I've been taking in everything I possibly can on medieval Jewish women in Europe, and it's been a wild ride. Incredible how much of this stuff is divorced from mainstream European studies. Someone told me not long ago that Jewish studies have been exploding over the past two decades, and I can see how, it's all fairly fresh stuff. Patricia Skinner and Judith Baskin are a couple of scholars who write pretty prolifically on it, with a lot of studies on the economic conditions of Jewish widows and mobility. Today, I got a hold of a .pdf of the Calendar of Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, so I've got a new resource to plumb for a few days! Coming from literature, going through court rolls is new, but I'm hoping to dig up snapshots of Jewish women in daily life. My life would be a lot easier if I could read Hebrew, but hey, pick your battles I suppose.

Still in Arguing About Slavery, which has left behind its biography of John Quincy Adams and wandered back in the halls of Congress. I'm being hard on it, but really it's a fine book so far. The main thing is that the JQA chapters especially look like Miller just wanted to write a capsule bio of the guy.

What's less convenient is that Miller's chapters are so short my chapter a day system has been working against me. I read two or three and think I've done a lot.

Kind of want to read up on Korematsu v. US. Asides from reading the actual case documents, what other books might be good to look at?

I'm looking for information on the recruitment of soldiers in medieval armies, for a "short" article I'm writing on the subject for my blog.

I've already done some research on the subject, and I have plenty of information on England throughout the period, a good idea of recruitment in "France" during the Early and Late Middle Ages, and also an idea of how recruitment was carried out in Spain during the High Middle Ages.

What I'm interested in is everywhere else, and any good sources of information that I've missed for any of the aforementioned periods and areas. I'm especially interested in learning about Northern Europe and Germany, but Southern and Eastern Europe would be just as welcome.

I should mention here that I can only read English, which does limit my options quite a bit, I know, and that's something I'm working on.

#What I've read or have ready to read

General

• Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West 450-900, by Guy Halsall
• War in the Middle Ages, by Philippe Contamine
• How to Plan a Crusade, by Christopher Tyerman
• Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, by John France
• Mercenaries and Paid Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages, edited by John France
• The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century, edited by Adrian R. Bell and Anne Curry
• Journal of Medieval Military History, Volumes I-X

England

• Alfred the Great, by Richard Abels
• Alfred's Wars, by Ryan Lavelle
• Anglo-Norman Warfare, edited by Matthew Strickland
• The Welsh Wars of Edward I, by John Morris
• Military Obligation in Medieval England: A Study in Liberty and Duty, by Michael Powicke
• Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: The English Experience, by Michael Prestwick
• War, Politics and Finance Under Edward I, by Michael Prestwick
• Feudal military service in England;: A study of the constitutional and military powers of the barones in medieval England, by I. J. Sanders
• Bannockburn, by John Morris
• The Battle of Crecy, 1346, edited by Andrew Ayton and Phillip Preston
• The Organisation of War Under Edward III, by H.J. Hewitt
• Arrowstorm, by Richard Wadge
• The Wars of the Roses: Military activity and English society, 1452-97, by Anthony Goodman

France

• Merovingian Military Organisation 481-751, by Bernard Bachrach
• Early Carolingian Warfare, by Bernard Bachrach
• The Battle of Crecy, 1346, edited by Andrew Ayton and Phillip Preston
• The History of Warfare III, by Hans Delbruck (purely for the compagnies d'ordonnance, I assure you)

Spain

• Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain, by Joseph F. O'Callighan
• The Origins and Development of Municipal Military Service in the Leonese and Castilian Reconquest, 800–1250, by James F. Powers
• Townsmen and Soldiers: The Interaction of Urban and Military Organization in the Militias of Mediaeval Castile, by James F. Powers

I'm also currently on the fence about whether I should read Power's A Society Organised for War, or if I've already gained as much as I need to know from his journal articles. I get the feeling that it might be worth a read, though. Can anyone who's read it comment?

I'm continuing my extended break from medieval books to read Ron Chernow's biography of Washington. I'm only 100 pages in, but so far I'm really enjoying it. It's been about a decade since I last studied any colonial American history, so it's kind of refreshing.