The Hundred Years War: A People’s History 3rd Edition by David Green (PDF)

Description

What life was like for ordinary French and English people, embroiled in a devastating century-long conflict that changed their world.The Hundred Years War (1337–1453) dominated life in England and France for well over a century. It became the defining feature of existence for generations. This sweeping book is the first to tell the human story of the longest military conflict in history. Historian David Green focuses on the ways the war affected different groups, among them knights, clerics, women, peasants, soldiers, peacemakers, and kings. He also explores how the long war altered governance in England and France and reshaped peoples’ perceptions of themselves and of their national character.Using the events of the war as a narrative thread, Green illuminates the realities of battle and the conditions of those compelled to live in occupied territory; the roles played by clergy and their shifting loyalties to king and pope; and the influence of the war on developing notions of government, literacy, and education. Peopled with vivid and well-known characters—Henry V, Joan of Arc, Philippe the Good of Burgundy, Edward the Black Prince, John the Blind of Bohemia, and many others—as well as a host of ordinary individuals who were drawn into the struggle, this absorbing book reveals for the first time not only the Hundred Years War’s impact on warfare, institutions, and nations, but also its true human cost.“[Hundred Years War] makes us care about this long-ago conflict and the society that pursued and was shaped by it. . . . [It is] likely to (and indeed should) become a standard introduction to the war.”—Charles F. Briggs, Speculum

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Mr Green has put together the best reference I’ve found on the 100 Years Wars. However, let me stress that this should NOT be your first book on the subject. Just to get a feel for the facts and narrative, I’d recommend reading Desmond Seward’s book first. After that, if you want to know more, this is an excellent choice. Basically, Mr Green has put together a series of connected essays that give you details of the various aspects of society during the war and its impact on them: nobility, soldiers, women, prisoners, etc. The maps are terrific as is the source of references. It does give a quick chronology which is a useful reference as you read. It’s not perfect, but still I highly recommend it. It took me a little time to get into it, but once I did, I was hooked. Also, there are some occasions will the style seemed to be emphasized over clarity, yet I do enjoy Mr Green’s writing style. It’s probably more like 4.5 starts, but I always round up.

⭐As a scholar of late Medieval English ecclesiastical history I missed that focus in this book. Overall a good read. What it missed was lead up to the disastrous damage done to English life by what became known as the English Reformation.

⭐Very good for an overview but in my studies not as helpful as I had hoped. I use Wikipedia for images but, in the main I use other sources for text. When I have been doubtful about points made by these other sources, I have checked them against Green’s book and this has been helpful

⭐An excellent overview of the conflict and the author makes a compelling point about the importance of the era as one of social change. The Hundred Years War saw the rise of merchants as a force in national politics of England and proved that social mobility was possible. The book is an easy read, well written, and highly recommended for both experts and novices to the period.

⭐Grim but thorough discussion of the Hundred Years’ War. Poor France! Helps explain differences between English and French developments in law and governance.

⭐I always consider a book’s value by what I learned from it. This book looks at the HYW from many views and gives a crisp and refreshing panorama of the military, religious, and secular world at that time. It shows the evolution of thought, politics, and military engineering simultaneously evolving.

⭐I’d expected a book subtitled “A People’s History” to be a narrative history, but it’s not. A bundle of scholarly articles on aspects of the 100 Years War, no doubt well researched but not very readable.

⭐An excellent broad perspective of the period.

⭐A well researched, objective and variegated study of this crucial period of Anglo-French medieval history. The author sets the scene by giving a brief account, in the introduction, of the historical events and the causes for the dynastic disputes between these two realms. His approach is not a militaristic triumphalist one , but an unbiased analysis of the socioeconomic impact of this conflict on these two medieval societies. Thus his main focus is on the social history, the various ways the long protracted war affected various sections of both societies; from the simple soldiers to the aristocracy, the peasantry and the clergy, the women and the prisoners of war. He describes famines, plagues, the murderous raiding chevauchées, the ransoming of hostages, the peasant rebellions and not just the famous battles.He succeeds in producing a panoramic view of two realms building gradually their modern identities as they transformed their political awareness from a narrow dynastic feudal loyalty to a national territorial feeling. War became a national business with massive investments to be managed by a more sophisticated bureaucracy. It created an emerging class of wealthy merchants, and an upper stratum of the peasantry. The continuous cycle of wars resulted in great social dislocation particularly in France, but the disasters created in the long run a more assertive independent peasantry in both countries because of the shortage of manpower. The traditional feudal ties became more relaxed. The monolithic Catholic Church witnessed major rifts and questioning of papal authority, the war tore the institutional fabric of the French Church and a number of heresies appeared like the Lollards in England.The book offers a deeper understanding of late medieval societies particularly the human cost of the long conflict, the transformations brought about by new war technologies, the changes in chivalric attitudes and the transmutations of mentalities. An impressive absorbing read that exceeded my expectations.

⭐There are two very good things about this book. The first is the detail in which Green describes the origins of the 100 Years War. Like many contemporary historians he sees that its causes go back to the thirteenth century. The second is the way in which the French side of the story is told as well as that of the English.These are also the reasons it isn’t as successful as it might be. The book has a great deal to cover and it doesn’t quite manage it. Each chapter has to cover the English side and the French side of several decades of history. Where other historians are careful to say that there are two or three (or more) recorded versions of the same event, Green presents only one.Despite this, it is a useful book and I’ve already had to refer to it again, having finished reading it some weeks ago.

⭐One of the very best studies of The Hundred Years War I’ve read. The introductory chapter in particular is a masterly account of the causes of the conflict and an outline of its various phases. This leaves David Green free to examine aspects of the war such as the realities of occupation for tthe French population, the experience of war from the perspectives of the nobility, the peasantry, women and prisoners. Yet he never loses sight of the context and the book conveys a clear sense of the significance of the war in European historical development. Brilliantly written, scholarly yet highly readable – clearly the master of his craft and his subject. Ranks with the work of Jonathan Sumption.

⭐Too often, wars are treated as discrete events when in fact they occur in the context of social, political and economic changes. The 100 Years War was a major watershed in French and English, if not European, history. This book makes good this deficiency in the other narratives of this war.

⭐very detailed

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