From acclaimed historians Frances and Joseph Gies comes the reissue of their classic book on day-to-day life in medieval cities, which was a source for George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series.

Evoking every aspect of city life in the Middle Ages, Life in a Medieval City depicts in detail what it was like to live in a prosperous city of Northwest Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The year is 1250 CE and the city is Troyes,

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"A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, showing the beauty and communion that flourished alongside the dark brutality--a brilliant reflection of humanity itself."--Dust jacket.

"Some years ago, a remarkable manuscript long rumored to exist was discovered: The Legend of Broken. It tells of a prosperous fortress city where order reigns at the point of a sword-even as scheming factions secretly vie for control of the surrounding kingdom. Meanwhile, outside the city's granite walls, an industrious tribe of exiles known as the Bane forages for sustenance in the wilds of Davon Wood. At every turn, the lives of Broken's defenders...

Jack and Annie look at knights, armor, and life in a castle.

The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chaos and spiritual agony. Barbara Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their...

Certainly through no fault of its own, Poland has been like a pawn, its territory traded between Germans and Russians, among others. Only one major victory in a millennium marks Poland's sovereignty: the Battle of Tannenberg. Like other nations that called on foreign troops to help them quell domestic insurrections, the Poles were conquered by their own invited guests, the German Templars or Teutonic Order. The original goal was to crush pagan nationalities,...

The treasures in gold and bronze that came to Europe were partly the reason why the Northwestern Isles proved so attractive for the Celts. Veins of copper in the cliffs could be seen from the sea along the southern Irish coast. This program traces the role of tin, copper, bronze, and gold, and the men who mined them, as well as the craft of the smith in Celtic areas, reminding us that Goibniu, one of the Celtic gods, was a blacksmith.

Finally, our journey must come to an end in Italy, a country once made rich from its maritime trade. Our final voyage begins in Venice, the birthplace of merchants like Marco Polo, whose exotic tales from the east strengthened trade all those centuries ago. Sumnima Udas visits the MOSE project, Libreria Acqua Alta, Mantero silk factory, and the World's Expo on this episode of Silk Road: Past, Present, Future.

The Late Middle Ages - the two centuries from c. 1300 to c. 1500 - might seem like a distant era, but students of history are still trying to reach a consensus about how it should be interpreted. Was it an era of calamity or rebirth? Was it still clearly medieval or the period in which humanity took its first decisive steps into modernity? These 24 provocative lectures introduce you to the age's major events, personalities, and developments, and

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