Medieval Polities and Modern Mentalities

A collection of influential and challenging essays by Timothy Reuter, a British medievalist of extraordinary range.

Timothy Reuter (Author), Janet L. Nelson (Edited by)

9780521820745, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 November 2006

504 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.93 kg

"...Reuter draws his ideas from the latest scholarship and discusses complex ideas on an accessible level." --Sarah Whitten, UCLA: Comitatus

This is a collection of influential and challenging essays by British medievalist Timothy Reuter, a perceptive and original thinker with extraordinary range who was equally at home in the Anglophone or German scholarly worlds. The book addresses three interconnected themes in the study of the history of the early and high Middle Ages. Firstly, historiography, the development of the modern study of the medieval past. How do our contemporary and inherited preconceptions and pre-occupations determine our view of history? Secondly, the importance of symbolic action and communication in the politics and polities of the Middle Ages. Finally, the need to avoid anachronism in our consideration of medieval politics. Throwing light both on modern mentalities and on the values and conduct of medieval people themselves, and containing articles, at time of publication, never previously been available in English, this book is essential reading for any serious scholar of medieval Europe.

Editor's note
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Editor's introduction
Part I. Modern Mentalities: Historiographies, Methodologies, Preconceptions: 1. Modern mentalities and medieval polities
2. Medieval: another tyrannous construct?
3. The insecurity of travel in the early and high Middle Ages: criminals, victims and their medieval and modern observers
4. Debating the 'feudal revolution'
5. Pre-Gregorian mentalities
6. Whose race, whose ethnicity? Recent medievalists' discussion of identity
Part II. The Symbolic Language of Medieval Political Action: 7. Nobles and others: the social and cultural expression of power relations in the Middle Ages
8. Regemque, quem in Francia pene perdidit, in patria magnifice recepit: Ottonian ruler representation in synchronic and diachronic comparison
9. Contextualising Canossa: excommunication, penance, surrender, reconciliation
10. Velle sibi fieri in forma hac: symbolic action in the Becket dispute
Part III. Political Structures and Intentions: 11. Assembly politics in western Europe from the eighth century to the twelfth
12. Sex, lies and oath-helpers: the trial of Queen Uota
13. Plunder and tribute in the Carolingian empire
14. The end of Carolingian military expansion
15. The Ottonians and Carolingian tradition
16. The making of England and Germany, 850–1050: points of comparison and difference
17. Kings, nobles, others: 'basis' and 'superstructure' in the Ottonian period
18. The 'imperial church system' of the Ottonian and Salian rulers: a reconsideration
19. Peace-breaking, feud, rebellion, resistance: violence and peace in the politics of the Salian era
20. The medieval German Sonderweg? The empire and its rulers in the high Middle Ages
21. Mandate, privilege, court judgement: techniques of rulership in the era of Frederick Barbarossa
22. All quiet except on the Western Front? The emergence of pre-modern forms of statehood in the central Middle Ages
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: History [YQH], Political science & theory [JPA], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD], Historiography [HBAH]