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Geraldine Heng

The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages

by Geraldine Heng (Author)

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In The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, Geraldine Heng questions the common assumption that the concepts of race and racisms only began in the modern era. Examining Europe's encounters with Jews, Muslims, Africans, Native Americans, Mongols, and the Romani ('Gypsies'), from the 12th through 15th centuries, she shows how racial thinking, racial law, racial practices, and racial phenomena existed in medieval Europe before a recognizable vocabulary of race emerged in the West. Analysing sources in a variety of media, including stories, maps, statuary, illustrations, architectural features, history, saints' lives, religious commentary, laws, political and social institutions, and literature, she argues that religion - so much in play again today - enabled the positing of fundamental differences among humans that created strategic essentialisms to mark off human groups and populations for racialized treatment. Her ground-breaking study also shows how race figured in the emergence of homo europaeus and the identity of Western Europe in this time.

ISBN-10

1108422780
ISBN-13

978-1108422789
Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Publication date

March 8, 2018
Language

English
Dimensions

7 x 1.13 x 10 inches
Print length

504 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'For more than two decades scholars have been hotly debating the appropriateness of the term 'race' and its derivatives in the analysis of medieval European societies. Now, with this book, Geraldine Heng provides the most comprehensive and persuasive validation of race as a way into the medieval cultural 'imaginary'. Race, she acknowledges, was a concept that varied from place to place and changed in multiple ways over time. It was complexly intertwined with religious ideas, and although medieval notions of race shared content with some modern somatic notions (allowing for comparability), its specifically medieval distinctiveness owes much to the various faith communities within which it attained significance. This is not a book about blaming the Middle Ages or the West for racism; it is an erudite plea to pursue the study of racialisms, for truth's sake. No one interested in the vexing and tragic history of racial thought and the practices that it informed can afford to ignore this magisterial intervention into the scholarly conversation.' William Chester Jordan, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Princeton University, New Jersey

'[One cannot overstate the importance of The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages.] Writing with astounding force and clarity, Heng accomplishes what has eluded literary scholars and historians: a breakthrough demonstration of how religion, as both sociocultural and biopolitical technology, produced 'race'. Heng shows that race is a name for an apparatus that structures and deploys human differences across the globe and time. Race would thus be the only adequate name for the process of difference-making. Heng renews the impetus for the global study of the Middle Ages and, in racial terms, shows what we have always known: that modernity is merely the effect of the Middle Ages.' Zrinka Stahuljak, University of California, Los Angeles

'… The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, provides a series of … studies that demonstrate the flexibility of this central thesis, with chapters functioning as densely textured sketches that articulate the mechanisms of racial logic at several geographically and culturally disparate local sites. … The Invention of Race is intended for a broad audience, whose expertise in the field of medieval studies is not assumed: for most of the book, this results in clear prose and translated source material.' Shoshana Adler, EuropeNow

'In The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (Cambridge), Geraldine Heng shows repeated cases which would unambiguously be classified as racially motivated hate crimes today, grounded in religion. This book is field-defining and vital in the current climate.' Kate Wiles, History Today

'… Heng does an impressive job weaving together various strands of scholarly conversation from a range of academic disciplines, in order to provide a multidimensional picture of how the concept of 'race' defined and redefined social realities in a period that has been habitually excluded from histories of racial categorization. While The Invention of Race may not seek to provide all the answers, it is a clarion call to continue to theorize and retheorize race in the premodern world.' Shyama Rajendran, Studies in the Age of Chaucer

'Straddling the complicated line between medieval studies and critical race theory, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages is a comprehensive volume that will change the ways in which medieval history is understood. … The debates raised and addressed in this work will challenge scholars to radically rethink how they approach the social histories with which they work, and for scholars who consider social context to be an essential aspect of their research, The Invention of Race is a must-read.' Jacqueline Lombard, Contemporaneity

‘The book as a whole is finely produced, and its chapters are thoughtfully self-contained, each followed by its own endnotes-allowing for easy excerpting.’ Julie Orlemanski, Modern Philology

'It is rich, learned, and thought-provoking, and it triggers important methodological and historiographic questions that bear on the essence of our discipline …' Joseph Ziegler, Speculum

‘If anyone still doubts the conceptual validity of religious race, this is the book to convince them. At every turn, readers will be confronted with fascinating evidence - some of it familiar, some startlingly new, illumining surveys of scholarly debates, and rich interpretive work … [The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages] will have a significant impact on scholarly paradigms in medieval studies and critical race studies alike for a long time to come.’ Cord J. Whitaker, Critical Inquiry

Book Description

This book challenges the common belief that race and racisms are phenomena that began only in the modern era.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (March 8, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 504 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1108422780
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1108422789
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.67 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 1.13 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #826,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,357 in European Politics Books
- #3,049 in Discrimination & Racism
- #3,191 in History & Theory of Politics

Customer Reviews:
4.4 76 ratings

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Geraldine Heng

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Geraldine Heng is Perceval Professor of English & Comparative Literature at the University of Texas, Austin.

Her work focuses on literary, cultural, & social encounters between worlds, in the period 500-1500 CE, & webs of exchange among communities & cultures, especially when transacted through gender, race, sexuality, & religion.

Her first book, EMPIRE OF MAGIC: MEDIEVAL ROMANCE & THE POLITICS OF CULTURAL FANTASY, traces the development of European romance, & the King Arthur legend, in response to the the crusades, & Europe's myriad encounters with the Middle East, Asia, & Africa.

Her second book, THE INVENTION OF RACE IN THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES, examines Europe's encounters with Jews, Muslims, Africans, Native Americans, Mongols, & the Romani ('Gypsies'), from the 12th through 15th centuries, to show how racial thinking, racial law, racial practices, & racial phenomena existed in medieval Europe before a recognizable vocabulary of race emerged in the West. The book analyzes sources in stories, maps, statuary, illustrations, architectural features, history, saints' lives, religious commentary, laws, political and social institutions, economic relations, & literature.

Heng is also the author of ENGLAND & THE JEWS: HOW RELIGION & VIOLENCE CREATED THE FIRST RACIAL STATE IN THE WEST, in the Cambridge University Press Elements series on Religion & Violence.

She is the editor of an MLA Options for Teaching volume on the Global Middle Ages, and co-editor, with Susan Noakes, of the Cambridge University Press Elements series of 40 volumes on the Global Middle Ages, as well as co-editor, with Ayanna Thompson, of a Penn University Press series on early critical race studies.

Geraldine Heng is founder & director of the Global Middle Ages Project (G-MAP): www.globalmiddleages.org

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Jacqueline Lombard

A groundbreaking text that should be required reading for all medieval history courses

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 6, 2018

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Straddling the complicated line between medieval studies and critical race theory, The Invention of Race in the Middle Ages is a comprehensive volume that will change the ways in which medieval history is understood. Operating between two fields that have historically taken little interest in each other, Geraldine Heng addresses race alongside power, empire, gender, religion, culture, literature, and art with tremendous insight built on meticulous research. She compels readers to consider how race shaped medieval European societies and worldviews, and how its roots can be detected far earlier than canonically assumed.

At the center of Heng’s work is the question of how to address race and what race represents through a trans-historical lens. She ably demonstrates that race, as a social force enacted by groups of people to categorize human beings via differences believed to be fundamental and immutable, was indeed developing in the Middle Ages and must be studied as such. This timely argument comes after multiple decades of debate among medievalists about whether the term race can be appropriately used in medieval studies, or if such a question has any purchase in the first place. Terms such as “difference,” “xenophobia,” “alterity,” and “otherness” have been championed as more suitable alternatives as medieval peoples themselves never used the word race. By adhering to the methodological lens of critical race theory, Heng persuasively shows how more ambiguous terms such as difference or otherness can quickly lose their potency, and that race, with all of its larger implications, presents the only appropriate term to use. The debates raised and addressed in this work will challenge scholars to radically rethink how they approach the social histories with which they work, and for scholars who consider social context to be an essential aspect of their research, The Invention of Race is a must-read.

11 people found this helpful

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Leon Zitzer

RACISM GOES BACK A LONG WAY

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book covers a range of examples of racism in the European Middle Ages, from the treatment of Jews to Mongols to Gypsies, and more. Race and racism appear whenever they are used “to construct a hierarchy of peoples for differential treatment” (27). Quoting another author, “permanent outsiders and eternal enemies” (281) is a good description of race-making.

For example, concerning Jews in England, Heng demonstrates “how a theory of the religious difference embodied by Jews as a community hardens into a theory of ethnoracial difference accompanied by violence …” (63). As she also notes, “religion can instruct biology” (216).

There is a lot of academic jargon here, but if you can get past that, the book is well worth the effort with many good insights.
Leon Zitzer

2 people found this helpful

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TRACEYANNE COOPER

Important and Instructive

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is a very important book that everyone with a deep interest in the medieval world should read. Race is not an invention of the modern world, neither is racism; and the Middle Ages were not exclusively white, Christian and European. This book is a great starting place for students, academic and the committed general reader interested in a more nuanced understanding of identity and prejudice in the medieval world.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Much Theory, Very Little History

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

If you’re into literary theory, this might be of interest to you. If you care about rigorous historical inquiry, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. The author’s definition of race is so broad that it could literally encompass any category of identity; race means so many things in this book that it ends up really meaning nothing at all. Would not recommend.

33 people found this helpful

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Carl

Powerful comparative work

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 17, 2019

This book really shows the breadth and depth of the kinds of racial thinking in medieval Europe. It doesn't try to be comprehensive, but even so I find it a really powerful piece of scholarship. In creating a detailed impression of the medieval race-making that would be reconfigured into the biological racism of the modern era, I think it reaches beyond medievalists and race-studies scholars to anyone interested in the long history of race.

Throughout, Heng treats race-making as a repeating tendency to demarcate human beings through differences that are selectively essentialized as absolute and fundamental. Then, these categories are used to guide the differential apportioning of power. Scholars working in critical race studies have clearly demonstrated that culture predisposes notions of race. Heng's work confirms that insight by examining the era before the dominance of biological discourses. Race has always been about strategically creating a hierarchy of peoples for differential treatment. By exploring race in the European middle ages, Heng lays bare the skeleton of racial thinking as a sorting mechanism for managing human differences.

In Heng's hands, the tools of critical race studies make it possible to name the systems and atrocities of the Middle Ages for what they were, revealing race-making before the modern vocabulary of race coalesced. Bringing together a group of specialized archives that aren't usually in conversation, Heng in many cases allows the medieval past to testify to the pre-modern history of race-formation, racial administration, and racist exploitation and oppression.

The book begins with the violent and sweeping anti-Semitism of thirteenth century England, showing the ways that Jews became the template by which other races were measured. That launches a careful exposure of the way that minority groups were (and are) manipulated to create the sense of a national majority. A short but potent comparison to the English treatment of Irish subjects drives the analysis home.

Heng moves on to discuss the formation of race in the crucible of war, from the lies used to create the idea of a "Saracen " race and the history behind fear of "assassins," to the racial ironies created by the pressures of mercantile capitalism during war. In discussing what she calls "epidermal race," Heng examines the theological pressure on the imagining of whiteness and anti-blackness, following the question of when whiteness became central to European identity, and how ideas of epidermal surface became tied to notions of moral interiority. With these studies established, Heng closes the book with searching explorations of European consideration and treatment of Mongols, Native Americans, and Romani peoples, probing and expanding our own understanding of race by giving us a detailed and often horrifying picture of how racist thinking functioned to control populations during the middle ages.

Discussing religion as the magisterial discourse of the era, Heng shows the way that religious thinking configured the understanding of biology, politics, economics, and the rest. It was first and foremost in religious terms that medieval race-making occurred. It was in religious terms that racializing techniques were developed, though they would later be expressed through a biological framework as the dominant modes of thinking shifted away from the church. The texts in this book thus maps the long history of the mechanisms of racism that were adapted into the "scientific" racism of the modern era.

In light of the resurgence in open anti-Semitism, the historical throughline of things like naming American cities after white-supremacist crusader kings, the influence of climate change on medieval travel, and the way that stories about immigrants, Muslims, and Jews to are being used to authorize violent nationalism, this book is all the more pointed. It certainly will be a foundational piece of my own thinking going forward.

7 people found this helpful

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purchaser

Super book--definitely worth owning

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 1, 2020

This prize-winning book provides new and valuable insights into the long history of race and racial thinking in the European West. The roots of today's racial conflicts go back many centuries, as Geraldine Heng demonstrates with abundant evidence and vast erudition. Highly recommended for both academic readers and general audiences.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

a k

small font

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

I have read the author's previous writings and decided to purchase the book. Unfortunately, I have not seen a print in a smaller font than this! Im not exaggerating if I say you definitely need a magnifier to read this. Its a shame that the publisher has done this disservice to the book.

faye

Good for sourcing information

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

This item has helped me to source information for my argument. It is a challenging read for intellectuals.

2 people found this helpful

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