Acknowledgments List of Illustrations 1 Concepts and Problems 2 Written and Archaeological Sources 3 The Last Century of Roman Power (ca. 500 to ca. 620) 4 East European Dark Ages: Slavs and Avars (500-800) 5 Migrations--Real and Imagined: Croats, Serbs, and Bulgars (600-800) 6 Early Medieval Bulgaria (680-850) 7 The West in the East (800-900) 8 Great Moravia 9 Steppe Empires? The Khazars and the Volga Bulgars 10 Oghuz, Pechenegs, and Cumans: Nomads of Medieval Eastern Europe? 11 Conversion to Christianity: Moravia and Bulgaria 12 The Long 10th Century of Bulgaria 13 New Migrations: Magyars and Vikings 14 The Rise of Rus' 15 Byzantium in the Balkans (800-1100) 16 The Western Balkans in the High Middle Ages (900-1200) 17 New Powers (I): Piast Poland 18 New Powers (II): Arpadian Hungary 19 New Powers (III): Premyslid Bohemia 20 Population: Size, Health, Migration 21 Rural and Urban Economy 22 Social Organization 23 The Construct of a Tyrant: Feudalism in Eastern Europe 24 The Church: Ecclesiastical Organization and Monasticism 25 The Faith: Religious Practices, Popular Religion, and Heresy 26 The First Five Crusades and Eastern Europe 27 Crusades in Eastern Europe 28 Literacy and Literature 29 Monumental Art 30 The Rise of Serbia 31 The Second Bulgarian Empire 32 Catastrophe, Pax Mongolica, and Globalization Bibliography Index.