# Please recommend a book on the history of The Holy Roman Empire **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 28, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974 "2012-08-28T22:41:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974/1 "2012-08-28T22:41:57Z")
I’d like some background on the topic, particularly the dynastic geopolitical intrigue and more specifically on the German states. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus\_alba](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quercus_alba/32/4061_2.png) [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974/2 "2012-08-28T23:25:59Z")
I’m slowly trudging through Norman Davies’ Vanished Kingdoms, in which the HRE plays varying roles in the survival/absorption of many of the forgotten transient nation states (e.g. Burgundia, etc) that he chronicles, chapter by chapter. Not exactly what you’re looking for perhaps, but the intrigues and shifting power bases are certainly present. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974/3 "2012-08-29T00:38:39Z")
Have always heard that Gibbon’s “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, in six volumes, published from 1776 thru 1800 or so, is the be all and end all of Roman history. And the standard against which all other Roman histories are compared. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974/4 "2012-08-29T01:50:39Z")
But Gibbon wrote about Rome! The Holy Roman Empire was famously neither holy, Roman nor an empire. I’ll check back for information, since I hate to be reminded of those large gaps in my historical knowledge… ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974/5 "2012-08-29T17:45:02Z")
Thanks guys, after starting this thread I was wondering if anyone would even read it. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974/6 "2012-08-29T17:54:09Z")
I can’t help with the HRE. I can suggest a book which discusses the end of classical Roman Empire in the 560’s and some of the forces that led to the formation of the HRE. It is [Justinian’s Flea](http://www.amazon.com/Justinians-Flea-Plague-Empire-Europe/dp/0670038555)- really good overview with emphasis on the attempts at reunifying the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, the building out of Constantinople, including the Hagia Sophia, Justinian’s reign with Theodora and the onset of the Black Plague which ruined the chances for a full re-emergence of the Roman Empire and led to the Dark Ages… ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-book-on-the-history-of-the-holy-roman-empire/632974/7 "2012-08-30T09:08:41Z")
> [@Daylate](#): > > Have always heard that Gibbon’s “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, in six volumes, published from 1776 thru 1800 or so, is the be all and end all of Roman history. And the standard against which all other Roman histories are compared. There are many excellent reasons to read Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall_. However, a serious discussion of the Holy Roman Empire isn’t one of them. He does have a section on the subject towards the end of chapter XLIX, but that’s particularly superficial. It should also be said more generally that there is pretty much no subject on which Gibbon is ‘the be all and end all’. That’s not why historians still read him. [QUOTE=Sitnam] I’d like some background on the topic, particularly the dynastic geopolitical intrigue and more specifically on the German states. [/QUOTE] As it is horribly expensive, very long and only covers the period from the late fifteenth century onwards, it’s probably not really what you’re looking for, but the obvious answer is Joachim Whaley’s recent big book on the subject. [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198731016.do](http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198731016.do) [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199693078.do](http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199693078.do)