Theodore Evergates
'Strong of Body, Brave and Noble' is an original and interesting synthesis of a generation's worth of scholarship on the medieval aristocracy and chivalry in France. Bouchard has a thorough command of the sources, methodology, and secondary literature. The book is well organized and a real pleasure to read.
Roberta Millikin
The focus of this compelling work by a University of Akron faculty member is on the nobles of these centuries, who are shown to make up a complex and fluctuating social group that defies simple definition. Teachers and scholars of the Middle Ages will especially appreciate this work for its deft, careful, and well researched handling of these complexities, but one not need be a specialist to appreciate and understand Bouchard's fastidiously constructed and clearly presented ideas.
From the Publisher
In straightforward narrative, Bouchard introduces the reader to a fascinating and often complex subject.... Written with clarity and wit, it is unencumbered with lengthy and obscure footnotes, and contains a useful bibliography of primary and secondary sources, many of which are available in English translation. A refreshing monograph, indeed. General readers; undergraduates.
Joseph P. Byrne
By no means meant for specialists, Strong of Body serves as an introduction for students, with brief and well-balanced discussions of historiographical issues for teachers and more casual readers. this is her task, and she succeeds admirably. Indeed, it will become the standard text in my own medieval courses.... By the intelligent blending of both primary sources and secondary studies, and creative admission of the inconsistencies, ironies, and fluidities that complicate any simple attempts to characterize or define the nature and culture of medieval French nobility, Bouchard has presented an honest and very practical introduction to that world.
