Books have rarely been written about the history of any emotion except love and shame, and this volume is the very first on the meaning of anger in the Middle Ages. Well aware of modern theories about the nature of anger, the authors consider the role of anger in the social lives and conceptual universes of a varied and significant cross-section of medieval people: monks, saints, kings, lords, and peasants. They are careful to distinguish between texts (the sources on which historians must rely) and the reality behind the texts. They are sensitive, as well, to the differences between ideals and normative behavior.

The first eight essays in the volume focus on anger in the Latin West, while the last two turn to the fringes of Europe (the Celtic and Islamic worlds) for purposes of comparison. Barbara H. Rosenwein concludes the volume with an essay on modern conceptions of anger and their implications for understanding its role in the Middle Ages. The essays reveal much that is new about medieval rituals of honor and status and illuminate the rationales behind such seemingly irrational practices as cursing, feuding, and the punishment of blinding.

About the Author

Barbara H. Rosenwein is Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of Negotiating Space: Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe and To Be the Neighbor of Saint Peter: The Social Meaning of Cluny's Property, 909-1049, editor of Anger's Past: The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages and coeditor of Monks and Nuns, Saints and Outcasts: Religion in Medieval Society, all from Cornell. She is also the editor of the Cornell series Conjunctions of Religion and Power in the Medieval Past.

Reviews

Overall, this work fills a large lacuna because... the history of anger has not yet been written.... This work will be a welcome addition to research and graduate libraries.

* History *

The collection of articles assembled in this book is yet another proof for the vibrancy and progressiveness of medieval studies at large... The authors demonstrate the excellent results of interdisciplinary research employing both traditional philological research skills as well as insights from anthropology, sociology, and Mentalites-geschite.... This excellent volume demonstrates that medieval society was neither primitive nor ideal, as it experienced many forms of anger, but often knew very well how to deal with it, as anger assumed an important ritual function for the aristocracy.

-- Albrecht Classen, Arthuriana * Arthuriana *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801483431
Author Barbara H. Rosenwein
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 19mm