Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Great essay on appropriating medieval fashion as feminist. In doing so they began a feminist tradition that continues today. We saw this most recently at the Met Gala where stars donned fashion inspired by the Roman Catholic Church’s long heyday from the year 500 to 1550, including Rihanna’s glittering papal mitre and cloak. It was …
Kudos to “Surrey Medieval” for pulling this together. Not comprehensive, they make clear, but a great collection.
There’s a vibrant sub-culture of people who practice “Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA).” This is not the Society of Creative Anachronism, though surely there’s plenty of cross-over in North America, but people learning how to use European weapons to fight. As I’ve been writing about, any sub-culture that engages the imagined European medieval past can …
Medieval history professor Matthew Gabriele, of Virginia Tech, has published a powerful new article about the word “crusade” in both its modern and medieval contexts. He’s arguing not just that modern people mis-use Crusade, which they do (he digs into the famous W. Bush quote about a ‘Crusade against Evil’), but that medievalists need to …
Trump likes to compare ISIS to medieval times. Here’s a transcript of the latest debate, and some video. COOPER: You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that? TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that at all. I don’t think you understood what was — this was locker room talk. I’m not proud …