Research

Everyday War is an account of how late-medieval England’s conflicts with France and Scotland created a culture of perpetual war that imagined war as the default state of society. Reading across literary, historical, philosophical, and archival sources, the project makes three interventions. First, it demonstrates how literary works shape conceptions of war, deepening literary scholarship that analyzes war as context. Second, it focuses on England’s imperial ambitions rather than individual conflicts to show how insular dominance and continental expansion intersect. Third, it establishes a new paradigm for understanding war’s enduring grip on international relations centered on late-medieval enmity, challenging accounts that create a sharp divide between medieval and modern warfare.