Patrick J. Geary

Dismantling nationalist myths about how the nations of Europe were born, this text contrasts them with the actual history of Europe's transformation between the fourth and ninth centuries - the period of grand migrations that nationalists hold dear.

The Medieval Origins of Europe

The Myth of Nations

Patrick J. Geary's highly acclaimed collection of source materials on the medieval period is well-known for offering an excellent selection of substantial excerpts--or whole documents wherever possible--from the most widely studied historical texts. This much-anticipated fifth edition features a larger format, as well as enlarged type, to make the collection more reader-friendly. Study questions have been added at the end of each section to help students focus on key points in the text. Volume II includes new material on the Black Death as well as new readings on Western Europe and the Mongols. A color photo section has been added, introducing students to fascinating medieval art such as the two earliest images of Joan of Arc and the Sachsenspiegel.

Volume II: The Later Middle Ages, Fifth Edition

Readings in Medieval History

Language and ideology in the scholarship of the late Middle Ages

Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages

In Phantoms of Remembrance, Patrick Geary makes important new inroads into the widely discussed topic of historical memory, vividly evoking the everyday lives of eleventh-century people and both their written and nonwritten ways of preserving the past. Women praying for their dead, monks creating and re-creating their archives, scribes choosing which royal families of the past to applaud and which to forget: it is from such sources that most of our knowledge of the medieval period comes. Throughout richly detailed descriptions of various acts of remembrance--including the naming of children and the recording of visions--the author unearths a wide range of approaches to preserving the past as it was or formulating the past that an individual or group prefers to imagine.

Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium

Phantoms of Remembrance

In this innovative new study, Patrick Geary rejects traditional notions of European history to present the Merovingian period (ca. 400-750) as an integral part of Late Antiquity. Drawing on current scholarship in archaeology, cultural history, historical ethnography, and other fields, the author formulates an original interpretation not only of Merovingian history but of the Romano-barbarian world from which it arose. Mapping the complex interactions of a volatile era, he carefully traces the Romanization of barbarians and the barbarization of Romans that ultimately made these populations indistinguishable. (BARNES & NOBLE).

The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World

Before France and Germany

"Provides an excellent selection of complete texts or substantial extracts from key primary sources, helpfully grouped thematically and illustrating many current issues in modern historical study." - Rosamond McKitterick, Newnham College, University of Cambridge

The Later Middle Ages

Mark A. Kishlansky

Patricia O'Brien

Brings the study of Western Civilization with balanced coverage of an array of historical figures and events. Including integrated coverage of social - as well as economic, religious, and cultural history within a traditional, political framework, it explores everyday events and ordinary people as well as momentous affairs and powerful elites.

The Unfinished Legacy, (Chapters 1-16)

A Brief History of Western Civilization

Identity, Conflict, and Memory in the Middle Ages

Writing History

Przemysław Urbańczyk

Ildar H. Garipzanov

Cursor Mundi is a publication series of inter- and multi-disciplinary studies of the medieval and early modern world, viewed broadly as the period between late antiquity and the Enlightenment. Like its companion, the journal Viator, Cursor Mundi brings together outstanding work by medieval and early modern scholars from a wide range of disciplines, emphasizing studies which focus on processes such as cultural exchange or the course of an idea through the centuries, and including investigations beyond the traditional boundaries of Europe and the Mediterranean.

Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe

Franks, Northmen, and Slavs

Whereas modern societies tend to banish the dead from the world of the living, medieval men and women accorded them a vital role in the community. The saints counted most prominently as potential intercessors before God, but the ordinary dead as well were called upon to aid the living, and even to participate in the negotiation of political disputes. In this book, the distinguished medievalist Patrick J. Geary shows how exploring the complex relations between the living and dead can broaden our understanding of the political, economic, and cultural history of medieval Europe. Geary has brought together for this volume twelve of his most influential essays. They address such topics as the development of saints' cults and of the concept of sacred space; the integration of saints' cults into the lives of ordinary people; patterns of relic circulation; and the role of the dead in negotiating the claims and counterclaims of various interest groups. Also included are two case studies of communities that enlisted new patron saints to solve their problems. Throughout, Geary demonstrates that, by reading actions, artifacts, and rituals on an equal footing with texts, we can better grasp the otherness of past societies.

Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages

To obtain sacred relics, medieval monks plundered tombs, avaricious merchants raided churches, and relic-mongers scoured the Roman catacombs. In a revised edition of Furta Sacra, Patrick Geary considers the social and cultural context for these acts, asking how the relics were perceived and why the thefts met with the approval of medieval Christians.

Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages - Revised Edition

Furta Sacra

Civilization in the West blends social and political history into a fascinating narrative that brings history to life. The authors tell a compelling story of Western Civilization that is enhanced by an image-based approach. Pictorial chapter openers draw students in by illustrating a dominant theme of the chapter and exploring the dramatic impression each image makes in reinforcing that theme. The presentation of geography guides students around the changing contours of the West through both standard maps and Geographic Tours of Europe. The greater number of maps and tours combine to make this text the strongest possible program for teaching historical geography (151 total maps, as compared to Chambers, the second highest, at 106). The addition of Discovering Western Civilization Online (new end-of-chapter website URLs) makes this the first Western Civilization book to date to include these resources.

Patrick J. Geary

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