Several things struck me from this volume. One of them was the completely unrepentant manner the TV network representative dealt with the badly botched Florida call on election night. Every indication is that the media in future elections will continue to rely on the same pseudoscientific models that led to more than one mistaken call that night -- rather than relying on the actual results, which are really the only story one should follow.

Other revelations from this book will fascinate political junkies: why Karl Rove says Bush lost Iowa, how Al Gore's handlers tried to test ad hominem attacks on Bush in focus groups, why Clinton never really campaigned with Gore. Sure -- none of these revalations are juicy enough to make the pages of the National Enquirer, but they are nonetheless an impressive addition to our body of knowledge about how political campaigns are planned and executed at the highest levels.

Magdalino relies on a great many sources, including the famous histories of Anna Comnena (daughter of Alexios) and Niketas Choniates, as well as many more obscure sources, including monastic charters, Venetian accounting records, and verse in the Byzantine vernacular. He follows the contours of the history, beginning with Alexios' desperate attempts to revive the empire after years of financial and military mismanagement, through the sound generalship of his son John, to the gaudy splendor of grandson Manuel, who presided over the greatest period for culture (and, unfortunately for Byzantium, for conspicuous consumption).

Throughout the book Magdalino stresses the importance of 'family' in the Comnenian conception for ensuring loyalty in government, and the increased use of strategic marriage alliances encouraged by Comnenian emperors, especially with Western rulers. The author also gives a great deal of attention to the effect Westerners had on the Byzantines, both in terms of the increased hostility and fear between the two cultures during the Crusades, and in terms of the increasingly aggressive economic policies of the Italian maritime states of Venice and Genoa, and the effect this had on Byzantine commerce and hegemony in the Aegean. Magdalino argues that these were the significant trends, gradual yet severe, which brought about the conquest and economic colonization of Byzantium by the Western powers in 1204.

All in all, this is a very important book in the field of Byzantine Studies, for experts and non-experts alike. The author draws upon a wide range of sources and his own immense knowledge to give as full as has yet appeared a picture of life in the fascinating time of the Comneni. This book, by one of today's foremost British Byzantinists, is a must-read for anyone interested in the period.

To make this book even more complete Harrison goes out of his way in the bibliography to point out the better books on the subject and the point of view these writers take. Even better, he has a page devoted to The Loch Ness Monster Research Society. On this page Harrison tells about the aims of the Society and even gives the address of the Membership Secretary in case the reader wants to join up.

I only took one star from this book because of what I don't know. I assume all the information that one would need is here but this is the only book I have looked at about the subject so I really don't know. Thanks to Harrison however, I now know what books to look for.