A new and radically authentic version of the greatest military conflict in European history, which challenges the traditional periodization of the "Hundred Years' War," examining a much longer period of English-French conflict.

Michael Livingston argues that the English perspective through which the war has been understood has led historians to define it in terms of English interests (the most famous being the claim of the Plantagenet King of England, Edward III, to be the legitimate king of France), and that the events collectively called the "Hundred Years' War" are better understood as a series of steps in France's effort to define itself as a nation.

For much of the period, France's primary opponent was indeed England. However, it was not the only opponent. The House of Bourbons was also in her path, as well as Brittany, Flanders, Navarre, and other opposing forces.

Viewing France as the main driver of the war leads Livingston to consider a much broader chronological period, starting from the Anglo-French "Pirate War" of 1292 (which quickly escalated into a battle for England's feudal possessions in Gascony) and ending with the marriage of Charles VIII of France to Anne of Brittany, through which Brittany was incorporated into the French kingdom.