Hundred Years War, History
Stuart Gorman
What’s in a Name – Defining the Hundred Years ...

Nobody caught up in the chaos and bloodshed in France between the years 1337 and 1453 ever referred to what was happening around them as The Hundred Years War. Neither did future generations, until the early nineteenth century, when the name was coined by French historians (technically as La guerre de Cent Ans), from where it spread across Europe and the world. Since the concept of The Hundred Years War is entirely a historiographical construct, it was only a matter of time before people began to question whether it made sense. After all, the kings of England and France had fought numerous wars before the Hundred Years War and would continue to do so after, so what made the Hundred Years War a coherent conflict? Buckle up kids, because this might take a while.

What’s in a Name – Defining the Hundred Years War

Renaissance

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Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer

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Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer

As a card-carrying member of the Hates the Term Renaissance club, a not uncommon position for late medievalists like myself who are inclined to resent the division of our time period into dark and golden ages, I was immediately intrigued by Ada Palmer’s reexamination of the term and its time. Inventing the Renaissance promised to deconstruct one of the most mythologized periods of European history, and one that I felt warranted some poking and prodding. Palmer’s book is not a hit piece against late medieval Italy, though. Instead, as all great deconstructions are, it is a combination love letter and deep analysis of a period whose complexities are often painted over by popular narratives that just want to talk about the pretty art and clever people. Further, Inventing the Renaissance performs the magisterial hat trick of being incredibly insightful while also remaining eminently approachable and casual as it dumps a mountain of scholarship on its reader – in the most loving way. It’s an incredibly impressive work, both of scholarship and popular history, and one absolutely worthy of the time its 700+ pages require.