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

207 Pages·2020·1.837 MB·English

by  Amy Kaufman, Paul Sturtevant

the devil’s historians
Joseph Mauméjean, Henri Mauméjean, and Charles Mauméjean,
detail, Execution of St. James, stained glass, 1941 (Église Saint-Jacques,
Montgeron, France). This window, created and installed in Nazi-occupied
France, depicts the execution of St. James by King Herod. Local tradition
holds that Herod looks like Adolf Hitler; if true, this is a subtle act of
artistic resistance. While no records of its creation remain, this interpre-
tation fits with some other Mauméjean Brothers works, such as their
depiction of the Holocaust in their window “La Messe de St Grégoire” in
Église Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul d’Ivry-sur-Seine. (Photo by Nhuan Doduc)
T H E
D E V I L’S
H I S T O R I A N S
HOW
MODERN
EXTREMISTS
ABUSE
THE
MEDIEVAL
PAST
AMY S. KAUFMAN
AND PAUL B. STURTEVANT
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2020
Toronto Buffalo London
utorontopress.com
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library and archives canada cataloguing in publication
Title: The devil’s historians : how modern extremists abuse the medieval
past / Amy S. Kaufman and Paul B. Sturtevant.
Names: Kaufman, Amy S., 1974– author. | Sturtevant, Paul B., author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2020017780X | Canadiana (ebook)
20200177842 | ISBN 9781487587857 (cloth) | ISBN 9781487587840
(paper) | ISBN 9781487587871 (PDF) | ISBN 9781487587864 (EPUB)
Subjects: LCSH: Radicalism. | LCSH: Middle Ages.
Classification: LCC HN49.R33 K38 2020 | DDC 303.48/4—dc23
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University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Funded by the Financé par le
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of Canada du Canada
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Weaponizing History 1
1 The Middle Ages: Foundational Myths 9
2 Nationalism and Nostalgia 29
3 The “Clash of Civilizations” 53
4 White (Supremacist) Knights 81
5 Knights in Shining Armor and
Damsels in Distress 103
6 Medievalism and Religious Extremism 127
Epilogue: The Future of the Medieval Past 151
Notes 161
Further Reading 183
Index 187
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Acknowledgments
W
e would like to thank Natalie Fingerhut and the team at
University of Toronto Press, whose excitement about this book
and hard work on it have been a joy at every stage. Thanks
also to the anonymous peer reviewers for their comments and
advice, which helped make this book as good as it can be.
Our collaboration began at The Public Medievalist, a free
online magazine started by Paul that features scholars who
want to share their work with a broader audience. Together, we
launched two series of essays on some of the subjects covered
in this book: Race, Racism and the Middle Ages and Gender,
Sexism and the Middle Ages. We’d like to thank the editorial
staff at the site for their passion, ingenuity, and persistence:
Shiloh Carroll, who often held down the fort while this book
was in progress; Kristina Hildebrand, who helped smooth out
a passage about the Society for Creative Anachronism; as well
as editors and contributors Rob Houghton, Vicki Cooper, Sam
Brinton, and Arielle Gingold. Thank you also to the scholars
who supported and contributed to the site, including the gener-
ous awards from the Medieval Academy of America, The Lone
Medievalist, and CARMEN. Additional thanks to those who
have written for The Public Medievalist and those who have
read, subscribed to, and shared it. Visit www.publicmedievalist
.com for a wide range of articles by some of Medieval Studies’
best scholars if you want to learn more about the Middle Ages
or about medievalism in the modern world.
additional acknowledgments
from amy s. kaufman
M
y work on this book would not have been possible
without Kathleen Coyne Kelly, who first introduced me to
vii
viii / Acknowledgments
medievalism studies, whose own brilliant scholarship has
always set the highest bar, and who has been a supportive men-
tor and friend throughout my career. I’m also deeply grateful
to Susan Aronstein, Laurie Finke, Kevin Harty, Don Hoffman,
Marty Shichtman, and Elizabeth Sklar, who welcomed me
when I was just a baby medievalist and who have inspired and
encouraged my work ever since. Thanks to all the scholars at
the International Society for the Study of Medievalism whose
support, care, and mentoring were invaluable, especially Pam
Clements, Karl Fugelso, Carol Robinson, M.J. Toswell, Richard
Utz, and Usha Vishnuvajjala. Thanks to Phillip Edward Phillips
for the years of encouragement and friendship, and for tell-
ing me to ditch the book I didn’t care about so I could write
the book I wanted to write instead. Middle Tennessee State
University provided a 2016 research award that helped fund the
early work for this book. Cory Rushton and Usha Vishnuvajjala
were my lifelines throughout the writing process—this book
would not exist without you either. Finally, thank you to Mike
James: for your confidence and support, for the late-night beer
runs, and for being the world’s best second set of eyes.
additional acknowledgments
from paul b. sturtevant
D
uring the creation of this book, my mother, Professor
Elizabeth G. Sturtevant, died after a long battle with
Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy. On all levels,
both literal and figurative, I would not be the person I am
today had it not been for her. I wish she had been able to read
this one. I think she would have liked it.
Many of my friends, family, and colleagues were incredibly
supportive throughout. Particular thanks to Cash Colburn,
Tom Caiazza, Jacky Hart, Lee Braddock, Elizabeth Hick-
ernell, and Kay Oss; you were there at the worst. And last,
thank you to my partner Arielle Gingold for helping me to
keep putting one foot in front of the other, and for reminding
me that sometimes it’s okay not to.
Introduction:
Weaponizing History
There is no reason, I feel, to object when antiquity draws no
hard line between the human and the supernatural: it adds
dignity to the past, and, if any nation deserves the privilege
of claiming a divine ancestry, that nation is our own.
—Livy, History of Rome, c. 27–25 bce1
D
uring ancient Rome’s Golden Age, from 27 BCE to 180
CE, Augustus Caesar enacted a series of reforms focused on
regulating Roman family life. He passed what became known
as the Julian marriage laws, which criminalized adultery for
married women. Fathers could kill adulterous daughters, and
husbands who did not divorce cheating wives could be pros-
ecuted. Augustus’s laws also encouraged people to produce
more Roman citizens: he gave money to families with three or
more children, and he levied taxes against unmarried Romans.
He also banned women from attending gladiatorial fights and
athletic events to keep them “pure,” even exiling his own
daughter and granddaughter for “vice.”
Augustus’s reforms were meant to take Rome back to
a time that he imagined was simpler, and better. But his
reforms were also reactionary, part of a backlash against
rising female power in Rome. By Augustus’s reign, some
women had begun to reject arranged marriages. They could
own property, get divorced, and even participate in politics
in limited ways. Some women gave public speeches, others
agitated to be gladiators. Thus, Augustus’s new laws aimed
to limit the threat that women’s liberation presented to both
patriarchal and aristocratic power. (After all, when women
are free to choose their sexual partners, family dynasties tend
to fall apart.)
1