The Barbarians - Peter Bogucki

A history of Europeans from the late Stone Age through to the end of the Roman period.  In the Roman stage, the "barbarians" refers largely to the Germanic and Celtic speaking groups outside the Roman Empire.  This book is essentially a reworking of the image of "the barbarian" as inherited from roman authors of antiquity.
The Barbarians were farming peoples living in small villages or settlements.  Farmers, not warriors really.  They operated complex trade networks with goods of all types moving great distances, both luxury goods and goods for manufacturing and metal work.  People also moved great distances, especially during the Bronze age, when there seems to have been a fair bit of cultural and linguistic unity across Europe, at least for some groups.
Bogucki also offers a more nuanced account of the relationship between Rome and the groups beyond its borders.  Thought there was some raiding and mayhem, the relationship by and large was one of trade and economic advantage to both sides.  The borders were porous both for traders and Germanic speaking mercenaries seeking employment.
The book also calls into question the movement of large groups of people (like the Visigoths) immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire in the west.  Apparently there is no archaeological evidence for a period of mayhem and cultural/artifact shift.  Maybe it was bands of warriors moving about looking for good places to set up as small independent kingdoms - opportunities for "protection rackets"  ie.  You feed me, house me, provide me with booze, and I'll protect you from others (and myself).
This lack of big shifts could also explain what I have read elsewhere ie. that the Dark Age wasn't really so dark.  It marked a continuation of Barbarian Iron Age culture, with small villages and towns, complex trade networks and a farming economy.  (Just the Roman thing disappeared:  certain luxury goods, and large towns - which Germanic tribes has never really been interested in.)

Overall, an interesting different take on an interesting, creative ( though illiterate) culture in an interesting era of change.

Barbarians to Angels - Peter S. Wells

Subtitle:  The Dark Ages Reconsidered

The subtitle says it all.  A new perpective on what is known as the Dark Ages which, as the author points out, can only be called "dark" if you take the Roman Empire as the peak of "light".
An interesting overview of some of the factors at work which contributed to creating the art and architecture styles that eventually become the Carolingian culture.
He uses archaeological evidence to back up the assertion that there was no great abandonment of cities and towns or of long distance trade.  Instead what you have with the fall of the Roman Empire is the disappearance, or maybe the transformation or melding, of the culture of the elite with the culture of the local inhabitants.  The book inadvertently draws attention to the fact that the Roman Empire was essentially a colonial enterprise.

The one thing I find missing in the book, particularly in the discussion of the development of the new animal motif, semiabstract style of art, is the link to the Steppe cultures that were moving into Europe at that time.  If you look at the art reproductions in the book you can't help but think of the earlier Scythian jewelry from the Black Sea step area.