Best Websites and Books on Medieval History

    If you've decided to do some research or write a paper on medieval history, you know that this can be a daunting task. There are many volumes of history out there, both online and on paper, and you might not want to read through them all in order to find what you're looking for. That's why I've researched a few sites and books that might be a good starting point for studying medieval history and times.

   Of course, when you're searching for medieval history on sites such as Google or Yahoo, make sure that you know which part of this history you're looking for. Would the years you're researching be for the Dark Ages or Middle Ages? Some authors consider parts of the Renaissance to be medieval as well. For the purposes of this article, we're going to summarize them all.
  A good place to start would be the about.com site Medieval History.  This site has many links to articles and other websites and they are organized by theme or subject, for instance if you were looking for something on castles, or perhaps daily life, you would be able to click on these links and be taken to the pertinent information. There's no reason to read an entire essay on medieval history if you are looking for something specific within the topic.

   If the last site wasn't scholarly enough for you, you might want to take a look at the Labyrinth, a medieval history web page written by Georgetown University. This site has links to articles and essays as well, and the topics are even more narrow and focused. You can also search by type of information (such as multimedia, essays and even children's materials) within the different categories and subcategories. An interesting series of menus allows you to select what you need specifically in just one step.