John H. Arnold, What is History? series. Cambridge and Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2021, 2nd rev. and updated ed. (orig. 2008), xvii, 178 pp., 4 b/w ill., 3 maps.

Anyone who wants to embark on the study of medieval history can be safely advised to consult this excellent, already revised and updated introduction by John H. Arnold. Here, a true expert is addressing many of the crucial issues that determine our approach to history at large and medieval history in particular. The introductory section might be a little confusing, though, addressing a unique case of torture in the early fourteenth century, but soon, we find ourselves in a wide-ranging discussion on what the Middle Ages actually meant, how it gained a hermeneutic identity, and how we should approach it today in a critical, academic fashion.