Writing for a general audience rather than for academics, historian Newman (his affiliation is not stated) offers a compendium of information on how people of the Middle Ages ate, cooked, built, dressed, cleaned, used their leisure, fought, and practiced medicine. He provides accessibly written essays on various aspects of each of these topics, with emphasis mainly on the late Middle Ages (understandable, given the larger quantity of available information). An appendix lists some museums in the US (and one in Canada) which have medieval collections. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)