Robin Fleming, earlier in her career, wrote on the political history of Viking, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman England; historical writing in the early Middle Ages; English law before the Common Law; Domesday Book; and nineteenth-century medievalism. She now investigates Roman and early medieval material culture and animals and writes history from archaeology. She has received fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University; and the Guggenheim Foundation. She is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. This book is based on her 2022 James Ford Lectures in British History.