medieval history

• 
• SOURCE: The Chatner
  3/29/2022
  

  The Popular Medieval History Hated by Medievalists

  by Daniel Lavery

  "It’s the most prominent example of a type of book that fascinates me: The amateur/popular history of an entire field that’s largely beloved (or at least successful) outside of said field and widely loathed within it."

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• SOURCE: Oxford American
  3/22/2022
  

  Questing for the Past

  by Katherine Churchill

  A nameplate in an 1864 edition of Gawain and the Green Knight led the author to discover the connections between a mythic medieval past and the Lost Cause ideology of Jim Crow Virginia. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  3/13/2022
  

  The Plague, in the Plague: Have Black Death Comparisons Taught us Anything?

  by Peter Manseau

  The author of a new novel of the Black Plague and the co-author of a revisionist book on the medieval period discuss the tendency to make "rainbow connections" between past and present that oversimplify events to give moral guidance. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  2/10/2022
  

  Was the Black Death Less Severe and Shorter than We Think?

  by Adam Izdebski, Alessia Masi and Timothy P. Newfield

  "While no two pandemics are the same, the study of the past can help us discover where to look for our own vulnerabilities and how to best prepare for future outbreaks. To begin to do that, though, we need to reassess past epidemics with all the evidence we can."

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• SOURCE: The Editorial Board
  1/5/2022
  

  Trumpism is Drawing on Completely Mistaken Understandings of Medieval European History

  "The Bright Ages" co-author Matthew Gabriele discusses the proliferation of medieval imagery in far-right circles and why it gets the history wrong. 

• 
• 12/5/2021
  

  On Writing The Bright Ages

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  The authors of a new book reconsidering the history of the medieval world describe how the project came about and how the work of writing history benefits by collaboration.

• 
• SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
  12/1/2021
  

  Is the Anti-Pope Francis Rad-Trad Catholic Movement Headed to QAnon Territory?

  by Joshua P. Hevert and Thomas Lecaque

  "While the Middle Ages may feel very distant, the amping up of apocalyptic rhetoric in a struggle over the papacy and the direction of the church is very current."

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/15/2021
  

  Colin Morris, 1928-2021

  Colin Morris identified the beginnings of the concept of individualism two centuries earlier than had previously been believed, part of a career of groundbreaking scholarship on the Middle Ages. 

• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  11/14/2021
  

  When a Bible Isn't a Bible

  by Kathleen E. Kennedy

  The British press has bungled its accounting of the discovery of a gold bead in the form of an open book. If it's not a Bible, what is it? 

• 
• 11/14/2021
  

  Kyle Rittenhouse's Trial Will End in a Verdict. The Nation's Trial By Ordeal Won't

  by Thomas Lecaque

  "A trial by ordeal was not about miracles or superstition. It was, in effect, about the community making a decision on the innocence or guilt of the party, and then bringing it about." Kyle Rittenhouse's trial prompts an uncomfortable reckoning with the continuity of some medieval practices of justice.

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  10/27/2021
  

  Why Dragons were the Dominant Medieval Monstrosities

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Scott Bruce and Michael Psellos are among the historians shedding light on how medieval people talked about monsters and what cultural roles they played. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  10/14/2021
  

  Fact and Fiction in "The Last Duel"

  by Sara McDougall and David Perry

  "The film effectively depicts the violence embedded in medieval ideas of elite masculinity while taking historical liberties when it comes to the real nature and function of trials by combat, or how rape accusations worked in medieval Europe."

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  10/12/2021
  

  Academic and Amateur Historians Clash over Location of 1,000 Year-Old Battle

  "In Britain, historians love to fight over battle sites, but few elicit such stridence and obsession as Brunanburh. There are more than 30 proposed locations for the battle, which took place in 937, and helped shape what would become England."

• 
• SOURCE: History.com
  9/27/2021
  

  The Renaissance's Challenges to Church Authority and Influence on the Reformation

  Stefania Tutino, a history professor at UCLA and intellectual and cultural historian of post-Reformation Catholicism, says the Reformation and Renaissance were two parallel but intertwined movements.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  9/27/2021
  

  Viking Map of Americas Shown to be a 20th Century Forgery

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Both financial gain and the prevalent sectarian conflicts over immigration and nationality in early 20th century America probably motivated the forgery and muted the inclination to challenge it. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/13/2021
  

  Is this the Moment for Dante's Purgatory?

  by Judith Thurman

  Dante's epic examined the uncharted space of the new Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. New translations make his vision speak to today's mood of unsettlement and uncertainty.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  8/3/2021
  

  ‘The Green Knight’ Adopts a Medieval Approach to ‘Modern’ Problems

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Modern psychological dramas in the Arthurian film aren't foreign to the Middle Ages; they're there in the original text. Viewers should reconsider what they "know" about the medieval period. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  7/26/2021
  

  The Catholic Church has a Long History of Trying to Discipline Catholic Politicians (But Little Success)

  by Christine Adams

  From Henry VIII to Louis XIV, the Catholic Church has seen efforts to coerce political leaders to hew to doctrine backfire. Will the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' steps toward potentially denying communion to Joe Biden over abortion politics meet a similar fate?

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  7/26/2021
  

  What Erotica Reveals about Society: A Conversation with Pernilla Myrne

  "Of course this society was male-dominated; it was a patriarchal society, like all other historical societies. But it was possible to talk explicitly about sex, sexual pleasure, sexual desire, for both men and women."

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  7/14/2021
  

  The Many Myths of the Term ‘Anglo-Saxon’

  by Mary Rambaran-Olm and Erik Wade

  References to America's "Anglo-Saxon heritage" are often racist dogwhistles, and usually fully detached from the history of the Anglo-Saxon people.