Historiography (How Do Modern Historians Interpret Medieval Warfare)
What are the various conclusions, insights and arguments made by historians over the nature of different wars in the middle ages? [what do these historians say about what medieval war was exactly? its composition, its way of fighting, what made it distinct?] What aspect of war – causes [religion–see Riley-Smith, for example], motivation [how do the historians on the list argue for different motives], technology [ [atrocities, for example in the crusades; rules of war]], conduct, on-the-ground experience – do different historians focus on? [how do they compare and contrast with each other]]And how do the particular wars they study – Crusades, 100 Years’ War – shape their analysis? [eg, how does studying the First Crusade inform the authors analysis?]
The sources you should use are listed below. You can find all of these online but can find some in your local library if need be.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades A History. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades. London: Penguin Classics, 2016.
Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)
Giles Constable, “The Historiography of the Crusades,” in The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World , ed.
Angeliki E. Laiou, Roy P. Mottahedeh (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2001), pp. 1-22
Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 1999)
Contamine, Phillipe. War in the Middle Ages Bachrach
David Stewart. Religion and the Conduct of War c. 300-c.1215. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2003.
DeVries, Kelly. Medieval Military Technology (1992)
Keen, Maurice. Medieval Warfare: A History (1999)
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusaders (1998)
