Read Medieval Castles & Fortifications: A Complete History

The castle was the medieval world's most complete building: a fortress that was also a home, an office, a court and a claim to power, raised in stone over the land it ruled. This complete history follows it from the earth-and-timber strongholds of the tenth century to the perfected concentric plans of Wales and Syria, through siegecraft and household life to gunpowder, ruin, romance and the conservation workshops of today — teaching the reader, chapter by chapter, to recognise, date and read a castle anywhere from Normandy to Japan.