The Devil’s Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse The Medieval Past

Review

"The Devil'sHistorians is a book that should be read by every teacher and student of medieval studies. Timely and hard-hitting, the book is unapologetic inits condemnation of modern groups who use a literally white-washedversion of the Middle Ages to promote their own agendas of hatred anddiscrimination.... This is a well-researched and highly scholarly bookwritten with journalistic ease and page-turning appeal." Kathy Cawsey, Ph.D., Dalhousie University and President of the Canadian Society of Medievalists

"The Devil'sHistorians is a learned study that manages to be both lucid andincisive. The book does necessary, ground-clearing work in looking athow the past has been constructed.... Perhaps the most impressive partof the book is the seamless way the authors move between multipletimeframes (not simply the medieval period and the present day) to chart the complex, paradoxical, baffling and, at times, dangerous repurposing of the past. It is a timely and timeless book." Matthew Vernon, Ph.D., University of California, Davis

"Kaufman andSturtevant have produced a book that is equal parts familiar,terrifying, and hopeful.... This book is essential reading for all wholove history―academic historians, university students, and the broaderpublic. It will make you think deeply about our engagement with themedieval world and why it is crucial that we challenge itsmisrepresentations forcefully in order to create hope for a betterfuture." Dana Wessell Lightfoot, Ph.D.,University of Northern British Columbia

"This is a passionate, accessible, and timely intervention into the deliberate misuse of theMiddle Ages to promote hatred and fear. The authors meet the challengesof these misuses head on and expose them as such in a style as clear togeneral readers as it is enlightening for academics. The Devil'sHistorians is necessary reading for our times." Douglas Hayes, Ph.D., Lakehead University

Product Description

Amy S. Kaufman and Paul B. Sturtevant examine the many ways in which the medieval past has been manipulated to promote discrimination, oppression, and murder. Tracing the fetish for “medieval times” behind toxic ideologies like nationalism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and white supremacy, Kaufman and Sturtevant show us how the Middle Ages have been twisted for political purposes in every century that followed. The Devil’s Historians casts aside the myth of an oppressive, patriarchal medieval monoculture and reveals a medieval world not often shown in popular culture: one that is diverse, thriving, courageous, compelling, and complex.

Review

"The Devil’s Historians is a book that should be read by every teacher and student of medieval studies. Timely and hard-hitting, the book is unapologetic in its condemnation of modern groups who use a whitewashed version of the Middle Ages to promote their own agendas of hatred and discrimination. Kaufman and Sturtevant skillfully balance a frank acknowledgment of medieval atrocities and bigotries with an enthusiastic exploration of the diversity and complexity of the medieval period. This is a well-researched and highly scholarly book written with journalistic ease and pageturning appeal." (Kathy Cawsey, Dalhousie University, President of the Canadian Society of Medievalists)

"Amy S. Kaufman and Paul B. Sturtevant show that the Middle Ages have never been more relevant than they are today or more worth exploring for what they really were: a messy millennium of human diversity. They explain just how much popular memory gets wrong about what was not a dark age, but an incredibly complicated, creative, and globally-connected era. Kaufman and Sturtevant explode the myths of medieval social, political, and cultural stagnation, showing a wide range of creative, disorderly, and insightful individuals of the era. More than that, however, The Devil's Historians takes aim at modern misuses of the medieval past, whether it's nationalist myths promising a return to a sanitized visio