Alaric the Goth (Boin) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[R]ichly detailed.... Boin conveys this scholarly insight to general readers in a cogent, readable text that vividly conveys the fear and confusion that surrounded the issue of immigrants’ rights in a period of declining Roman power. He draws the contemporary parallels with a freedom that teeters on the brink of overstatement, but his handling of the relocated Gothic boys’ deaths is characteristic of his bold yet scrupulous reading of ancient sources.
Boston Globe


[A] smart book for the general reader.… Alaric can never emerge as a fully three-dimensional figure, but in Boin’s hands he is lifted convincingly from the realm of brutish caricature…. [Alaric the Goth is] not a polemic. It never invokes modern times explicitly… [but] intended perhaps to be slyly allusive, [which] comes across as winks.
Atlantic


[E]ye-opening…. Taking issue with depictions of Alaric and the Goths as violent barbarians in histories…[Boin's] brisk and well-documented account reveals the Roman Empire… rife with xenophobia and political conflict.… [An] invigorating rehash of ancient times.
Publishers Weekly


[T]he parallels Boin draws to current-day [immigration] issues… are effective, but the positioning of Alaric specifically as an immigrant child torn from his parents by Rome's border policies stumbles given the amount of mights and maybes that Boin must hedge his statements with. —Kathleen McCallister, William & Mary Libs., Williamsburg, VA
Library Journal


Anyone who appreciates vividly detailed stories of the past or is morbidly curious about the dying days of a wealthy, self-important, diverse, autocratic global power should pick this up.
Booklist


A fresh look at… the Roman Empire.… Although Alaric never comes fully to life…, Boin delivers a revealing account of the late Roman empire, which was misgoverned, retreating from its frontier provinces, and almost perpetually at war…. An admirable history of a lesser-known Roman era.
Kirkus Reviews