Medieval History
Jonathan Jarrett has an interesting post that meditates on what it means to be an historian (or what it means, more generally I think, to study the past). I love this kind of stuff -- these kinds of questions. I've dealt with some of these questions before but first let me too give a shout-out to PhD Comics:
And the debate continues...
- Blogging, Tweeting, And Publishing
I've been asked by JJ Cohen of In the Middle to compose something on the creation of my blog and my adventures in tweeting for an article he's working on. The article will appear in a book centered around Geoffrey Chaucer hath a Blog, in...
- Blog Forum 3: Magistra On "early Medieval Historical Argument From Soup To Nuts"
Welcome to the 3rd of our Blog Forum posts. The 1st and 2nd of these have generated, I think, some good discussion, so I encourage you to check them out and add your thoughts to the comments. (Our current contributor also has a longer post as a reaction...
- Living In The 11th Century, Still: Charlemagne, Crusade, And Doing Research
This past weekend, I had the privilege of addressing the University of Delaware's Undergraduate Research Symposium. (UPDATE: Article here.) It's an outstanding program. I'm a product of it myself and I can't praise it enough. Anyway, there...
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Today, in case you weren't aware, is MLK, Jr. Day. The AP has an article here, saying that MLK's legacy has been "flattened" and the complexity of the man himself has been largely forgotten (they say "ignored," but that's not the right word)....
- Rebuilding The Middle Ages
In case you didn't know, The Billings (MT) Gazette is a goldmine for information relating to the recreation/ reimagination of the Middle Ages -- or maybe it's just something about Big Sky country that makes people think of the period. I dunno....
Medieval History
The Meaning of History
Jonathan Jarrett has an interesting post that meditates on what it means to be an historian (or what it means, more generally I think, to study the past). I love this kind of stuff -- these kinds of questions. I've dealt with some of these questions before but first let me too give a shout-out to PhD Comics:
And the debate continues...Anyway, I think Jonathan's right that uncovering the past does reveal "truth" in some way -- it reveals something that happened to someone, somewhere, at some time. That, in and of itself, is important. Outreach is important too. I sure as heckfire want as many people as possible to know why the Middle Ages "matter." Maybe more people will buy my book (or books) someday but more people will want to take courses on the Middle Ages and we'll hire some more medievalists, even here at Virginia Tech.
But understanding the past does something else too. To paraphrase what Teddy says to Lenny (repeatedly) in the movie Memento, knowing the past will not only tell you about who you were but also informs who you are and who you will be.* The little tag-line on this blog ("Although long-dead, the people of the Middle Ages still have something to say.") isn't intended to be just fluff. Knowing about the Middle Ages tells us -- all of us -- something about who we are now and where we're going. And I don't mean that history's going to repeat itself, because it's not. What I mean is that understanding the past informs our identity, and not always in productive ways.
Doing history problematizes that memory.** Doing history makes us less certain and ultimately, I'd hope, more thoughtful about other ideas, letting us categorically reject some and willingly/ grudgingly accept others. For example, medieval history specifically tells us something about our notions of Europe, Christianity, violence, representative government, and the relationship between East and West, among (many) other things.
I love when people ask these kinds of questions and talk about this kind of stuff, not because it makes us, us who study the past, stand around in epistemological angst. Instead, I like these kinds of questions because it makes us think about answers, and I think we have some damn good ones that we can offer.
-----
*My thanks to C. Stephen Jaeger for inspiring me to look again at this film.
** I'm thinking here of the definitions offered in the excellent Keith Michael Baker, Inventing the French Revolution: Essays on the Political Culture of the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1990).
But understanding the past does something else too. To paraphrase what Teddy says to Lenny (repeatedly) in the movie Memento, knowing the past will not only tell you about who you were but also informs who you are and who you will be.* The little tag-line on this blog ("Although long-dead, the people of the Middle Ages still have something to say.") isn't intended to be just fluff. Knowing about the Middle Ages tells us -- all of us -- something about who we are now and where we're going. And I don't mean that history's going to repeat itself, because it's not. What I mean is that understanding the past informs our identity, and not always in productive ways.
Doing history problematizes that memory.** Doing history makes us less certain and ultimately, I'd hope, more thoughtful about other ideas, letting us categorically reject some and willingly/ grudgingly accept others. For example, medieval history specifically tells us something about our notions of Europe, Christianity, violence, representative government, and the relationship between East and West, among (many) other things.
I love when people ask these kinds of questions and talk about this kind of stuff, not because it makes us, us who study the past, stand around in epistemological angst. Instead, I like these kinds of questions because it makes us think about answers, and I think we have some damn good ones that we can offer.
-----
*My thanks to C. Stephen Jaeger for inspiring me to look again at this film.
** I'm thinking here of the definitions offered in the excellent Keith Michael Baker, Inventing the French Revolution: Essays on the Political Culture of the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1990).
- Blogging, Tweeting, And Publishing
I've been asked by JJ Cohen of In the Middle to compose something on the creation of my blog and my adventures in tweeting for an article he's working on. The article will appear in a book centered around Geoffrey Chaucer hath a Blog, in...
- Blog Forum 3: Magistra On "early Medieval Historical Argument From Soup To Nuts"
Welcome to the 3rd of our Blog Forum posts. The 1st and 2nd of these have generated, I think, some good discussion, so I encourage you to check them out and add your thoughts to the comments. (Our current contributor also has a longer post as a reaction...
- Living In The 11th Century, Still: Charlemagne, Crusade, And Doing Research
This past weekend, I had the privilege of addressing the University of Delaware's Undergraduate Research Symposium. (UPDATE: Article here.) It's an outstanding program. I'm a product of it myself and I can't praise it enough. Anyway, there...
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Today, in case you weren't aware, is MLK, Jr. Day. The AP has an article here, saying that MLK's legacy has been "flattened" and the complexity of the man himself has been largely forgotten (they say "ignored," but that's not the right word)....
- Rebuilding The Middle Ages
In case you didn't know, The Billings (MT) Gazette is a goldmine for information relating to the recreation/ reimagination of the Middle Ages -- or maybe it's just something about Big Sky country that makes people think of the period. I dunno....