Most Western historians have traditionally regarded Byzantium as a decaying Roman Empire. However, it is now widely accepted that personal sympathies or antipathies towards the Byzantines, Christians, or empires in general should not influence a historian's judgment about an empire that lasted 1,200 years, during which it experienced both periods of decline as well as flourishing and progress.

The originality of Trendgold lies in its combination of a narrative of events from the beginnings of the empire to the Fall of Constantinople, along with parallel analyses concerning its society and culture, during the six phases of Byzantine history.

Warren Trendgold, a professor of Byzantine Studies at Saint Louis University, examines the causes of Byzantium's multiple successes and failures and its impressive longevity, explaining the paradoxes of its tumultuous history, showing how political leadership, military strategy, cultural axes, and social and institutional changes interacted with the weaknesses and strengths of the Empire's enemies.