Whose Middle Ages?
Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past

Andrew Albin (Edited by), Mary C. Erler (Edited by), Nicholas L. Paul (Edited by), Nina Rowe (Edited by), David M. Perry (Introduction by), Geraldine Heng (Afterword by), Sandy Bardsley (Contributions by), Adam Bishop (Contributions by), Marian Bleeke (Contributions by), Will Cerbone (Contributions by), William Diebold (Contributions by), Fred Donner (Contributions by), Sarah Guérin (Contributions by), J. Patrick Hornbeck II (Contributions by), Lauren Mancia (Contributions by), Stephennie Mulder (Contributions by), W. Mark Ormrod (Contributions by), Pamela Patton (Contributions by), Nicholas L. Paul (Contributions by), Andrew Reeves (Contributions by), Ryan Szpiech (Contributions by), Magda Teter (Contributions by), Elizabeth Tyler (Contributions by), Cord Whitaker (Contributions by), Maggie Williams (Contributions by), Katherine Wilson (Contributions by), Helen Young (Contributions by)

9780823285570

Hardback, published 15 October 2019

240 pages, 35
20.3 x 12.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.458 kg

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.

Introduction
David Perry 1
Part I – Stories
The Invisible Peasantry
Sandy Bardsley 14
The Hidden Narratives of Medieval Art
Katherine Anne Wilson 23
Modern Intolerance and the Medieval Crusades
Nicholas L. Paul 34
Blood Libel, a Lie and Its Legacies
Magda Teter 44
Who's Afraid of Shari'a Law?
Fred M. Donner 58
How Do We Find Out About Immigrants in Later Medieval England?
W. Mark Ormrod 69
The Middle Ages in the Harlem Renaissance
Cord J. Whitaker 80
Part II – Origins
Three Ways of Misreading Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an
Ryan Szpiech 94
The Nazi Middle Ages
William J. Diebold 104
What Would Benedict Do?
Lauren Mancia 116
No, People in the Middle East Haven't Been Fighting Since the Beginning of Time
Stephennie Mulder 127
Ivory and the Ties That Bind
Sarah M. Guérin 140
Blackness, Whiteness, and the Idea of Race in Medieval European Art
Pamela A. Patton 154
England Between Empire and Nation in "The Battle of Brunanburh"
Elizabeth M. Tyler 166
Whose Spain Is It, Anyway?
David A. Wacks 181
Part III – #Hashtags
Modern Knights, Medieval Snails, and Naughty Nuns
Marian Bleeke 196
Charting Sexuality and Stopping Sin
Andrew Reeves 208
"Celtic" Crosses and the Myth of Whiteness
Maggie M. Williams 220
Whitewashing the "Real" Middle Ages in Popular Media
Helen Young 233
Real Men of the Viking Age
Will Cerbone 243
#DeusVult
Adam M. Bishop 256
Own Your Heresy
J. Patrick Hornbeck II 265
Afterword: Medievalists and the Education of Desire
Geraldine Heng 275
Appendixes
Appendix I: Possibilities for Teaching—by Genre 293
Appendix II: Possibilities for Teaching—by Course Theme 296
List of Contributors 301