The period covered has a distinctive character in military history.
“This richly illustrated book explores over seven hundred years of European warfare, from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the middle ages (c.1500). Medieval Warfare: a History – Books on Medieval Warfare Keen, Maurice, ed. See our historical fiction set in the Middle Ages
“This, without any doubt, is one of the half-dozen best books on warfare to appear in the English language since the end of the Second World War” -Michael Howard, Sunday Times (London). And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they were facing the arrow cloud at the battle of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme. The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at the “point of maximum danger.” Without the myth-making elements of rhetoric and xenophobia, and breaking away from the stylized format of battle descriptions, John Keegan has written what is probably the definitive model for military historians. Military historian John Keegan’s groundbreaking analysis of combat and warfare The Illustrated Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme – Books on Medieval Warfare Keegan, John Viking 1989 In the area of military method, he emphasizes three innovations: gunpowder, standing armies and the increased use of infantry, supplying in each case a wealth of data and documentation… Ever mindful of the chaos and devastation that war brings, War in the Middle Ages nonetheless offers a clear and consistent picture of the military ethos of a millennium.” -Publisher. He then shows how feudalization multiplied conflicts, and describes the resulting growth of the “great stone civilization” of the castle. He opens with a chapter on Roman military disintegration and the practice of warfare in the barbarian kingdoms erected on the empire’s ruins. Philippe Contamine writes with an awareness that, in both theory and fact, medieval warfare was constantly evolving. “Covering the ten centuries following the fall of Rome, War in the Middle Ages engages all aspects of its subject, including the military customs and conditions of the various Western European states armor and weaponry recruitment and rules of combat developed to limit bloodshed. War in the Middle Ages – Books on Medieval Warfare Contamine, Philippe Blackwell 1996
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