This collection of eighteen essays focuses on various phases of warfare around the medieval Mediterranean. Topics of these essays range from crusading activity to the increasing use of mercenaries to the spread of gunpowder weaponry.

This volume consists of the work of eighteen established and younger scholars and focuses on the Mediterranean as a military arena during the Middle Ages. The essays center on several pillars of Mediterranean warfare: the crusading movement including the Spanish reconquista, the development of gunpowder weaponry, the widespread use of mercenaries, and warfare as understood by the lawcodes and intellectuals of the period. A number of articles in this collection present new answers to old historiographical questions.

This volume presents the first substantial exploration of crusading and masculinity, focusing on the varied ways in which the symbiotic relationship between the two was made manifest in a range of medieval settings and sources, and to what ends. Ideas about masculinity formed an inherent part of the mindset of societies in which crusading happened, and of the conceptual framework informing both those who recorded the events and those who participated. Examination and interrogation of these ideas enables a better contextualised analysis of how those events were experienced, comprehended and portrayed. The collection is structured around five themes: sources and models; contrasting masculinities; emasculation and transgression; masculinity and religiosity and kingship and chivalry. By incorporating masculinity within their analysis of the crusades and of crusaders the contributors demonstrate how such approaches greatly enhance our understanding of crusading as an ideal, an institution and an experience. Individual essays consider western campaigns to the Middle East and Islamic responses; events and sources from the Iberian peninsula and Prussia are also interrogated and re-examined, thus enabling cross-cultural comparison of the meanings attached to medieval manhood. The collection also highlights the value of employing gender as a vital means of assessing relationships between different groups of men, whose values and standards of behaviour were socially and culturally constructed in distinct ways.

In The Story of N, Hugh S. Gorman analyzes the notion of sustainability from a fresh perspective—the integration of human activities with the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen—and provides a supportive alternative to studying sustainability through the lens of climate change and the cycling of carbon. It is the first book to examine the social processes by which industrial societies learned to bypass a fundamental ecological limit and, later, began addressing the resulting concerns by establishing limits of their own The book is organized into three parts. Part I, “The Knowledge of Nature,” explores the emergence of the nitrogen cycle before humans arrived on the scene and the changes that occurred as stationary agricultural societies took root. Part II, “Learning to Bypass an Ecological Limit,” examines the role of science and market capitalism in accelerating the pace of innovation, eventually allowing humans to bypass the activity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Part III, “Learning to Establish Human-Defined Limits,” covers the twentieth-century response to the nitrogen-related concerns that emerged as more nitrogenous compounds flowed into the environment. A concluding chapter, “The Challenge of Sustainability,” places the entire story in the context of constructing an ecological economy in which innovations that contribute to sustainable practices are rewarded.

In 1474, a twenty-three year old woman ascended the throne of Castile, the largest and strongest kingdom in Spain. Ahead of her lay the considerable challenge not only of being a young, female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world, but also of reforming a major European kingdom that was riddled with crime, corruption, and violent political factionism. Her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon was crucial to her success, bringing together as it did two kingdoms, but it was a royal partnership in which Isabella more than held her own. Her pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and setting the stage for its golden era of global dominance. For by the time of her death in 1504, Isabella had laid the foundations not just of modern Spain, but of one of the world's greatest empires. Acclaimed historian Giles Tremlett chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile as she led her country out of the murky middle ages and harnessed the newest ideas and tools of the early Renaissance to turn her ill-disciplined, quarrelsome nation into a sharper, modern state with a powerful, clear-minded, and ambitious monarch at its centre. With authority, insight and flair he relates the story of this legendary, if controversial, first initiate in a small club of great European queens that includes Elizabeth I of England, Russia's Catherine the Great, and Britain's Queen Victoria.

This is the second update of "A Cumulative Bibliography of Medieval Military History and Technology," which appeared in 2002. It is meant to do two things: to present references to works on medieval military history and technology not included in the first two volumes; and to present references to all books and articles published on medieval military history and technology from 2003 to 2006. These references are divided into the same categories as in the first two volumes and cover a chronological period of the same length, from late antiquity to 1648, again in order to present a more complete picture of influences on and from the Middle Ages. It also continues to cover the same geographical area as the first and second volume, in essence Europe and the Middle East, or, again, influences on and from this area. The languages of these bibliographical references reflect this geography.

Warfare in Medieval Europe c. 400-c.1453 provides a thematic discussion of the nature and conduct of war, including its economic, technological, social, and religious contexts, from the late Roman Empire to the end of the Hundred Years’ War. The geographical scope of this volume encompasses Latin Europe from Iberia to Poland and from Scandinavia and Britain to Sicily and includes the interaction between Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, particularly in the context of the crusading movement. Bernard and David Bachrach explore the origins of the institutions, physical infrastructure, and intellectual underpinnings of medieval warfare and trace the ways in which medieval warfare was diffused beyond Europe to the Middle East and beyond. Written in an accessible and engaging way and including chapters on military topography, military technology, logistics, strategy and combat, this is a definitive synthesis on medieval warfare. The book is accompanied by a companion website which includes interactive maps of the chief military campaigns, chapter resources, a glossary of terms and an interactive timeline which provides a chronological backbone for the thematic chapters in the book. Warfare in Medieval Europe is an essential resource for all students of medieval war and warfare.

In Conflict in Fourteenth-Century Iberia Donald Kagay and Andrew Villalon explore the background, administrative, diplomatic, economic, and military results, and the aftermath of the War of the Two Pedros between Castile and the Crown of Aragon (1356-1366) and the Castilian Civil War (1366-1369).

This book compares two successful, elite women, Empress Adelheid (931-999) and Countess Matilda (1046-1115), for their relative ability to retain their wealth and power in the midst of the profound social changes of the eleventh century. The careers of the Ottonian queen and empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda of Tuscany reveal a growth of opportunities for women to access wealth and power. These two women are analyzed under three categories: their relationships with family and friends, how they managed their property (particularly land), and how they ruled. This analysis encourages a better understanding of gender relations in both the past and the present.

Winner of the 2019 Brigadier General James L. Collins Jr. Prize In To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle: Nájera (April 3, 1367). A Pyrrhic Victory for the Black Prince, L.J. Andrew Villalon and Donald J. Kagay provide a full treatment of one of the major battles of the Hundred Years War, which, perhaps because it was fought in Spain, is lesser known to scholars and general readers. Drawing information from contemporary European chronicles and the massive documentary collections of Spanish and French archives, the authors have painstakingly investigated the Iberian and European background events to Nájera and have in minute detail laid out how the army of Enrique II of Castile (assisted by Bertand de Guesclin) and that of his half-brother, Pedro I of Castile (assisted by Edward, the Black Prince), clashed at Nájera on April 3, 1367. Winner of the 2019 Brigadier General James L. Collins Jr. Prize, awarded by the U.S. Commission on Military History for the best book on military history published in 2017 or 2018. The awarding committee praised the volume as ‘a genuinely original scholarly contribution... comprehensive, balanced, and insightful... this 600-page magnum opus will significantly enhance our understanding of military history during a seminal period of human development.’ See inside the book.