Whose Middle Ages? : teachable moments for an ill-used past / Andrew Albin, Mary C. Erler, Thomas O'Donnell, Nicholas L. Paul, Nina Rowe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Albin, Andrew, Editor.

Contributor:

Albin, Andrew, editor.

Erler, Mary C., 1937- editor.

O'Donnell, Thomas, editor.

Paul, Nicholas L., editor.

Rowe, Nina, editor.

Series:

Fordham series in medieval studies.

Fordham Series in Medieval Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization, Medieval.

Civilization, Medieval--Influence.

Middle Ages.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (192 pages) ; illustrations, maps.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Open Road Media 2019

System Details:

PDF

EPUB

Summary:

Whose Middle Ages? is an interdisciplinary collection of short, accessible essays intended for the nonspecialist reader and ideal for teaching at an undergraduate level. Each of twenty-two essays takes up an area where digging for meaning in the medieval past has brought something distorted back into the present: in our popular entertainment; in our news, our politics, and our propaganda; and in subtler ways that inform how we think about our histories, our countries, and ourselves. Each author looks to a history that has refused to remain past and uses the tools of the academy to read and re-read familiar stories, objects, symbols, and myths.Whose Middle Ages? gives nonspecialists access to the richness of our historical knowledge while debunking damaging misconceptions about the medieval past. Myths about the medieval period are especially beloved among the globally resurgent far right, from crusading emblems on the shields borne by alt-right demonstrators to the on-screen image of a purely white European populace defended from actors of color by Internet trolls. This collection attacks these myths directly by insisting that readers encounter the relics of the Middle Ages on their own terms.Each essay uses its author’s academic research as a point of entry and takes care to explain how the author knows what she or he knows and what kinds of tools, bodies of evidence, and theoretical lenses allow scholars to write with certainty about elements of the past to a level of detail that might seem unattainable. By demystifying the methods of scholarly inquiry, Whose Middle Ages? serves as an antidote not only to the far right’s errors of fact and interpretation but also to its assault on scholarship and expertise as valid means for the acquisition of knowledge.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

The Invisible Peasantry

The Hidden Narratives of Medieval Art

Modern Intolerance and the Medieval Crusades

Blood Libel, a Lie and Its Legacies

Who’s Afraid of Shari‘a Law?

How Do We Find Out About Immigrants in Later Medieval England?

The Middle Ages in the Harlem Renaissance

Three Ways of Misreading Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an

The Nazi Middle Ages

What Would Benedict Do?

No, People in the Middle East Haven’t Been Fighting Since the Beginning of Time

Ivory and the Ties That Bind

Blackness, Whiteness, and the Idea of Race in Medieval European Art

England Between Empire and Nation in “The Battle of Brunanburh”

Whose Spain Is It, Anyway?

Modern Knights, Medieval Snails, and Naughty Nuns

Charting Sexuality and Stopping Sin

“Celtic” Crosses and the Myth of Whiteness

Whitewashing the “Real” Middle Ages in Popular Media

Real Men of the Viking Age

#DeusVult

Own Your Heresy

Afterword: Medievalists and the Education of Desire

Appendix I: Possibilities for Teaching—By Genre

Appendix II: Possibilities for Teaching— by Course Theme

List of Contributors

About the Editors

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780823285587

0823285588

9780823285594

0823285596

OCLC:

1117645098