Seb Falk. The Light Ages.

 "The Light Ages" belies its author's concept: namely, that the Dark Ages were the times of the great creativity and discovery. First, most of the book's material refers to the time, which Johan Huizinga called "The Autumn of the Middle Ages", i.e. the times where medieval certainties began to unravel and medieval lawlessness had subsided. Second, indeed, the late Roman Empire was quite a technological laggard and many of the useful innovations happened, or became practical during the Dark Ages--cogwheel, water and windmill, mechanical clocks, crop rotation and others. The swords from Sutton Hoo burial in the British Museum testify to a much more advanced state of metallurgy among the Saxon barbarians than the Roman gladius, and Irish rowboats observed by the author in the Dublin Museum, not to mention Scandinavian longships, were much more seaworthy and maneuverable vehicles than oar-powered wooden boxes of the Classical Age. But all this happened during 10 centuries, twice as long as the existence of the Roman Empire, and had little to do with a high monastic culture so exalted by the author.