From leftover trenchers and stinky chamber pots to barber surgeons and the black plague, life could be really miserable for people during medieval times. Get ready to explore the nasty side of life in the Middle Ages.

Readers can discover all the foul facts about the MEASLY MIDDLE AGES, including why chickens had their bottoms shaved, a genuine jester's joke and what ten-year-old treacle was used for. With a bold, accessible new look, these bestselling titles are sure to be a huge hit with yet another generation of Terry Deary fans.

"Describes the disgusting details about daily life in several historical eras, including housing, food, and sanitation"--

Disgusting food. Stinky houses. Scratchy clothes. Find out how medieval peasants coped with their miserable lives.

At the beginning of the period Rome was old and worn out with misgovernment and evil living. But planted in this dying Rome there was the new and vigorous Christian Church which was to draw up into itself all that was best and strongest of the old world. The Germans were rude and uncivilized, but they were strong in mind and body, and possessed some ideas about government, women, and the family which were better than the ideas of the Romans on these subjects.

This history of medieval village life is told through the experiences of Cecilia Penifader, a peasant woman who lived on one English manor in the early fourteenth century. This truly unique book offers a wealth of insight into medieval peasant society, bringing many of the characteristics of a time and a people to life. Short and readable, it is an ideal text for undergraduate teaching, suitable for courses in Western civilization, medieval history, women's history, and English history.

A "lively and engaging" history of the Middle Ages (Dallas Morning News) from the acclaimed historian William Manchester, author of The Last Lion. From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose, and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth: the dense explosion of energy that spawned some of history's greatest poets, philosophers, painters, adventurers, and reformers, as well as some of its most spectacular villains. "Manchester provides easy access to a fascinating age when our modern mentality was just being born." --Chicago Tribune