Martial Staub & Graham Loud 
The Making of Medieval History [EPUB ebook] 

Essays on the discipline of medieval history and its practitioners, from the late eighteenth century onwards.


A hugely interesting set of essays, reflecting on a variety of ways in which medieval history has developed to the present time. Scholarship of the highest standard, deeply thought-provoking and deeply engaged with the inheritances and future tasks of medieval academic history. The collection will be essential reading for all medievalists. John Arnold, Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge.


Medieval history is present in manyforms in our world. Monuments from the Middle Ages or inspired by them are a familiar feature of landscapes across Europe and beyond; the period between the end of the Roman Empire in Western Europe and the Reformation and European expansion is an essential part of our imagination, be it conveyed through literature, the arts, science fiction or even video games; it is also commonly invoked in political debates. Specialists in the field have played a majorrole in shaping modern perceptions of the era. But little is known about the factors that have influenced them and their work.

The essays in this volume provide original insights into the fabric and dissemination of medieval history as a scholarly discipline from the late eighteenth century onwards. The case-studies range from the creation of specific images of the Middle Ages to the ways in which medievalists have dealt with European identity, contributed to making and deconstructing myths and, more specifically, addressed questions relating to land and frontiers as well as to religion.


GRAHAM A. LOUD is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Leeds;MARTIAL STAUB is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Sheffield.


Contributors: Christine Caldwell Ames, Peter Biller, Michael Borgolte, Patrick Geary, Richard Hitchcock, Bernhard Jussen, Joep Leerssen, G.A. Loud, Christian Lübke, Jinty Nelson, Bastian Schlüter, Martial Staub, Ian Wood.

Table of Content

Some Thoughts on the Making of the Middle Ages – Graham A Loud and Martial Staub

Why Re-Inventing Medieval History is a Good Idea – Janet L Nelson

Literary Composition and the Early Medieval Historian in the Nineteenth Century – Ian Nicholas Wood

European Ethnicities and European as an Ethnicity: Does Europe Have Too Much History? – Patrick Geary

A Crisis of the Middle Ages? Deconstructing and Constructing European Identities in a Globalised World – Michael Borgolte

Barbarossa’s Heirs: Nation and Medieval History in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany – Bastian Schlütter

Once upon a time in Germany: Medievalism, Academic Romanticism, Nationalism – Joep Leerssen

Between Ideology and Technology: Depicting Charlemagne in Modern Times – Bernhard Jussen

Reflections on the Frontier in Early Medieval Iberia – Richard Hitchcock

Germany’s Growth to the East: from the Polabian Marches to Germania Slavica – Christian Lübke

Distance and Difference: Medieval Inquisition as American History – Christine Ames

Mind the Gap: Modern and Medieval ‘Religious’ Vocabularies – Peter Biller

About the author

PETE BILLER is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of York.