The Middle Ages

Children's Literature

Mr. Nardo looks beyond the luster of noble knights in shining armor where nobility always prevails to tell the reader a truer, more realistic story of weapons and warfare in the Middle Ages. In the 1000 years that are called the Middle Ages, great changes occurred in warfare methods and the author explains this evolution. He starts by describing weapons and tactics of infantry and cavalry and continues by analyzing siege warfare in relationship to castles and fortifications, as well as to offensive weapons and methods. He takes a fresh look at the meaning of gunpowder, cannons and hand-held guns and concludes with a chapter on ships and naval warfare. He uses first hand accounts and scholarly assessments to effectively show what war might actually have been like. He notes "Most knights...fought not for love or honor but to gain power, land, prestige or money...." and he adds that the noble motives often were used to justify aggression and slaughter. He also mentions that knights often lacked military discipline because they wanted to get into the fray and fight it out man to man. One fascinating segment tells about the cost of security in a castle and the factors that influenced whether defender or aggressor was most likely to prevail. He also mentions how troops tended to drift away when medieval warlords failed to pay them. This is a realistic antidote to those books that glamorize war. Included in the end material are source notes, an extensive annotated bibliography and glossary. 2003, Lucent Books,
— Janet Crane Barley

VOYA

Nardo, author of many historical nonfiction books, presents a six-volume "History of Weapons and Warfare" series that describes the warfare and weapons of the past. The Native Americans describes weapons used by the native people of the Americas before and after Europeans arrived. Individual books are broken up into the types of war and warfare used by each culture. Spiritual weapons such as the Ghost Dance are also mentioned. In The Middle Ages, Nardo begins by comparing the romanticized views of medieval times to the brutal reality of the era. Readers are taken from the early warfare of the time and are shown how different techniques and weapons developed. Topics such as fortifications and tactics are also covered. The writing about the horrific events of wartime is very clear and blunt and does not lecture readers. Sidebars are used to draw attention to specific issues. There are plain black-and-white illustrations that help demonstrate the author's points. Nardo includes extensive quotes from ancient and modern sources in the body of the text. A passage from a fourteenth-century Frenchman included in The Middle Ages demonstrates the deadly effectiveness of the English yeoman, or longbow archers. These firsthand accounts liven up the text, giving readers a chance to see battles through the eyes of those who experienced them. The vocabulary is high level and the sentences can be complex. This series would be an excellent choice for high school library collections, although the series will also have appeal to teens interested in the subject matter. Other titles in the series include Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and The Civil War.VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003, Lucent, 112p.; Glossary. Index. Illus. Photos. Maps. Biblio. Source Notes., PLB. Ages 15 to 18.
—Leslie McCombs