[D]eutsche Altertumskunde... [is a] still honored "science" of German antiquity. - Walter Goffart

I would be content if "German" and its derivatives were banished from all but linguistic discourse on this subject.

The main goal of this book is to reform thinking and writing about the barbarians in late antiquity by driving out the anachronistic terms "German" and "Germanic" and the baggage that goes with them.

The faith in Germanic continuity has prevailed for many centuries, damaging everything it has touched: Germans and other Europeans need to be assured that they can dispense with a link to the Germanen, that there is such a thing as historical change, and that the transgressions of national pasts can indeed be outgrown.