"For more than one thousand years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human...

"In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh's most exciting leap yet. Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life's few consolations for Marek...

"An epic reappraisal of the medieval world--and the rich and complicated legacy left to us by the rise of the West--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Templars. When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names--from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet...

"Just like in the movies, mammoth castles and armored knights were parts of life in England in the thirteenth century. But European medieval culture was so much more than these romantic props. Readers of this enthralling book will encounter a leper, merchant, blacksmith, knight, and others who offer many facts about medieval life, like what it took to become a knight and how a doctor tried to cure illnesses back then. Photographs of weaponry, art,...

After the long period of cultural decline known as the Dark Ages, Europe experienced a rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science and began to develop a vision of Western society that remains at the heart of Western civilization today. On visits to the great cities of Europe--monumental Rome; the intellectually explosive Paris of Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas; the hotbed of scientific study that was Oxford; and the incomparable...

An illustrated look at various aspects of life in medieval Europe, covering everyday life, religion, royalty, and more.

"Grab your magical sword and take the place of your favorite fantasy character with this fun and historically accurate how-to guide to solving epic quests"-- "What should you ask a magic mirror? How do you outwit a genie? Where should you dig for buried treasure? Fantasy media's favorite clicȟs get new life from How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero's Guide to the Real Middle Ages, a historically accurate romp through the medieval world. Each entry...