The Body Broken

Reviews / Votes

'The Body Broken is a lucid and carefully considered study of the structures of power in Europe after 1300. Charles Briggs confidently handles the dynamic ideals and the messy realities of medieval life, as individuals and communities sought to make themselves into a whole body out of the suffering fragments they all too often saw around them. A book which will stimulate teachers, and inform and inspire students.'

Miri Rubin, Queen Mary University of London, UK

'The first edition of The Body Broken received glowing reviews and so students, teachers and general readers will welcome this revised and updated second edition. The book provides an ideal introduction to European history in the fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and is attractively and engagingly written. It is comprehensive in its scope, ranging across economic, social, political, intellectual and cultural history, dispels many myths about the period, and engages with the most recent scholarship in the field. The volume is well-provided with illustrations and maps and makes a telling use of quotations from contemporary primary sources. Even those who are already familiar with this period will find new information, ideas and approaches within its pages.'

Stephen H. Rigby, University of Manchester, UK

'This is by far the best textbook available for undergraduates studying late medieval and Renaissance Europe. Students are introduced with admirable clarity and concision to the latest scholarly perspectives on all the major themes in this period, including to complex and hotly contested topics such as the origins and spread of Italian humanism (one of several areas updated and expanded in this second edition). Briggs has an eye for the most evocative examples to illustrate his points. His writing is simultaneously accessible and able to convey sophisticated interpretations, which link key themes together in ways that students getting to grips with the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are sure to appreciate.'

Duncan Hardy, University of Central Florida, USA