Susanna Elm and Kristina Sessa, "War and Community in Late Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

About this episode

This episode discusses the impact of warfare on communities during Late Antiquity with scholars Susanna Elm and Kristina Sessa.

Susanna Elm and Kristina Sessa, War and Community in Late Antiquity (Cambridge UP, 2026) Late Antiquity (ca. 250–600 CE) was a world at war: barbarian migrations, civil wars, raids, and increasingly porous frontiers affected millions of its inhabitants. While military and political historians have long grappled with this history, scholars of late antique society and culture rarely interrogate the consequences of near constant warfare on civilian populations, fighting forces, and the built environment. War and Community in Late Antiquity responds to this oversight by assembling archeologists, art historians, social historians, and scholars of religion to examine the impact of war on communities (households, cities, religious groups, elites and non-elites) and their reactions to ongoing stressors. Topics include the violence of everyday life as backdrop to that of war; the rhetoric of warfare and its significance for Christian authors; the effects of captivity and billeting on households; communal agency and the fortification of civilian spaces; and the challenges of articulating Christian imperial power in wartime. New Books in Late Antiquity is presented by Ancient Jew Review…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guests: Susanna Elm, Kristina Sessa

Topics covered

• war
• community
• Late Antiquity
• civilian populations
• impact of warfare
• Christian authors
• communal agency

Keywords

• Late Antiquity
• warfare
• civilian impact
• Christianity
• archaeology
• social history
• cultural history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of California, Berkeley, The Ohio State University, UMass Boston

Books & works: War and Community in Late Antiquity

More episodes of New Books in Military History

• Richard Bennet and Alexander Noyes, "War at Arm's Length: How America Can Build Effective Partners Through Military Assistance" (Yale UP, 2026) · June 12, 2026 · 40 min
• Justin F Jackson, "The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines" (UNC Press, 2025) · June 10, 2026 · 1h 17m
• Matti Friedman, "Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe" (Spiegel & Grau, 2026) · June 9, 2026 · 35 min
• Understanding Themistocles: A Discussion with Author Michael Scott · June 9, 2026 · 36 min
• Homa Katouzian, "Iran and the Revolution: A History" (Yale UP, 2026) · June 4, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Anand Gopal, "Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution" (Viking, 2026) · June 4, 2026 · 43 min