Paul Freedman, professor of history at Yale, examines the British Isles as a post-Roman frontier society in this lecture from The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000. He traces the aftermath of Rome's fifth-century withdrawal from England, which he describes as a period of radical economic simplification, followed by the flourishing of Latin learning after Christian conversion at the end of the sixth century. He then turns to Ireland, converted centuries earlier and never colonized by Rome, whose church developed a decentralized structure with less emphasis on bishops. Freedman frames England's conversion as a contest not only between Christianity and paganism but between Roman and Irish administrative styles of Christian practice. The lecture closes with remarks on the cultural achievements of the British Isles in this period. Recorded at Yale in Fall 2011, the talk runs about forty-five minutes across four chapters.