I don't know if this stuff is new, or whether it is just noticeable because we are now organized, but suddenly we have a lot really good books on the Middle Ages:
Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages, by Joachim Bumke
(Trade PB, 770 pages, reprinted in 2000 from original 1986 German edition, $3. )
The Civilization of the Middle Ages, by Norman F. Cantor ***SOLD***
(HC, 604 pages, 1993 revised edition, " centering on culture and religion rather than political history." $3.50))
SOLD-
Medieval Civilization 400-1500, by Jacques Le Goff
(HC, 394 pages, reprinted in 1988 from 1964 original, $3.00)
SOLD-
The Age of Chivalry, by the National Geographic
(HC, 378 pages, 1969, lots and lots of color pictures, $3.00)
The Medieval Underworld, by Andrew McCall SOLD
(HC, 319 pages, 1993 edition of the original 1979 book, $ 2.50 )
This one is the most interesting, in my opinion. What are the underworlds? In the author's view, they "comprise all those people who were either unwilling or unable to comply with the law of the Church." That would include "outlaws and brigands, homosexuals, heretics, witches, prostitutes, thieves, fraudulent beggars and vagabonds". If you want to know what "they" did, and then what the Church did "to them", this is the book to buy.
In Search of the Dark Ages, by Michael Wood
(Trade PB, 250 pages, 1987, $ 2.50 )
If you want an easier to understand book, this is it. Larger print than most, with lots of pictures (but not in color, sigh). Large print , lots of pictures, and no fancy words... that suits me just fine. What about you?
All these books reside in the western civ. section.
