This book takes a look soley at the craft of making armor during the 11th-16th centuries. In the introduction ffoulkes explains that the art of sword making has been covered many times over but he feels that the craft of making armor has been neglected.
It is an easy read considering the subject matter. A lot of books about historical weapons and armor become very dry and technical. There are a few sections where ffoulkes book gets into very specific, technical detail, but in general things are kept in a much broader scope. He talks about trends of the time period and which country was the leader in producing certain types of armor or materials. It is humorous at times to read how each country felt about the other and how they expressed the pride in what they produced.
Overall the book is fascinating, illuminating tons of information and facts about armor and the time period. Using the information on how the armor developed you can make easy inference as to how people fought and moved in and out of the armor at the time. The book also gives great clues as to how people viewed violence during that period, something that adds great importance and detail to a fight on stage.
While you may never end up making your own armor this book is a great read to gain new or more information on that period in history.
Greg
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