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History publishing operates along largely two tracks: the first is the more traditional scholarly monograph published through an academic press (Cambridge, Oxford, Brill, etc.). The second is what is often called "popular history" and is published through a trade publisher (Random House, etc.). People can be real snooty
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With so much new scholarship on the middle ages appearing all the time, it is easy for it to get lost or missed by those who are not in the know or professional historians. So my goal is to curate a list, mostly in English, of new releases in medieval
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I spend a lot of time on Among the Ruins talking about kings and nobles, perhaps unsurprising given my academic background. Yet charters and other sources give us glimpses into people of a decidedly lower register. Our challenge as historians is usually that we have very little information about these
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Hello! I received my PhD in Medieval History in May 2025 and am using my expertise to educate interested people in the Middle Ages and the process of creating history. Subscribing as either a free or paid member will help you go from an enthusiast to someone who understands how
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Hello! I received my PhD in Medieval History in May 2025 and am using my expertise to educate interested people in the Middle Ages and the process of creating history. Subscribing as either a free or paid member will help you go from an enthusiast to someone who understands how
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I leave to several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths - Jorge Luis Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths."[1] It is a staple of popular internet videos and posts: what if history happened differently? What if the Germans had won WWII? What if the French
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It was a November day when the unified Carolingian empire came to a final end. The last emperor to rule the entire realm, Charles the Fat, found himself on the wrong side of a political coup led by his own nephew Arnulf of Carinthia. On November 27th, 887 Arnulf granted
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After a very long lapse I managed to finish reading the 2024 book by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry called Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers that Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe. For those who are unfamiliar, it covers the years leading up to the Carolingian Civil War
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In a modern world of instant communication technologies, aircraft, and cars, it is easy to take for granted the speed at which the modern world works. A journey that takes hours today may have taken days, or even weeks or months in the past. This can cause us to downplay
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For many Americans, the meaning of a king and a tyrant are largely synonymous. It is common in American media to see kings treated as tyrannical, because they are not bound by the will of the people, are arbitrary, etc. Here is what the inhabitants of my hometown had to
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I only have a few more days left in Munich, where I have been conducting research at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. The MGH library is world class, and the idea of not having access to it is despair inducing. I also got to spend a good chunk of time in
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Imagine you are watching a movie set in the Middle Ages. Something seems off so you dutifully Google "movie + historical accuracy," giving you plenty of results that emphasize the mistakes in the film. You might also occasionally find the directors, costume designers, etc. defending their decisions to break