Joseph Gies (1916–2006)
Author of Life in a Medieval Castle
About the Author
Joseph Gies was born on October 8, 1916 in Ann Arbor, Mich and attended the University of Michigan and Columbia University. He held jobs with several publishers including Encyclopaedia Britannica, and was editor-in-chief for a division of Doubleday. Gies is best known for several books, such as show more Life in a Medieval Castle, Life in a Medieval City, and Life in a Medieval Village. These books, written with his wife Frances Carney, explore existence in Medieval times. The works, and his others, are noted for their highly readable, but thorough quality. Topics such as archaeology, government, dining, entertainment, and daily life are presented in fascinating detail. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Joseph & Frances Gies
Works by Joseph Gies
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages (1994) — Author — 998 copies
Scenes of Medieval Life, 3 Volumes: Life in a Medieval Castle, Life in a Medieval Village, Life in a Medieval City (2002) — Author — 43 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Gies, Joseph
- Birthdate
- 1916-10-08
- Date of death
- 2006-04-13
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Michigan, USA
- Education
- University of Michigan (BA|1939)
- Occupations
- historian
- Relationships
- Gies, Frances (wife)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 22
- Members
- 6,926
- Popularity
- #3,530
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 51
- ISBNs
- 74
- Languages
- 4
Any book that tries to sum up "medieval times" for a popular audience is going to do a lot of simplifying, but this one does a pretty good job as far as I, who am Not A Historian, can tell. It's a work of popular history and a bit older but makes extensive use of primary documents and, gratifyingly, tackles towns and villages as well as castle life.
The illustrations were added after the fact for this hardcover compilation, but they're for the most part carefully selected from medieval Books of Hours and other manuscripts - only a scattering of irrelevant Victorian illustrations.
If you're reading this review, you MAY be a writer (or artist, tabletop gamer, reenactor, etc.) Another work I recommend is Daily Life in the Middle Ages by Paul B. Newman, which was fabulous for small details of material culture. And Dorothy Hartley's Lost Country Life is quirky and dated but has a lot of good stuff about the rhythms of agricultural life.
Now if only there were more accessible books out there on non-Western material culture / social history. Heck, even coverage of eastern Europe is lacking in English. I try to create fantasy worlds that break the medieval mold, but I keep coming back to medieval/early modern Western Europe, and especially Britain, simply because of my confidence with my ability to handle the source material. Sigh.… (more)