Customer Reviews

Medieval Warfare

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This book is a good starting point for anyone interested in reading up on medieval warfare. Its chronological sweep is very broad, and while it focuses on Western and Central Europe, it deals reasonably well with conflict between the peoples of these regions and others that they came into conflict with. The breadth of the work limits the amount of detail provided, but the author includes some effective examples. One real asset here, especially to the student, is that she surveys the recent literature and debates in different subfields, and provides references to key works that one can go to in order to learn more about them. The author also does her best to avoid overgeneralization, which is particularly helpful in her discussions of topics like feudalism and knighthood. While there are some factual or contextual errors here and there, there are not too many of these, and they do not significantly detract from the quality of the work. Undergraduates with no background in medieval history may find that the author assumes that they know more than they do, but anyone with some background in the field will find the book very useful. This is not a "battle book" with lots of ripping yarns, but it will help the reader to understand medieval warfare as described in such books, as well as in the chronicles and fictional literature from the time period.