had X's children beheaded in the local jail, and then Z came along and usurped the throne from Y..." I understand that the story of the Emperors truly IS the story of Byzantium, but there is more to be told. And he has done a marvelous job of leaving the meat of the story while trimming away TWO WHOLE volumes he had previously wrote! Overall, this is a great introduction to the amazing story of a culture we so often overlook in our history classes. But as everyone should realize -- this civilization WAS the Roman Empire until the 1400s!! There was an Emperor on the throne that could trace his traditions, government, and laws back to the time when Caesar took power from the Republic in the century before Christ.
Rating:
Summary: Byzantine world comes Alive
Review: This book is very hard to put down once picked up. Thoroughly entertaining and remarkably informative, it is an excellent source of introductory information to the 1000 year Byzantine world. It also offers fascinating inside details of the lives of those people who shaped and directed the course of history. Will probably reread this book in future.
Rating:
Summary: Character After Character the Story Comes to Life
Review: From my short time with "A Short History of Byzantium", I can only guess that the original 3 volume work is a brilliant one. Lord Norwich has an excellent grasp of the history of the era. He manages to connect one event to the next as if it were a well written movie. At times the large scale editing and cutting that it must have taken to condense a work of this magnitude is evident in its dizzying pace and sometimes stifled narrative. to What makes the book compelling however, is Norwich's description of characters. He writes about emperors, generals, and rebels as if he were standing in the crowd when they were crowned, thwarted, or killed. A new 'main character'is introduced every few pages and Norwich manages to draw the reader into each one. A 1200 year empire deserves the attention of any student of history, and John Julius Norwich has written a landmark contribution to the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Nice overview but far too short
Review: I think this book is about as good as you can do trying to cover the whole history of Byzantium in a single volume. Which is to say, not especially well; there is simply far too much history to really do it justice in such a short space. Yes, there is the longer 3 volume version by Norwich, but unfortunately the publishers have declined to offer that at an affordable price, so I was reduced to buying this work instead. On the plus side, it's an absorbing read and does give a reasonable overview of the subject. It also is enough to proivide support to Norwich's essential thesis, namely that Byzantium was a rich and important civilization that made important contributions and served as a bulwark for Europe against Islamic expansionism. He intends this as a corrective to Gibbon's very negative view of Byzantium as a decadent civilization, merely a shadow or appendage of the greater and more vibrant Western empire. And Norwich does make a convincing case for his point of view, one which should pique the interest of most readers. Unfortunately, this very virtue highlights the flaw in the work, since it will leave the reader wanting much more detail and information than this single volume can provide.
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