Medieval Military Technology

Hans B. Neumann is a history lecturer at Scarborough College, University
of Toronto.

Although DeVries suggests that his book is “directed mainly at the
general reader,” it is fair to say that it will probably find its most
receptive audience among professional historians or specialist amateurs
with a strong interest in military history.

The book’s four major sections correspond to key areas of military
technology during the Middle Ages: armor, artillery, gunpowder and
nongunpowder, fortifications, and warships. Each section is subdivided
into a treatment of more specialized subject matter. The text is replete
with endnotes, illustrations, and sketches, and concludes with an
exhaustive bibliography.

The emphasis is on narrative and description, not on discerning themes
or connections to other areas of historical investigation. Because the
text is almost entirely drawn from secondary sources, its main value for
the specialist is as a reference that integrates and synthesizes
military historical scholarship on this period.

A chronological framework or definition of “medieval age” would
have aided the reader. Part 4 (“Warships”) is a bit cursory (only 26
pages), and the author seems less in command of this subject matter. The
lack of an overall conclusion in a work so wide-ranging and diverse in
its topics is puzzling, and a handicap for the general reader.
Otherwise, the presentation is competent, if somewhat dry at times.