Do historians reconstruct the truth--or simply tell stories? Professor John Arnold suggests they do both, and that it’s the balance between the two that matters. In a work of metahistory (the study of history itself), he takes us from the fabulous tales of Greek Herodotus to the varied approaches of modern-day professionals. Through fascinating and particular examples--including a medieval murderer, 17th-century colonist, and ex-slave--Dr. Arnold illuminates our relationship to the past by making us aware of how the very nature of "history” has changed.

Since its first publication in 2007, John H. Arnold’s What is Medieval History? has established itself as the leading introduction to the craft of the medieval historian. What is it that medieval historians do? How – and why – do they do it? Arnold discusses the creation of medieval history as a field, the nature of its sources, the intellectual tools used by medievalists, and some key areas of thematic importance from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Reformation. The fascinating case studies include a magical plot against a medieval pope, a fourteenth-century insurrection, and the importance of a kiss exchanged between two tenth-century noblemen. Throughout the book, readers are shown not only what medieval history is, but the cultural and political contexts in which it has been written. This anticipated second edition includes further exploration of the interdisciplinary techniques that can aid medieval historians, such as dialogue with scientists and archaeologists, and addresses some of the challenges – both medieval and modern – of the idea of a ‘global middle ages’. What is Medieval History? continues to demonstrate why the pursuit of medieval history is important not only to the present, but to the future. It is an invaluable guide for students, teachers, researchers and interested general readers.

This belief has prompted some historians, including E. Le Roy Ladurie, to go so far as to retranslate the testimonies into the first person. These testimonies have long been a source of controversy for historians and scholars of the Middle Ages.".

A rich study of what medieval Christianity meant for ordinary people, and how it changed across the middle ages, arguably as profound as changes in the Reformation period, providing a wider context for medieval Christianity by focusing on southern France in a period mainly known for heresy and for the Church's attack upon heresy.

For most people in the middle ages--for thousands upon thousands who lived within Christendom in the period considered by this book, 1100-1500--we have no record of what they believed or did not believe. John Arnold sifts through the traces left behind by our ancestors across Europe and assembles a more complete picture than ever before. Religion in medieval Europe was hugely important, and impinged upon the most mundane aspects of everyday life. But was the period a uniform "Age of Faith?" By focussing on lay people, this fascinating account unlocks the multiple meanings of religion, asking how it functioned and with what effects. This book deftly reveals for today's readers, as none have before, the meanings and struggles that lay between the smooth surface of medieval religious life.

In Christian theology, it is a fundamental assumption that Jesus was incapable of lying. In fact, the entire theological edifice depends upon it. How is it, then, that New Testament scholars will reluctantly admit that a variant reading in the Gospel of John in which Jesus appears to tell a lie may be the correct reading? By their laborious efforts through the ages to justify and explain this little know variant, theologians betray the fragility of there religious enterprise.