Kelly DeVries and Douglas Smiths’ Second Edition Text,...

Kelly DeVries and Robert Douglas Smith. Medieval Military Technology, Second Edition. Toronto. University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2012. XVIII + 356 pp. Illustrations, bibliographical references, Index. ISBN 978-1-4426-0497-1. This second edition of DeVries and Smiths’ book, Medieval Military Technology, encompasses many of the weapons, fortifications, vessels, machines, and armour developed throughout the medieval period, to provide a brief cultural history of the relationship between military technology and medieval society. DeVries and Smiths’ purpose in compiling this book was to lay out their argument in a way to which the reader can understand the purpose of medieval military and its relationship to society. The central†¦show more content†¦The second example I have chosen to look at is used to show how society influenced military technology. Due to the types of weapons being used in fourteenth century, knights came to favour plate armour over chain mail . DeVries and Smiths’ section on plate armour, along with figure 2.7 , helps to describe how medieval society used plate armour to influence their military technology. These examples provide an insight to how DeVries and Smith portray a comprehensive argument, that explains the significant roles both society and technology had during the Middle Ages. DeVries and Smith have succeeded in laying out and proving their argument, which is that medieval military technology was influenced both by that of society on technology, and technology’s influence on society; although, the argument of this book was somewhat difficult to figure out. Neither the introduction nor conclusion in, Medieval Military Technology is clear at pointing out the central argument of the book. Instead, these sections describe other historians’ contributions to the field of military technology, the structure of the book itself, happenings during the Middle Ages, and the dying out of military practices. It is not until you have thoroughly completed reading the text and reviewed its contents that you understand the books purpose. As the introduction points out, Medieval Military