Life in the Middle Ages - From the Seventh to the Thirteenth Century
Historian Hans-Werner Goetz presents here a comprehensive depiction of life in the earlier Middle Ages that focuses on "everyday history". According to Goetz it is nearly impossible to write a history of everyday life during the Middle Ages since the written sources of that age had entirely different purposes, never describing everyday life for its own sake.
However, by drawing on chronicles, legal documents and even fiction, Goetz is able to produce a lively picture of this era, illuminating everyday life as it was conditioned by institutional, physical, and social environments.
The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages - Power, Faith and Crusade
These essays take advantage of a new, exciting trend towards interdisciplinary research on the Charlemagne legend. Written by historians, art historians, and literary scholars, these essays focus on the multifaceted ways the Charlemagne legend functioned in the Middle Ages and how central the shared (if nonetheless fictional) memory of the great Frankish ruler was to the medieval West. A gateway to new research on memory, crusading, apocalyptic expectation, Carolingian historiography, and medieval kingship, the contributors demonstrate the fuzzy line separating “fact” and “fiction” in the Middle Ages.
A Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance.
Oman provides an excellent, well-researched look at the arms, tactics, and strategies of various medieval armies. He covers the rise of the era of heavy calvary, and describes how it was replaced by the English longbow and the Swiss pikeman. His discussion of the various battlefield tactics unique to each army, as illustrated through maps of many of the major battles, proves both informative and entertaining. This is by far the most "readable" and authoritative book on the subject I have read to date.
Nothing less than a rethinking of what we mean when we talk about "men" and "women" of the medieval period, this volume demonstrates how the idea of gender -- in the Middle Ages no less than now -- intersected in subtle and complex ways with other categories of difference. Responding to the insights of postcolonial and feminist theory, the authors show that medieval identities emerged through shifting paradigms -- that fluidity, conflict, and contingency characterized not only gender, but also sexuality, social status, and religion.
