Communities of Violence

by David Nirenberg (Author)

11 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0691058894

ISBN-10: 069105889X

Why is ISBN important?

Paperback

$11.29 - $37.49

Other Sellers

from

Other Sellers

See all 3 versions

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Bonafide-Books

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Tuesday, July 27 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

In stock.
Usually ships within 3 to 4 days.

Ships from and sold by Book Depository US.

FREE delivery: July 29 - Aug 4

There is a newer edition of this item:

Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages - Updated Edition
$22.32
(11)
In Stock.

In the wake of modern genocide, we tend to think of violence against minorities as a sign of intolerance, or, even worse, a prelude to extermination. Violence in the Middle Ages, however, functioned differently, according to David Nirenberg. In this provocative book, he focuses on specific attacks against minorities in fourteenth-century France and the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia). He argues that these attacks--ranging from massacres to verbal assaults against Jews, Muslims, lepers, and prostitutes--were often perpetrated not by irrational masses laboring under inherited ideologies and prejudices, but by groups that manipulated and reshaped the available discourses on minorities. Nirenberg shows that their use of violence expressed complex beliefs about topics as diverse as divine history, kinship, sex, money, and disease, and that their actions were frequently contested by competing groups within their own society.

Nirenberg's readings of archival and literary sources demonstrates how violence set the terms and limits of coexistence for medieval minorities. The particular and contingent nature of this coexistence is underscored by the book's juxtapositions--some systematic (for example, that of the Crown of Aragon with France, Jew with Muslim, medieval with modern), and some suggestive (such as African ritual rebellion with Catalan riots). Throughout, the book questions the applicability of dichotomies like tolerance versus intolerance to the Middle Ages, and suggests the limitations of those analyses that look for the origins of modern European persecutory violence in the medieval past.

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

David Nirenberg
11
Paperback
31 offers from $17.39
David Nirenberg
115
Paperback
44 offers from $9.77
David Nirenberg
11
Hardcover
13 offers from $7.95
Robert I. Moore
26
Paperback
51 offers from $14.47

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Winner of the 1998 Herbert Baxter Adams Prize, American Historical Association"

"Winner of the 1996 Premio del Rey Prize, American Historical Association"

"Winner of the 1998 Best First Book in Iberian History Award, Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies"

"Winner of the 2000 John Nicholas Brown Prize, Medieval Academy of America"

"Nirenberg's argument is elegant and precise.... [His] superb scholarship has done a great service in a matter of great importance, and not only to historians."---Edward Peters, Historian

"[This book] is written with a stylistic flair that makes it a pleasure to read, a model of historical research and exposition at its best."---Marc Saperstein, American Historical Review

"Nirenberg has ventured unescorted down all manner of unexplored paths.... This is a highly sophisticated piece of work, clever in the best sense of the word, rich and variegated, a treasure-house of perceptive scholarship, sensitively nuanced, beautifully controlled, a delight to handle and a joy to read."---Peter Linehan, Medium Aevum

About the Author

David Nirenberg is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Cultures at Rice University.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (January 26, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 069105889X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691058894
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.06 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,157,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,568 in History (Books)
- #14,359 in Ethnic Studies (Books)
- #24,429 in European History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
11 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		85%
4 star		8%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		8%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

vidal

Reviewing the so-called "convivencia"

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

Very helpful to a better understanding of the relationships between minorities in the medieval Iberian Peninsula, reviewing the concept of the so-called "convivencia".

Helpful

Brian Allan Little

Medieval violence

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

While I have not read this book yet, I feel it will provide clear and concise scholarly arguments behind medieval violence and its causes.

Helpful

Brian Griffith

On the perils of building and living with social walls

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2008

Nirenberg explores the medieval world of religious communities, always focusing on particular places and people. He finds a checkered pattern of close or explosive relations, not so unlike our modern somewhat paranoid times. The studies of communities in medieval Spain with their unstable mixtures of Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities are particularly fascinating. The long periods of mutually helpful relations are punctuated with episodes of inflammatory fear. Nirenberg shows that where popular superstition ran rampant, the religious leaders often denounced it. But these leaders were partly responsible for teaching people to blame their troubles on unbelievers. And by the late 1200s, the context of holy war was percolating into every corner of Christendom, affecting relations between cultural groups from the Balkans to Spain. Prussia launched a northern crusade against non-Catholic Slavs. France exterminated its Cathar heretics, suppressed the order of Templars, and repeatedly expelled its Jews. The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 ruled that people of different religions must wear specific clothes to mark them as enemies in enemy uniform. The intent was to draw a social and sexual wall between Christians, Jews and Muslims. To block friendship and love from crossing that wall, the customs of Tortosa (in Spain) warned,

"If Jewish or Muslim males are found lying with a Christian woman, the Jew or Muslim should be drawn and quartered and the Christian woman should be burned, in such a manner that they should die. And this accusation can be brought by any inhabitant of the town without penalty...". (p. 132.)

All told, these studies of real people in real places offer insight we need now.

-author of Correcting Jesus

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

N. Clarke

Context, context, context

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2002

In the complex and highly-charged debate that is the origins of persecution in the Middle Ages, Nirenberg's contribution is a useful and timely one. Broadly speaking, his thesis is a counter to the long view of Moore _et al_; what interests Nirenberg is the specific, the day-to-day functioning of violence in its social and political context. It is for this reason that he focuses mainly on particular incidents and localities - although certainly not at the expense of broadening his picture where necessary. His method is essentially a comparative one, contrasting particular events in France and Aragon in order to demonstrate the infinite variety and flexibility of medieval attitudes towards minorities. This use of case studies enables Nirenberg to explore his targets in much greater depth than would be possible in a generalised study, and this is, in many ways, his point: a focus on context, not unified theory.
This is an excellent counterpoint to the vast quantity of material on medieval persecution, with an intriguing conclusion: that day-to-day violence could have a systemic, stabilising function in medieval societies - particularly multi-cultural ones such as Aragon.

27 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lady Stellar

Interesting Theory

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2007

I think this book put forth some interesting arguments and interpretations of history. As a historian, I can say that it is always important to look at historical events and trends from as many angles as possible. Violence against religious minorities in the medieval era has to be seen as different from violence against minorities in the twentieth century because the settings for the two are completely different. I know that many people will find what the author has to say a bit far-fetched, but I believe it is better to be a little far-fetched than to offer yet another typically-held opinion. If there were no "far-fetched" interpretations, knowledge would never advance. Keep an open mind while reading this book. You will definitely learn something.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Communities of Violence

Buy used: $11.29

Buy new: $37.49

There is a newer edition of this item:

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customers also viewed these products

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Customers who bought this item also bought

Buy used:

$11.29

Buy new:

$37.49