Research

I am a historian of early modern Europe at Duke University. Most of my published research has focused on various aspects of aristocratic life in France – on clientage networks, on women and warfare, on oral culture and material culture. In my work, I make use of letters, household accounts, muster rolls, inventories of clothing, jewels, furniture and, most recently, weapons from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century noblemen and women.

Living by the Sword:

Weapons and Material Culture in France and Britain, 600-1600. Cornell University Press, 2020.

In this book, Kristen B. Neuschel takes you through a captivating 1,000 years of French and English history. Living by the Sword reveals that warrior culture, with the sword as its ultimate symbol, was deeply rooted in ritual and symbol long before the introduction of gunpowder weapons transformed the battlefield. Drawing on evidence about swords (from wills, inventories, records of armories, and treasuries) in the possession of nobles and royalty, she explores the meanings people attached to them from the contexts in which they appeared. These environments included other prestige goods such as tapestries, jewels, and tableware, all used to construct and display status. Living by the Sword draws on an exciting diversity of sources from archaeology, military and social history, literature, and material culture studies to inspire students and educated lay readers (including collectors and reenactors) to stretch the boundaries of what they know as the “war and culture” genre.

Purchase Copy

Word of Honor:

Interpreting Noble Culture in Sixteenth-Century France
Cornell University Press, 1989.

In this boldly innovative synthesis of political history and interdisciplinary social history, Kristen B. Neuschel revises our understanding of politics in early modern Europe. Drawing on the methods of the linguist and the ethnographer, Neuschel shows that early modern nobles must, like the common people of that period, be approached as having a mentality very different from our own. In particular, she argues that the world view of these nobles was shaped by their still largely oral culture, and that historians must take this into account if they are to understand, for example, the nobles' volatile loyalties and their close attention to seemingly trivial moments of insult and self-aggrandizement.

Fiction and Memoir

Into the Tunnel, a novel

(forthcoming)

When American researcher Charlotte Fare leaves her lover behind for a stint in foreign archives, she stumbles upon a box of puzzling documents from a sixteenth-century castle and its inhabitants. Soon Charlotte is paying more attention to the castle dwellers’ embattled existence than to her own increasingly complicated life. But for the lady of the castle, and Huguette, her independent-minded servant, there’s no escape from the strife and privations of their war-torn world. As it follows Charlotte’s and Huguette’s struggles, Into the Tunnel muses on the ways - for good or ill - that we are tethered by history – our own or that of others.

And You Can Be Practical Pig: A Journey Through History with Children, a memoir

(forthcoming)

A quirk of timing finds historian Kristen Neuschel on an extended trip within Turkey with her husband, three-year-old son and newborn daughter, a mere nineteen days after giving birth. What begins as an inconvenient, alternately hilarious and painful journey for a nursing mother grows into an exploration of Turkey’s present and its many pasts from a unique point of view.

The author's son in front of the mosque in Edirne designed by Sinan, Suleiman the Magnificent's architect.

Praise for “Writing With Research: A Practical Guide”

“Equally inspiring for students and professors, Writing With Research covers every aspect of research-based writing. Neuschel and Rasmussen shine in their discussion of note-taking as a fundamental part of the writing process, and offer invaluable tips on how to find time to write in impossibly busy times.”

—Toril Moi, Duke University