At its height, the Carolingian empire spanned a million square kilometres of western Europe as the largest political unit for centuries. This comprehensive survey traces the empire's history from its origins around 700, through its expansion in the eighth century, to the struggle to hold it together in the ninth.

1. Introduction; 2. The creation of Carolingian kingship to 800; 3. Belief and culture; 4. Inventing the Carolingian empire: politics and government, 800-840; 5. Villages and villagers, land and landowners; 6. Elite society; 7. Exchange and trade: the Carolingian economy; 8. Sustaining the Carolingian empire: politics and government, 840-888; 9. Epilogue.

'This book is to be welcomed. It is the Carolingian synthesis for a new generation; everyone from students to established academics will need to read it. It is highly sensitive to the transformation of approaches of the last generation of political/cultural historians, and it moves seamlessly into a welcome new analysis of the non-aristocratic majority as well.' Chris Wickham, Chichele Professor of Medieval History, University of Oxford'Costambeys organizes his material both thematically and chronologically ... a major contribution to the history of Italy in the eighth and ninth centuries and an important complement to the other books about the history of Farfa. This is a very well researched and thought-provoking book.' Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies'Costambeys, Innes and MacLean are to be commended for having fulfilled their task [to provide a new synthesis taking into account the insights of the most recent scholarship] admirably, surveying and synthesising a vast body of source material and scholarship and presenting it with elegance and clarity ... heartily to be recommended as a one-volume introduction for students and a useful work of reference for seasoned scholars.' Shami Ghosh, Reviews in History (history.ac.uk/reviews)'Costambeys, Innes, and MacLean have provided an accessible and up-to-date survey to specialists and students of the period, as well as to interested lay readers.' Hans J. Hummer, H-Net Reviews (h-net.org)