The story of how Joan of Arc, an unassuming peasant girl, became the leader of French armies is one of the most dramatic in all of European history. In many ways Joan’s biography can read like a fairytale, or like the classic hero’s journey. As you might imagine it is a story that is coated in a healthy layer of mythology and exaggeration. Parsing the legends from the verifiable historical facts can get messy when it comes to France’s most unlikely national hero. Tune in find out how a man made of glass, the history of obscene gestures, and the best way to shut down a cat-caller all play a role in the story.

Works Cited

Castor, Helen. Joan of Arc: A History. New York, NY: Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollins, 2015. Print.

DeVries, Kelly. Joan of Arc: A Military Leader. Stroud: Sutton, 1999. Print.

Goldstone, Nancy Bazelon. The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc. New York: Viking, 2012. Print.

Harrison, Kathryn. Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured. New York: Doubleday, 2014. Print.

“Joan of Arc, Letters.” Joan of Arc, Letters. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 June 2016.

“Saint Joan of Arc’s Trials.” Saint Joan of Arc’s Trials. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2016.

Smith, Alex Duval. “Solved at Last: The Burning Mystery of Joan of Arc.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 Dec. 2006. Web. 17 May 2016.

Wilson-Smith, Timothy. Joan of Arc: Maid, Myth and History. Stroud: Sutton, 2006. Print.