Approved Reading List for Western Civilization (Ryan)
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Note: Click on a title to see more information; a new window will open when you click a title. A print copy of this list is also available at the Truax library circulation desk.
133.43 B155
Battling demons : witchcraft, heresy, and reform in the late Middle Ages / Michael D. Bailey
133.430938 W819
Witchcraft and magic in Europe : ancient Greece and Rome / edited by Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark
201.44 AL362
The quest for the shaman : shape-shifters, sorcerers and spirit-healers of Ancient Europe / Miranda & Stephen Aldhouse-Green
(An interesting but quite repetitive account that uses comparative anthropological methods to explore the topic. Student reviewers like the authors’ enthusiasm but criticize the leaps in logic and lack of evidence.)
248.46 B994
Holy feast and holy fast : the religious significance of food to medieval women / Caroline Walker Bynum
(One of the more influential studies of women’s religiosity in the medieval era that touches on far more than the title indicates.)
248.47 B435
Holy anorexia / Rudolph M. Bell ; epilogue by William N. Davis
(An interesting book whose arguments have been challenged by C. W. Bynum and other historians.)
273.6 L222
Medieval heresy : popular movements from the Gregorian reform to the Reformation / Malcolm Lambert
(An exhaustive and detailed catalogue of medieval heresy. Lambert focuses more on the church’s reactions to heresy rather than analyzing the heretics themselves—a tough but worthwhile read.)
274 OZ99
The age of reform (1250-1550) : an intellectual and religious history of late medieval and Reformation Europe / Steven Ozment
(Classic survey by an eminent historian.)
273.6 M383
The Cathars : the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages / Sean Martin
(An accessible popular history of the Cathars.)
301.412 P785
Goddesses, whores, wives, and slaves : women in classical antiquity / Sarah B. Pomeroy
(Pomeroy’ Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves is a pioneering work in women’s history. Sue Blundell’s survey of Greek Women is much easier to read.)
304.609736 P24
Demography and Roman society / Tim G. Parkin
305.2309421 H233
Growing up in medieval London : the experience of childhood in history / Barbara A. Hanawalt
305.230942 OR73
Medieval children / Nicholas Orme
(Orme’s study is controversial, difficult, but worthwhile.)
305.409 L6
The creation of patriarchy / Gerda Lerner
(Lerner’s book is passionately written and argued—a bit dated but still definitely worth the effort!)
305.40902 B65
Medieval misogyny and the invention of Western romantic love / R. Howard Bloch
305.40902 SH53
The fourth estate : a history of women in the Middle Ages / Shulamith Shahar ; translated by Chaya Galai
305.40902 SW971
Medieval gentlewoman : life in a gentry household in the later Middle Ages / Ffiona Swabey
305.40938 B658
Women in ancient Greece / Sue Blundell
(Well-written, well-organized, student-friendly account.)
305.40938 P785
Spartan women / Sarah B. Pomeroy
305.42 C22
Pandora's daughters : the role and status of women in Greek andRoman antiquity / Eva Cantarella ; translated by Maureen B. Fant ; witha foreword by Mary R. Lefkowitz
(A fine book that makes for difficult reading, Pandora’s Daughters works best for those students who already have some knowledge of ancient Roman history.)
305.5120942 H233
Of good and ill repute : gender and social control in medieval England / Barbara A. Hanawalt
(An excellent book that remains bafflingly unselected.)
305.520941 C952
The birth of nobility : constructing aristocracy in England and France : 900-1300 / David Crouch
306.362 B811
Slavery and society at Rome / Keith Bradley
(An excellent introduction to the subject that uses a comparative historical approach to describe and analyze slavery. Student reviewers generally praise the book)
306.850945 D6
The Roman family / Suzanne Dixon
309.13707 M16
Roman social relations, 50 B.C. to A.D. 284
MacMullen, Ramsay, 1928-
(An older but still valuable account of Roman social history.)
333.30938 B92
Land and labor in the Greek world / Alison Burford
362.7044 B74
The kindness of strangers : the abandonment of children inWestern Europe from late antiquity to the Renaissance / John Boswell
821.1 C491W
Chaucer, 1340-1400 : the life and times of the first English poet / Richard West
909.07 B651 V.1 1961
Feudal society / Marc Bloch ; translated by L.A. Manyon.
909.07 B651 V.2 1961
Feudal society / Marc Bloch ; translated by L.A. Manyon.
(Executed by the Nazis for his involvement in the French Resistance, Marc Block was an amazing historian whose Feudal Society was one of the most influential works of history in the first half of the twentieth century.)
909.07 B291 2000
An ungodly war : the sack of Constantinople & the fourth crusade / W.B. Bartlett.
(A gripping but occasionally incorrect narrative history of the fourth crusade.)
909.07 P561 2002
The Crusades, 1095-1197 / Jonathan Phillips.
(Phillips’s account of the Fourth Crusade is more nuanced and better researched than Bartlett’s history.)
909.07 T979
Fighting for Christendom : holy war and the crusades / Christopher Tyerman
(A short but intense analysis of the crusades written in the aftermath of 9/11)
909.07 T985
God's war : a new history of the Crusades / Christopher Tyerman
(Massive but pretty easy to read; Tyerman’s description of the growth of the “Just War” doctrine is especially helpful.)
914.5034 L32 1971
Culture and society in Italy, 1290-1420 / Larner, John, 1930-
914.8032 F68 1970
The Viking achievement; a survey of the society and culture of early medieval Scandinavia / Peter G. Foote and David M. Wilson.
(A good survey but the authors’ spend little time preparing readers for the runic letters and Norse pronunciations that appear in the book. Student reviewers like the book but find it occasionally intimidating.)
923.142 K29 1950
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the four kings / Kelly, Amy R. (Amy Ruth), b. 1877.
932 AN541 1997
Ancient Egypt / general editor, David P. Silverman
(An edited volume that provides a good overview of Ancient Egypt.)
932 P771
The rise and fall of Alexandria : birthplace of the modern mind / Justin Pollard and Howard Reid
932.01 G861 1992
A history of ancient Egypt / Nicolas Grimal ; translated by Ian Shaw.
932.01 T966EL 2000
Tutankhamen : the life and death of the boy king / Christine El Mahdy.
932.014092 H365T 1998
Hatchepsut : the female pharaoh / Joyce Tyldesley.
(Student reviewers have been routinely frustrated by Tyldesley’s unwillingness to construct arguments that do not contain the words “may have,” “might have,” and “possibly could.”)
932.014092 N383T 1999
Nefertiti : Egypt's sun queen / Joyce Tyldesley.
(Student reviewers have been routinely frustrated by Tyldesley’s unwillingness to construct arguments that do not contain the words “may have,” “might have,” and “possibly could.” Please keep in mind that little is known about Nefertiti and student reviewers routinely object to Tyldesley’s examination of male historical figures.)
932.014 J29 2003 2003
Pharaoh's people : scenes from life in imperial Egypt / T.G.H. James.
932.02092 C628G
Cleopatra / Michael Grant
(Grant tries to study Cleopatra by way of analyzing men like Antony and Caesar. Grant’s history is solid but student reviewers regularly contend that Grant spends too much time analyzing the men in Cleopatra’s life instead of Cleopatra herself.)
935.05 H734
Persian fire : the first world empire and the battle for the west / Tom Holland
936 W455 1999
The barbarians speak : how the conquered peoples shaped Roman Europe / Peter S. Wells.
(Students who enjoy anthropology may find Well’s book interesting.)
937 G762
The world of Rome / Michael Grant
937 M153
Ancient Rome : a military and political history / Christopher S. Mackay
(An even more straightforward history of Roman political and military institutions. Mackay’s account is plodding, unremarkable, but accurate.)
937 R75 1993
The Romans / edited by Andrea Giardina ; translated by LydiaG. Cochrane.
937.00922 P73 1965
Makers of Rome; nine lives: Coriolanus, Fabius Maximus,Marcellus, Cato the Elder, Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius Gracchus, Sertorius,Brutus, Mark Antony / By Plutarch, translated with an introduction byIan Scott-Kilvert.
937.02 L78 1962
A history of Rome: selections. / Livy. Translated, with an introd.,by Moses Hadas and Joe P. Poe.
937.04 L431 1996
The First Punic War : a military history / J.F. Lazenby.
(A fine narrative history of Rome’s first war with Carthage.)
937.05 C127M 1982
Caesar / Christian Meier ; translated from the German by David McLintock.
(A heavily theoretical but fine biography of Caesar but students would be better off selecting Adrian Goldsworthy’s biography.)
937.05 H734
Rubicon : the last years of the Roman Republic / Tom Holland
937.05 L278 1994
A noise of war : Caesar, Pompey, Octavian, and the struggle for Rome / A.J. Langguth.
(An occasionally confusing account of late Republican Rome.)
937.05 P228 2003
The assassination of Julius Caesar : a people's history of ancient Rome / Michael Parenti.
(Parenti’s book is much damned by classical scholars who find this account to be unhistorical and poorly researched, but student reviewers generally like this passionate but arguably flawed reassessment of Caesar.)
937.05092 C128
Caesar : life of a colossus / Adrian Goldsworthy
(While a thick book, Goldsworthy’s biography is especially student friendly—a wonderful narrative biography!)
937.05092 P788
Pompey the Great : a political biography / Robin Seager
(A thin but intensely scholarly study recommended for students who have some prior knowledge of Roman history.)
937.06 ST79 1954
Civilization and the Caesars; the intellectual Revolution in the Roman Empire / Starr, Chester G., 1914-
(An older but classic study that makes for relatively easy reading.)
937.06092 AU923EV
Augustus : the life of Rome's first emperor / Anthony Everitt 937.07 D177
Mark Antony's heroes : how the third Gallica Legion saved an apostle and created an Emperor / Stephen Dando-Collins
937.07092 L785
Livia: first lady of Imperial Rome / Barrett, Anthony A.
(Barrett’s biography of Livia provides an assessment that challenges the popular myth that Augustus’s wife was a conniving and evil imperial hag.)
937.070922 SU944
The twelve Caesars / Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus ; translated by Robert Graves
937.07092 T553
Tiberius / Robin Seager
(Like Seager’s account of Pompey, this biography of Tiberius is short but very scholarly.)
937.7 P386 2004
Ghosts of Vesuvius : a new look at the last days of Pompeii, how towers fall, and other strange connections / Charles Pellegrino.
(An interesting but occasionally overemotional and anachronistic account of “the last days of Pompeii.”)
938 G79
Alexander to Actium : the historical evolution of theHellenistic age / Peter Green
(A vibrant survey.)
938 C327SP 2004
The Spartans : the world of the warrior-heroes of ancient Greece, from utopia to crisis and collapse / Paul Cartledge.
(An excellent and accessible survey written by a first-rate classicist.)
938.03 C327
Thermopylae : the battle that changed the world / Paul Cartledge
(An excellent account that may spend less time examining the actual battle than military history enthusiasts may want.)
938.05 K118
The Peloponnesian War / Donald Kagan
938.05 T532OR
The humanity of Thucydides / Clifford Orwin
938.06 W325
Xenophon's retreat : Greece, Persia, and the end of the Golden Age / Robin Waterfield
938.07092 AL378L 1986
Alexander the Great / Robin Lane Fox.
(A brash, erudite, and brilliant biography by a great classicist.)
938.07092 AL378B 2002
Alexander the Great in fact and fiction / edited by A.B. Bosworth and E.J. Baynham.
(This is not an easy collection of essays to read. Only students who have read several biographies of Alexander the Great should select this book.)
938.07092 AL378C 2004
Alexander the Great : the hunt for a new past / Paul Cartledge.
(Cartledge is the rare academic historian who can write compellingly for both academic and popular audiences—another excellent Cartledgian contributiuon.)
940.1 B73 1992
Medieval worlds : barbarians, heretics, and artists in the Middle Ages / Arno Borst ; translated by Eric Hansen.
(A solid but occasionally plodding study.)
940.1 D812
God's crucible : Islam and the making of Europe, 570 to 1215 / David Levering Lewis
940.1 F944
A day in a medieval city / by Chiara Frugoni
(An inventive and innovative book that student reviewers usually like.)
940.1 J78 2002
The secret middle ages / Malcolm Jones.
940.1 SA237 2004
Barbarians, marauders, and infidels : the ways of medieval warfare / Antonio Santosuosso.
(Student reviewers react lukewarmly to this study-they find it a bit soulless and encyclopedic.)
940.18 AS799 2004
The first crusade : a new history / Thomas Asbridge.
940.18 F751 1997
People of the First Crusade / Michael Foss.
942 P87 1994
The medieval castle in England and Wales : a social and political history / N.J.G. Pounds.
942.01 C18 1991
The Anglo-Saxons / James Campbell, Eric John, Patrick Wormald; general editor, James Campbell
942.010922 B872 2001
The Saxon and Norman Kings / Christopher Brooke.
942.0164092 AL392S 1995
King Alfred the Great / Alfred P. Smyth.
(A massive biography that’s essential reading for those interested in early medieval “English” history.)
942.0164092 AL392
King Alfred : burnt cakes and other legends / David Horspool (Harvard University Press)
942.02 P822 1993
From Domesday book to Magna Carta, 1087-1216 / by Austin Lane Poole.
942.021 B851
1066 : the hidden history of the Bayeux Tapestry / Andrew Bridgeford
942.021 H85 1981
1066 : the year of the conquest / David Howarth
(A dandy popular history of 1066.)
942.03 C232
The last knight : the twilight of the Middle Ages and the birth of the modern era / Norman F. Cantor
942.031092 EL38W 2000
Eleanor of Aquitaine : a life / Alison Weir.
942.031092 EL38OW 1993
Eleanor of Aquitaine : queen and legend / D.D.R. Owen.
942.032092 R513B
Troubadour's song : the capture, imprisonment and ransom of Richard the Lionheart / David Boyle
(A rambling but interesting account of Richard I that is constructed with more than its fair share of poetic license.)
942.032092 R513R 2001
Warriors of God : Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade / James Reston, Jr.
(A gripping if occasionally historically incorrect account.)
942.032092 R513T 2000
The reign of Richard Lionheart : ruler of the Angevin empire, 1189-1199 / Ralph V.Turner and Richard R. Heiser.
942.030922 SA256
The three Richards : Richard I, Richard II and Richard III / Nigel Saul
(A decent book about English kings who—not surprisingly—were all named Richard.)
942.036092 IS74W
Queen Isabella : treachery, adultery, and murder in medieval England / Alison Weir
(Academic historians find much of Weir’s work irritating and ill-researched but student reviewers generally like this book [and her other ones].)
942.04 AB147
From the brink of the apocalypse : confronting famine, war, plague, and death in the later middle ages / John Aberth
(A book that regularly misfires but contains great anecdotes and searing descriptions of late medieval England and France.)
942.04 W425 1995
The Wars of the Roses / Alison Weir.
942.04 SE5 1995
The Wars of the Roses : through the lives of five men and women of the fifteenth century / Desmond Seward.
942.044 W425 1994
The princes in the tower / Alison Weir.
943.02 M823
The first European revolution, c. 970-1215 / R.I. Moore
(An important work by an eminent historian that’s both intellectually challenging but easy to read.)
943.471031092 B977O
The Bürgermeister's daughter : scandal in a sixteenth-century German town / Steven Ozment
(Great biography of a “troublesome” wife and daughter! Despite the unfamiliarity of German names and place names, student reviewers enjoy the book.)
944.0142 SY994
Becoming Charlemagne : Europe, Baghdad, and the empires of A.D. 800 / Jeff Sypeck
944.019092 C474
Charlemagne / Derek Wilson
944.023 ST913
The Albigensian Crusades / Joseph R. Strayer
(A traditional political history of the Albigensian Crusades that includes a interesting epilogue that serves as a wonderful introduction to the Albigensian heresy.)
944.025 SE5 1978
The Hundred Years War : the English in France, 1337-1453 / Desmond Seward.
944.026092 J62P 1998
Joan of Arc : her story / Regine Pernoud, Marie-Veronique Clin ; translated and revised by Jeremy duQuesnay Adams ; edited by Bonnie Wheeler.
(This is not a book for students unfamiliar with Joan of Arc; students who have never read a biography of Joan of Arc should not select this book and should either work with an MATC librarian or the instructor to select a more traditional biography.)
944.74 W957 1996
A fool and his money : life in a partitioned town in fourteenth-century France / Ann Wroe.
945 W637 1989
Early Medieval Italy : central power and local society, 400-1000 / Chris Wickham.
945.05 ST257
The devil's broker : seeking gold, God, and glory in fourteenth-century Italy / Frances Stonor Saunders
(Saunders paints an occasionally clear portrait of fourteenth century Italy but student reviewers are often frustrated with her inability to provide more ironclad information about Hawkwood.)
948.022 R718 1991
The Vikings / Else Roesdahl ; translated by Susan M. Margesonand Kirsten Williams.
949.5 N89E 1989
Byzantium : the early centuries / Norwich, John Julius, 1929-
949.5 N89D 1996
Byzantium : the decline and fall / John Julius Norwich.
949.502 T784 1997
A history of the Byzantine state and society / Warren Treadgold.
(A tremendous survey by an eminent expert on the Byzantine Empire.)
949.503 P561
The Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople / Jonathan Phillips
949.61803 H314
Constantinople : capital of Byzantium / Jonathan Harris
950.21092 G329W
Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world / Jack Weatherford
950.21092 G329W 2004
Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world / Jack Weatherford
(Student reviewers routinely argue that Weatherford gives a bit too much credit to Gengis Khan but enjoy reading this fast-moving biography.)
Bibliography: J. Ryan / D. Marconnet
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Last Modified: April 30 2008 |
