Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2008

My Current Medieval History Reading List

I've only recently started reading about the Middle Ages, and find it all fascinating! I first read through Jean Plaidy's "Norman Trilogy" and "Plantagenet Saga" books for a great overview of English Medieval history. Now I'm expanding into more topics of interest. The following are some books I've read and/or am planning to read. These are good introductory books, as well as ones that are well written for a general audience:

By Joseph and Frances Gies:
Life in a Medieval Castle
Life in a Medieval Village
Life in a Medieval City
The Knight in History
Marriage and the Family in the Middle ages
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages
Other:
  • Charlemagne Father of a Continent, by Alessandro Barbero
  • The Penguin Guide to Medieval Europe, by Richard Barber
  • How the Irish saved civilization: the untold story of Ireland's heroic role from the fall of Rome to the rise of medieval Europe (Hinges of History Series, Volume 1), by Thomas Cahill
  • Chivalrous Society, by Georges Duby
  • The Last Apocalypse: Europe At the Year 1000 A.D., by James Reston
  • 1066: The Year of the Conquest, by David Howarth
  • William Marshal, Knight-errant, Baron, and Regent of England, by Sidney Painter
  • Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, by Ronald McNair Scott
  • A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, by Barbara Tuchman
  • Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes, by Bertram Fields

About the Crusades:
By Jonathan Riley-Smith:
The Oxford History of the Crusades
The First Crusaders, 1095-1131
The Crusades: A Short History
The Atlas of the Crusades
Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade, by James Reston
The Dream and the Tomb: a History of the Crusades, by Robert Payne
The Knights Templar, by Stephen Howarth