The medieval flairs are putting together a list of good introductory books for a planned revamp of our section of the booklist, and here are the books that are currently on it:

• Medieval Christianity: A New History by Kevin Madigan. An overview of the history of Christianity in the West from c.500-1500, Madigan’s Medieval Christianity does an excellent job of integrating major themes in the development of Christianity in the West while treating a variety of topics typically overlooked in traditional histories, such as the role of women, interfaith relations, material history, and peasant cultures. It is an accessible primer for those interested in understanding the important aspects of medieval Christianity.

• The Middle Ages: Everyday Life in Medieval Europe, by Jeffery L. Singman. Everyday Life is one of the best and most comprehensive introductions to daily life in the Middle Ages. It focuses primarily on 13th century England, although it also has some chapters on life in France during the period, and draws on a wide variety of sources to describe and depict medieval life in a detailed and easy to read fashion. /u/Hergrim

• Growing Up in Medieval London, by Barbara Hanawalt. Growing Up in Medieval London is an easy to read and highly informative book on childhood in London during the 14th and 15th centuries. She explores what life was like for them at the different stages of life, the games they played, the work they performed, how they fit into the wider community and ties it all together with a number of composite portraits and short stories based on the real experiences of medieval children. Although it focuses on London, most of the book can be applied generally to England during the period, especially the other towns. /u/Hergrim

• Merchants and Moneymen: The Commercial Revolution, 1000-1500, by Joseph and Frances Gies. Merchants and Moneymen explores the world of medieval commerce through the lives of twenty merchants or financiers over a span of roughly 500 years. In using real individuals as their examples, the Gies are able to highlight not just the ways in which trade developed and was conducted, but also the areas where trade and money intersected with politics and describe some of the impacts of the changing face of the economy on the general population. There are many aspects of the medieval economy that the book doesn’t touch on, but there’s no better introduction to the subject for non-specialists. Although now out of print, second hand copies are very cheap and it can also be digitally borrowed from archive.org. /u/Hergrim

• Medieval Women, by Henrietta Leyser. Medieval Women serves as a good introduction to the roles played and lives lived by women in medieval England from the mid-5th century through to the start of the 16th. Leyser creates an original synthesis from the available archaeological and the limited literary information we have for women in Anglo-Saxon England to explore their role in society, and then uses the much more abundant information on the lives of women from the High and Late Middle Ages to discuss their roles in all aspects of society, from wage labour to motherhood to the crafts to the economy and to religion. /u/Hergrim

• Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel, by Frances and Joseph Gies. Contrary to pop culture depictions, the Middle Ages were a time of technological development and scientific advancement, in Europe as well as the Middle East. Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel explores these changes, their impact on society and their relation to earlier developments in other parts of the world and how, or why, these inventions were modified by medieval people. It’s a highly readable book and serves as a superb introduction to the subject for the average reader. /u/Hergrim

• Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others, by Ruth Mazo Karras. Were the Middle Ages like the popular depiction of a sexually repressive society with chastity belts, or the oversexed profane world of the Wife of Bath? Karras spans the geographic and chronological range of medieval Europe to sketch the terrain beyond pop culture sensationalism. Provides a great introduction to talking about gender, sexuality, and homosexuality in history as well! /u/sunagainstgold

• Blood Royal, by Eric Jager. In a nutshell, CSI: Medieval Paris. Jager reconstructs the spectacular murder investigation into the assassination of the Duke of Orleans in the streets of Paris, 1407. This is as “ripped from the headlines” as it gets. Jager’s The Last Duel is another thrilling microhistory. /u/sunagainstgold

• The Hundred Years’ War: A People’s History, by David Green. Shakespeare puts brilliant words into Henry V’s mouth at Agincourt, but what about the peasants hiding out from scorched-earth campaigns in underground bunkers, countesses ransoming their husbands or leading town defenses in their absence, soldiers digging the bodies of their friends out of the mud after a battle? Green looks at the experience of war and daily life during the sprawling conflict. /u/sunagainstgold

• Medieval Warfare: A History, ed. by Maurice Keen. Medieval Warfare covers medieval warfare from the late 8th century through to the end of the Hundred Year's War and is divided into a number of chapters on warfare in different regions and periods, and then another section on equipment, fortifications, naval combat, mercenaries, war and the non-combatant and other aspects of medieval warfare not directly involved in land battles. It serves as a well rounded introduction to the subject, and is used as the standard textbook in a number of university courses on the subject.

There are a few other useful books you could read. The Gies' Life in a Medieval... series of books has a slightly different perspective to Singman's book and contains a lot of information that supplements or adds a new dimension to his otherwise excellent book, such as aristocratic hunting rituals, what it was like to be in the retinue of a major lord, medieval universities, medicine, the law and the medieval village, etc. The three books are collected in Daily Life in Medieval Times, which apparently also has a few extra images.

Also by the Gies is Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, a good synthesis on the subject of the development of marriage and the family over the whole of the medieval period, although it's very much a surface level account with a raft of oversimplifications due to the sheer breadth of the subject.

In terms of law, Ian Mortimer's The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England has a nice summary of the complexity of English law and the different levels and jurisdictions involved, although large parts of the book are otherwise unreliable or distortions of scholarship.

For a more in depth look at the traditional view of the medieval economy, the first volume of The Fontana Economic History of Europe is especially useful for understanding how it worked as a whole, while NJG Pounds' An Economic History of Medieval Europe provides a good look at how it developed and adds information about the demographics and agriculture of the Middle Ages. For a slight update to these works, Steven A. Epstein's An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe can be consulted.

Ruth Mazo Karras' Common Women and Unmarriages sheds light on prostitution in medieval England and the many varieties of common law marriages/de facto partnerships in medieval Europe, respectively, and are well worth the read for understanding the lives of many women in the Middle Ages.

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to find more information about.