An innovative synthesis of early medieval Croatian history (On N. Budak’s book «The Croatian history from 550 to 1100»)

The article is a review of the book by the Croatian historian Neven Budak «Croatian history from 550 to 1100» (Budak, Neven. Hrvatska povijest od 550. do 1100. Zagreb, Leykam international, 2018. 352 р.). Budak’s book is an innovative conceptual synthesis of the early medieval history of Croatia taking full account of the latest achievements in history and archeology. From new theoretical and methodological positions, the book examines the processes of transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages in Dalmatia, Istria, and southern Pannonia, the formation of the Croatian ethnic community, the formation of Croatian polity and the socio-political development of the Croatian kingdom in the 9th–11th centuries. An important feature of the book is that the early medieval Croatian history is examined in it in a wider European context, with great attention to events and processes that took place in Byzantium, the Carolingian Empire, Rome, Venice, the Kingdom of Hungary, etc., which allowed the researcher to adequately interpret the most important events and the processes of the Croatian early Middle Ages. By creating a convenient theoretical framework for the further contextualizing of historical information, the book can serve as a new starting point for research and understanding of the Croatian early Middle Ages.