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Black Deathby Robert S. Gottfried
Simon & Schuster 2010; US$ 14.99A fascinating work of detective history, The Black Death traces the causes and far-reaching consequences of this infamous outbreak of plague that spread across the continent of Europe from 1347 to 1351. Drawing on sources as diverse as monastic manuscripts and dendrochronological studies (which measure growth rings in trees), historian Robert S. Gottfried demonstrates how a bacillus transmitted by rat fleas brought on an ecological reign of terror -- killing one European in three, wiping out entire villages and towns, and rocking the foundation of medieval society and civilization. more...
Vikings in Historyby F. Donald Logan
Routledge 1991; US$ 35.95The second edition of this lively and comprehensive book provides a forceful reassessment of the role of the Vikings in history. more...
Mills in the Medieval Economyby John Langdon
Oxford University Press, UK 2004; US$ 300.00This book examines the evolution of mills - whether powered by water, wind, animals or humans - during an important era of English history. It focuses not only on the structures themselves, but also on the people who acted as entrepreneurs, workers, and customers for the industry. Together they created one of the most recognizable and enduring features of medieval society. - ;The late medieval English milling industry epitomizes one of the most important technical achievements of early societies: the exploitation of wind, water and muscle power for augmenting human endeavours. Through a computerized analysis of the number and variety of mills in England from 1300 to 1540, as well as the technology, practices and personnel sustaining them, Langdon... more...
Decision-Making in Medieval Agricultureby David Stone
Oxford University Press, UK 2005; US$ 140.00David Stone reconstructs the mental world of medieval farmers and reveals that agricultural decision-making was as rational in 1300 as in modern times. Arguing that man's impact on agriculture has been significantly underestimated, he challenges the view that the medieval period was devastated by ecological and economic crises. - ;This fascinating and important book uses a wealth of contemporary sources to reconstruct the mental world of medieval farmers and, by doing so, argues that these key figures in the Middle Ages have been unfairly stereotyped. David Stone overturns the traditional view of medieval countrymen as economically backward and instead reveals that agricultural decision-making was as rational in the fouteenth century as... more...
The Black Deathby John Hatcher
Da Capo Press 2009; US$ 18.00In this fresh approach to the history of the Black Death, John Hatcher, a world-renowned scholar of the Middle Ages, recreates everyday life in a mid-fourteenth century rural English village. By focusing on the experiences of ordinary villagers as they livedand diedduring the Black Death (134550 AD), Hatcher vividly places the reader directly into those tumultuous years and describes in fascinating detail the day-to-day existence of people struggling with the tragic effects of the plague. Dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have experienced and thought about the momentous eventsand how they tried to make sense of it all. more...
Xanaduby John Man
Transworld 2010; US$ 12.38Marco Polo's journey from Venice, through Europe and most of Asia, to the court of Kublai Khan in China is one of the most audacious in history. His account of his experiences, known simply as The Travels , uncovered an entirely new world of emperors and concubines, great buildings - 'stately pleasure domes' in Coleridge's dreaming - huge armies and imperial riches. His book shaped the West's understanding of China for hundreds of years. John Man travelled in Marco's footsteps to Xanadu, in search of the truth behind Marco's stories; to separate legend from fact. Drawing on his own journey, archaeology and archival study, John Man paints a vivid picture of the man behind the myth and the true story of the great court of Kublai Khan. more...
The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine Historyby John Haldon
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. 2010; US$ 29.00The dominant Mediterranean power in the fifth and sixth centuries, by the time of its demise at the hands of the Ottomans in 1453 the Byzantine empire was a shadow of its former self restricted essentially to the city of Constantinople, modern Istanbul. Surrounded by foes who posed a constant threat to its very existence, it survived because of its administration, army and the strength of its culture, of which Orthodox Christianity was a key element. This historical atlas charts key aspects of the political, social and economic history of a medieval empire which bridged the Christian and Islamic worlds from the late Roman period into the late Middle Ages. more...
British Fortifications Through the Reign of Richard IIIby Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 2011; US$ 49.95From the time the Romans first set foot on England's shore in 55 BC, the British Isles have faced a constant threat of foreign invasion. As a result, the landscapes of England, Scotland, and Ireland are dotted with ancient defensive fortifications as varied as their makers. Iron Age Celtic "hillforts," Roman castra and Hadrian's Wall, Anglo-Saxon dykes and Alfredian burhs, Norman mottes and stone-keeps, Edwardian castles, Irish tower houses--they all served to repel ancient intruders and many still stand as tangible relics of a remarkable past. This study chronicles the development of British fortifications from prehistoric times through the end of Richard III's reign in 1485, providing the history of each type of structure,... more...
She Wolvesby Elizabeth Norton
The History Press 2011; US$ 18.94She Wolves is a history of the 'bad girls' of England's medieval royal dynasties - the queens who earned themselves the reputation of being somehow notorious. Some of them are well known and have been the subject of biographies - Eleanor of Aquitaine, Emma of Normandy, Isabella of France and Anne Boleyn, for example - while others have not been written about outside academic journals. The appeal of these notorious queens, apart from their shared taste for witchcraft, murder, adultery and incest, is that, because they were notorious, they attracted a great deal of attention during their lifetimes. She Wolves reveals much about the role of the medieval queen and the evolution of the role that led, ultimately, to the reign of Elizabeth I, and... more...
Generation of Identity in Late Medieval Hagiographyby Gail Ashton
Routledge 1999; US$ 206.00In this interdisciplinary and boundary breaking study, Gail Ashton examines the depiction of female saints in a wide range of medieval texts. more...









