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This paper is an introduction to the recent historiography of the later Roman Empire c. 200-800 AD.  Using the secondary sources that I have provided, your task is, first, to define the aims and objectives of Late Antique scholars.  How is this view different from the traditional approaches? Who are some of the main proponents of this new view?  Second, you need to explain some recent objections to this approach.  In other words, what have recent scholars said is wrong with this approach?  Are there any strengths as well?  Finally, what do you think?

Cite and use the following sources:

Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)

Glen Bowersock, Peter Brown, Oleg Grabar, eds., Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999)—introductory chapter

J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, “Late Antiquity and the Concept of Decline,” Nottingham Medieval Studies 45 (Spoleto, 1998).

James Edwards, “The Rise of the Concept of ‘Late Antiquity,’”
Journal of Late Antiquity (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).