Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages

Description: Communities of Violence by David Nirenberg In the wake of modern genocide, we tend to think of violence against minorities as a sign of intolerance, or, even worse, a prelude to extermination. Violence in the Middle Ages, however, functioned differently, according to David Nirenberg. In this provocative book, he focuses on specific attacks against minorities in fourteenth-century France and FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description In the wake of modern genocide, we tend to think of violence against minorities as a sign of intolerance, or, even worse, a prelude to extermination. Violence in the Middle Ages, however, functioned differently, according to David Nirenberg. In this provocative book, he focuses on specific attacks against minorities in fourteenth-century France and the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia). He argues that these attacks--ranging from massacres to verbal assaults against Jews, Muslims, lepers, and prostitutes--were often perpetrated not by irrational masses laboring under inherited ideologies and prejudices, but by groups that manipulated and reshaped the available discourses on minorities. Nirenberg shows that their use of violence expressed complex beliefs about topics as diverse as divine history, kinship, sex, money, and disease, and that their actions were frequently contested by competing groups within their own society. Nirenbergs readings of archival and literary sources demonstrates how violence set the terms and limits of coexistence for medieval minorities.The particular and contingent nature of this coexistence is underscored by the books juxtapositions--some systematic (for example, that of the Crown of Aragon with France, Jew with Muslim, medieval with modern), and some suggestive (such as African ritual rebellion with Catalan riots). Throughout, the book questions the applicability of dichotomies like tolerance versus intolerance to the Middle Ages, and suggests the limitations of those analyses that look for the origins of modern European persecutory violence in the medieval past. Author Biography David Nirenberg is the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought at the University of Chicago, where he is also dean of the Division of the Social Sciences and the founding director of the Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society. Table of Contents Preface to the New Paperback Edition vii Acknowledgements xvii Abbreviations xix Introduction 3 Chapter One The Historical Background 18 Part One Cataclysmic Violence: France and the Crown of Aragon Chapter Two France, Source of the Troubles: Shepherds Crusade and Lepers Plot (1320, 1321) 43 Chapter Three Crusade and Massacre in Aragon (1320) 69 Chapter Four Lepers, Jews, Muslims, and Poison in the Crown (1321) 93 Part Two: Systemic Violence: Power, Sex, and Religion Chapter Five Sex and Violence between Majority and Minority 127 Chapter Six Minorities Confron Each Other: Violence between Muslims and Jews 166 Chapter Seven The Two Faces of Sacred Violence 200 Epilogue The Black Death and Beyond 231 Bibliography of Works Cited 251 Index 281 Review Winner of the 1998 Herbert Baxter Adams Prize, American Historical Association Winner of the 1996 Premio del Rey Prize, American Historical Association Winner of the 1998 Best First Book in Iberian History Award, Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Winner of the 2000 John Nicholas Brown Prize, Medieval Academy of America "Nirenbergs argument is elegant and precise... [His] superb scholarship has done a great service in a matter of great importance, and not only to historians."--Edward Peters, Historian "[This book] is written with a stylistic flair that makes it a pleasure to read, a model of historical research and exposition at its best."--Marc Saperstein, American Historical Review "Nirenberg has ventured unescorted down all manner of unexplored paths... This is a highly sophisticated piece of work, clever in the best sense of the word, rich and variegated, a treasure-house of perceptive scholarship, sensitively nuanced, beautifully controlled, a delight to handle and a joy to read."--Peter Linehan, Medium Aevum Prizes Winner of John Nicholas Brown Prize 2000 Winner of American Historical Association Herbert Baxter Adams Prize 1998 Winner of Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Best First Book Prize 1998 Winner of Premio Del Rey Prize 1996 Long Description In the wake of modern genocide, we tend to think of violence against minorities as a sign of intolerance, or, even worse, a prelude to extermination. Violence in the Middle Ages, however, functioned differently, according to David Nirenberg. In this provocative book, he focuses on specific attacks against minorities in fourteenth-century France and the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia). He argues that these attacks--ranging from massacres to verbal assaults against Jews, Muslims, lepers, and prostitutes--were often perpetrated not by irrational masses laboring under inherited ideologies and prejudices, but by groups that manipulated and reshaped the available discourses on minorities. Nirenberg shows that their use of violence expressed complex beliefs about topics as diverse as divine history, kinship, sex, money, and disease, and that their actions were frequently contested by competing groups within their own society. Nirenbergs readings of archival and literary sources demonstrates how violence set the terms and limits of coexistence for medieval minorities.The particular and contingent nature of this coexistence is underscored by the books juxtapositions--some systematic (for example, that of the Crown of Aragon with France, Jew with Muslim, medieval with modern), and some suggestive (such as African ritual rebellion with Catalan riots). Throughout, the book questions the applicability of dichotomies like tolerance versus intolerance to the Middle Ages, and suggests the limitations of those analyses that look for the origins of modern European persecutory violence in the medieval past. Review Quote Winner of the 2000 John Nicholas Brown Prize, Medieval Academy of America Details ISBN0691165769 Author David Nirenberg Publisher Princeton University Press Year 2015 ISBN-10 0691165769 ISBN-13 9780691165769 Format Paperback Imprint Princeton University Press Place of Publication New Jersey Country of Publication United States DEWEY 303.60902 Birth 1964 Media Book Short Title COMMUNITIES OF VIOLENCE UPDATE Language English Residence TX, US Edition Revised & updated ed Publication Date 2015-05-26 Translated from English Subtitle Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages - Updated Edition UK Release Date 2015-05-26 NZ Release Date 2015-05-26 US Release Date 2015-05-26 Replaces 9780691033754 Audience Undergraduate Pages 320 AU Release Date 2015-08-03 Edition Description Updated Edition We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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