Walter Goffart on Life
Browse 3 quotations attributed to Walter Goffart, catalogued under life, with dates where available.
This page displays 3 quotations attributed to Walter Goffart and filed under "life" in QuoteLineage. The selection is ordered by stored importance and quality scores, not citation counts. A topic label describes how an entry is catalogued; it does not establish the theme's importance in the author's work.
Attributed to Walter Goffart, entry #59796: "any scholars of today in Europe and the United States still cherish the existence of a "Germanic world" long antedating medieval and modern Germany."
Attributed to Walter Goffart, entry #9698: "The prehistoric Germans never existed... they are an illusion of misguided scholars. The nonexistence of ancient Germans is perhaps the most important thing one can say about the …"
3 Quotes by Walter Goffart on Life
"any scholars of today in Europe and the United States still cherish the existence of a "Germanic world" long antedating medieval and modern Germany."
"The prehistoric Germans never existed... they are an illusion of misguided scholars. The nonexistence of ancient Germans is perhaps the most important thing one can say about the barbarians of late antiquity... The "Germanic world" is a damaging modern invention and usage that badly needs to be abandoned."
"The adjective "German;' an umbrella term for many of the diverse northern barbarians of the late Roman period, is the key to such unifying compounds as "the Germanic world;' "Germanic migrations;' "Germanic peoples;' "Germanic style;' "Germanic law;' "Germanic grave goods": wherever it turns up it simplifies and unifies, and presides over collective actions that did not take place... "German" will not go away by itself; it has to be stubbornly shown the door."