Hello /r/AskHistorians! Before I get into it, if this is in the wrong subreddit, let me know where it might fit better, and I'll move it over there.
So, the past couple of days I've been reading Peter Borwn's "The World of Late Antiquity" and am having trouble really synthesizing all the information into something that makes sense. Part of my trouble stems from my lack of familiarity with the era; I have no experience with this period of time, which makes it hard to follow a lot of the events that Brown discusses. I'm also not a fan of Brown's style of writing; it comes off (at least to me) as pretentious and self-indulgent (how many times can you say "grandiloquent" without coming off as snobbish? Answer: none). I understand that he is one of the preeminent historical scholars today, but I feel like reading his book is like trying to catch an airplane with a butterfly net.
Are there any resources out there to better understand Late Antiquity? Can someone summarize what exactly Brown is trying to say in his book? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I guess the first question is, how are you with earlier antiquity? It's hard to grasp the events of late antiquity without an understanding of the developments before that.
Brown himself is focused on the dichotomy between East and West, and primarily interested in the Roman state over other actors like the Germanic tribes or the Persians. In addition, Brown places a great deal of emphasis on the religious and cultural sides over the political, economic, and military sides. Nothing wrong with that, just represents a particular lens to approach these events from.
At any rate, if you want to better understand Late Antiquity, you can post a more specific question here, and/or read a more 'detail' oriented history that focuses on the big events and people rather than trying to synthesize a cultural narrative.