If he weren’t such a medievalist, it would be tempting to call him a Renaissance man
Citadel English professor, Michael Livingston, Ph.D., covers a wide range of academic ground outside of medieval literature.
He is an award-winning historical fantasy writer who recently released his newest novel “Seaborn,” an Audible-exclusive.
He made national headlines discussing the final season of Game of Thrones.
He is a historian who published a wide-spread article claiming to have discovered the lost site of the Battle of Brunanburh.
He is a conflict analyst who regularly stars in “Contact,” a television show about the search for extraterrestrials on the Discovery and Science Channels.
Livingston’s medieval and military interests came together in another recent project of his — a book that he edited called “Medieval Warfare: A Reader.” It examines how people in the Middle Ages experienced armed conflict; the book is a collection of more than 130 primary sources that provide the voices of veterans and victims.
“Medieval Warfare” earned Livingston — along with Kelly DeVries, Ph.D. — their second Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History.
Both Livingston and DeVries also earned a Distinguished Book Award from the Society in 2017 for “The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook.” According to Livingston, they join only a handful of scholars to ever receive the award twice.
Institutionally, The Citadel’s faculty holds three of the organization’s Distinguished Book Awards; History professor David Preston, Ph.D., earned one in 2016 for “Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of Monongahela and the Road to Revolution.”
The Society says that Distinguished Book Awards recognize the best book-length publications in English on military history copyrighted in the previous three calendar years.
As a medievalist, he is always looking to the past; but as an academic and an author, Livingston is always full-steam ahead.
Though the pandemic may affect some publication timelines, he hopes to release four books in 2021; two are historical texts, one is a Middle-English military poem and the last is “Iceborn,” the second in the Seaborn series.
Livingston is often interviewed on medieval matters due to his regular column on tor.com, a science fiction and fantasy website. He is also an award-winning writer who has published, among others, a trilogy of historical fantasy novels and multiple nonfiction books.
A Citadel cadet recounts his semester abroad at the Royal Military College of Canada
Citadel cadet studies abroad at the Royal Military College of Canada, made possible through esteemed fellowship
Editors and experts of the world-famous “Wheel of Time” series to speak at The Citadel on October 3
