"Scholarly in approach, and expansive in scope, this fascinating work posits an entirely new way to view what’s long been known as the Hundred Years War. "
From expanding the conventional framing of Europe’s longest conflict, and expanding the geographical and national scope it’s typically seen as encompassing, to casting a keenly illuminating light on how history is often misleadingly labelled long after the fact, Dr Michael Livingston’s The Two Hundred Years War presents a thorough and fresh new account of what’s typically been referred to as the “Hundred Years War”.
As such, The Two Hundred Years War is essential reading for those with a keen interest in European history, and wider discourse around the discipline of history. As Livingston explains in the Preface, in characteristically lucid fashion: “Our attention to the present fundamentally shapes our definition of the past. As we change, as our interests change, so does our understanding of history”.
Within this framework, Livingston’s approach also involves distancing himself from the act of “writing a book favouring any identity. I am presenting a story of these years as they would have been known to those who lived them in England, in France, in Spain and elsewhere”. As a result, this book takes in an incredible breadth of material, and interweaves multiple perspectives to form a fresh, far bigger picture. It also brings history alive in exhilarating style.
| Primary Genre | History |
| Other Genres: |
A new and radically original account of the longest military conflict in European history, which challenges the conventional periodisation of the 'Hundred Years War' to consider a much longer period of Anglo-French conflict.
Michael Livingston argues that the English lens through which the war has been viewed has led historians to define it in terms of English interests (most famously, the claim of the English Plantagenet king Edward III to be the rightful king of France), and that the events collectively labelled the 'Hundred Years War' are best seen as a sequence of steps in France's struggle to define itself as a nation. For much of the period, France's primary rival was indeed England. But it was by no means the only combatant. Burgundy stood in its way, too, as did Brittany, Flanders, Navarre and other rival powers.
Viewing France as the primary engine driving the war leads Livingston to consider a much longer timespan, starting with the Anglo-French 'Pirate War' of 1292 (which swiftly escalated into a fight over England's feudal possessions in Gascony) and ending with the marriage of Charles VIII of France to Anne of Brittany by which Brittany was subsumed into the French realm.
The Two Hundred Years War features in the following genres: History, European history: medieval period, middle ages, History and Archaeology, European history, European history: medieval period, middle ages
The Two Hundred Years War is available in Hardback
The Two Hundred Years War was written by Michael Livingston and published by Apollo an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
The Two Hundred Years War has 496 pages
£27.00
