In our supposedly sophisticated 21st century, the exploitation and mistreatment of child soldiers evokes instant outrage. Yet few who readily voice opinions on the immorality of sending minors into battle seem to realize that this is not solely a phenomenon of modern conflict.

Usually hailed as mystic, saint, heroine, martyr, even a savior of war-torn 15th-century France, Joan of Arc --- the illiterate young teen from rural Domrémy who claimed to hear God’s own voice every day of her short life (c. 1412-1431) --- was every bit as vulnerable as any child recruited into wars caused by power-hungry adults throughout history.

For that reason alone, Helen Castor’s gripping new book, JOAN OF ARC, deserves special attention far beyond the classroom. Written to the impeccable standards of her award-winning bestseller, SHE WOLVES: Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (also an outstanding BBC documentary series), Castor’s meticulous untangling of six centuries’ worth of incredibly complex and contradictory detail into elegant prose is a thing of wonder.

"Castor doesn’t make history fun or cool in JOAN OF ARC. She makes it shockingly, poignantly, irresistibly real."

That doesn’t mean JOAN OF ARC is easy or rapid reading; it doesn’t turn the pages for you. In fact, some pages are guaranteed to stop your brain in its tracks, due to fascination rather than confusion. For those moments when the tortuous relationships among medieval English and French royal genealogies become too much to sort out, however, Castor provides many introductory pages of detailed family trees, as well as nearly 100 pages of thorough source notes in the back.

You might wonder about the precision, density and detail contained in a book whose author has such a broad public following beyond university walls. But the same passion and electric intensity that Castor delivers as a documentary host are no less evident on the printed page. To say that she won’t dumb down a single reader, regardless of whatever previous knowledge they may bring to her subject, is a genuine understatement.

Castor has that rare ability of gifted teachers and narrative artists to pull one’s imagination straight into the rough, chaotic and adversarial world of the 1400s. It was an incredibly unstable and precarious time for people in all ranks and classes of society, a time in which France and England spent the better part of the century flailing at each other for dominance in a seemingly endless succession of regional conflicts. Even by today’s standards of geopolitical intrigue, espionage, subversion, injustice and outright deception, the era in which Joan of Arc emerged as an unlikely warrior on behalf of the weak but legitimate Charles VII was a hotbed of vicious rivalry that extended even inside competing royal families themselves.

By placing this often misunderstood and stereotyped child soldier within the context of her times, Castor has created much more than a solid factual historical biography. JOAN OF ARC reveals a lowly village girl whose adamant belief in her divine mission ended in flames at the stake, all because she became a lightning rod for the misogyny, class prejudice and religious bigotry that plagued the medieval world and that still infects large segments of human society today.

Castor doesn’t make history fun or cool in JOAN OF ARC. She makes it shockingly, poignantly, irresistibly real.