Are there any history books on the Late Middle Ages?

by beerbrewer1995

I have plenty of books on the Early Middle Ages (400-1000) and the High Middle Ages (1000-1250). Are there any academic (or, begrudgingly, popular) history books on the Late Middle Ages (1250-1500). Nothing specific, but I would prefer a history of Europe in the same vein as the penguin history of Europe. It seems there's a gap between their volume on the High Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance.

y_sengaku

There are several factors that lead to to the apparent absence of the good history books on the Later Middle Ages in English.

  • Historiographic divide of the scholarship by modern nation-states: In my opinion, Anglophone historiography is rather weak in the study of Later Middle Europe (not Britain), compared with German or French scholarship of that sub-period.
  • Later Middle Ages as a transitional period in the periodization: Either of approaches seem to be possible to grasp the characteristic of the Later Middle Ages, either as a end/ autumn of the Middle Ages, or even 'Waning', as once titled in the old English translation of Dutch historian, Johan Huizinga, or, as a beginning of the new age, almost contemporary with the Italian Renaissance.

Anyway, if you wish to read a basic overview of this sub-period (mainly in political and social history), I’d for now firstly recommend North's book ([North 2012]), translated from the German original and mainly reflecting the state of research not only in Germany, but also in Central, Eastern and Northern (Scandinavian) Europe, since North himself is specialized in economic and cultural history in the late medieval and early modern Northern Seas.

Alternatively, [Briggs 2020] is primarily undergraduate-level textbook focusing mainly on cultural and religious aspects of the 14th and 15th centuries, arranged in the thematic chapters. If you prefer the thematic composition rather than the chapter by area, this book would be a so far tentative choice to go.

If you don't mind considering the artificial periodization of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance so much, [Le Goff 2017] traces the history of the development of this schematic division and attached popular perceptions. It is also this French medievalist's posthumous work.

From the point of view of the continuity to the later period (Early Modern Europe), 2 volume works of The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750 (linked to the vol. 1), should probably also be referred to, but these books are perhaps too heavy for the first to be read.

References:

  • Briggs, Charles. The Body Broken: Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 1300-1525. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2020 (1st ed. 2011).
  • Kaminsky, Howard. "From Lateness to Waning to Crisis: The Burden of the Later Middle Ages," Journal of Early Modern History 4, no. 1 (2000): 85-125
  • Le Goff, Jacques. Must We Divide History Into Periods? (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism), trans. Malcolm DeBevoise. New York: Columbia UP, 2017.
  • North, Michael. The Expansion of Europe, 1250-1500. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2012 [German original: Europa expandiert 1250-1500, Stuttgart: UTB, 2007].
  • Peters, Edward, and Walter P. Simons. "The New Huizinga and the Old Middle Ages." Speculum 74, no. 3 (1999): 587-620. Accessed February 3, 2021. doi:10.2307/2886762.
Swarxy

Mind if I ask you for good ones on the High Middle Ages?