The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to gain an in-depth knowledge of aspects of Late Antiquity from c. 300-c.800 AD across the Mediterranean World and Europe, and to gain practice in writing book reviews, in discussing books, and finally in writing historiographical essays. For the first, and longer part of the course, each student will read a monograph of his or her choice, write a book review, and share this book review with the class. For each class session during the first, and longer, part of the semester students will read the reviews of their fellow students, and class discussion will focus on all of the book reviews completed for that week. Each student will give a five-minute presentation of his or her review during each class period, and the other students will come with prepared questions about the books of each of the other students in the class. During the second, and shorter, part of the semester students will work on writing a historiographical essay, the topic of which they have chosen in consultation with Professor Bachrach. We will not have regular class meetings during the second part of the semester. Instead, Professor Bachrach will meet individually with students to discuss the historiographical essays, and to address any concerns or problems that have arisen.