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Document Details : Title: The World of Late Antiquity by Peter Brown and the Need for a New Sociology of Empire Author(s): SKINNER, Alexander Journal: Ancient West & East Volume: 24 Date: 2025 Pages: 337-376 DOI: 10.2143/AWE.24.0.3295126 Abstract : This essay provides a retrospective critique of Peter Brown’s The World of Late Antiquity (1971), with special reference to a formative issue: its treatment of social fluidity. The essay examines the book’s inspiration for, and handling of, the topic (II-III); sets the book’s account in context of Brown’s prior thinking on social fluidity (IV-VII); makes thematic observations, in context of both the time of composition and Brown’s memoir (VIII); looks briefly at his subsequent thought on social fluidity (IX); and suggests that we need a new sociology of the later Roman empire, with observations about parameters (X). |
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