Description: This thorough update of a classic book includes fully revised content, new sections on the use of horses, handguns, incendiary weapons, and siege engines, and new illustrations.
Brief description:
Kelly DeVries is a professor in the Department of History at Loyola University, Maryland and an honorary historical consultant at the Royal Armouries, UK.
Review Quotes: Far more than just a second edition of DeVries's 1992 classic, this represents a complete rewrite, with significant new scholarship on almost every page. It is hard to imagine a more comprehensive, wide-ranging, and intelligent treatment of the topics covered. The updated notes and bibliography alone are worth the price of admission. Scholars, aficionados, and libraries alike will have to use DeVries and Smith or be considered hopelessly out of date.--Bert S. Hall, University of Toronto
Added to DeVries's compendious knowledge of medieval warfare is Smith's deep understanding of the arms and armor of the period, including how they were made and used. The result is that rare thing: a book that can be trusted in what it says about both military history and the hardware used in fighting.--Guy Wilson, Past Master of the Armouries, Royal Armouries
The first edition was pioneering and this edition is eagerly awaited by those who study military history as well as those who work on the history of medieval technology. Especially important is the integration of recent work on gunpowder weapons and siege technologies.--Bernard S. Bachrach, University of Minnesota
This is a full and authoritative treatment of the subject which illuminates our understanding of the medieval world and its warfare with remarkable clarity.--John France, Swansea University
Many sections have been substantially rewritten to reflect recent scholarship, and the book as a whole is much improved by a more precise table of contents, many new illustrations, and revised introductions and conclusion.--Fiona Harris-Stoertz, Trent University
Without any doubt this is the most comprehensive and best single volume on the subject...a book one should always have at hand.--Robert C. Woosnam-Savage, Curator of European Edged Weapons, Royal Armouries