Walter Goffart

André Walter Goffart ( born February 22, 1934 in Berlin) is an American medievalist, who currently teaches history at Yale University. He is considered one of the most influential historians in the field of break time from the end of antiquity to the early Middle Ages.

Life and work

Walter A. Goffart, whose father in the Belgian diplomatic service worked, spent his childhood in Belgrade. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he and his mother were first separated from the father and finally had to flee to the United States via Turkey, Palestine and Egypt. Walter Goffart studied history at Harvard University and his doctorate in 1961. Since 1960 he taught at the University of Toronto. In 2000 he moved to Yale.

Goffarts specialty is the early Middle Ages, including the transitional period of late antiquity. He was closely involved, among other things with the settlement of the Germans on the floor of the Roman Empire and with their next integration. This Goffart represents some provocative theses about that the Goths in their settlement in Aquitaine (418 /19) is not one-third of the country, but a third of the taxes was ceded. Furthermore Goffart is of the opinion that the subsequent development that eventually resulted in the establishment of Germanic kingdoms on the floor of the Western Roman Empire, some far less dramatic than often depicted expired ( Barbarians and Romans, 1980). He also drew attention to the complexity of the circumstances of the time, which, ultimately led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.

Goffart has also critical and influential concerned with the early medieval historiography, such as with Jordanes, Fredegar, Paul the Deacon, and Gregory of Tours. His most important work in this area is The Narrators of Barbarian History ( 1988), for which he was awarded among others with the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy of America ( 1991).

He is married to the linguist and medievalist Roberta Frank.

Writings (selection )

  • Caput and Colonate. Towards a History of Late Roman Taxation ( Phoenix Supplementary Volumes = 12, ISSN 0079-1784 ). University of Toronto Press, Toronto et al 1974.
  • Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584. The Techniques of Accommodation. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1980, ISBN 0-691-05303-0.
  • The Narrators of Barbarian History (AD 550-800 ). Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1988, ISBN 0-691-05514-9.
  • Rome 's Fall and After. Hambledon Press, London ua 1989, ISBN 1-85285-001-9.
  • Barbarian Tides. The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA 2006, ISBN 0-8122-3939-3.
  • Barbarians, Maps, and Historiography. Studies on the Early Medieval West ( Variorum Collected Studies Series =. Vol. 916). Ashgate, Farnham 2009, inter alia, ISBN 978-0-7546-5984-6.
Germanic peoples Digital Object Identifier Integrated Authority File
270736
de