tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14639740.post114744371618776997..comments2024-01-08T03:37:14.878-05:00Comments on sententiae et clamores: outrage, french roves, and the australian gothicLiamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17265036866243982434noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14639740.post-1147818021882819032006-05-16T18:20:00.000-04:002006-05-16T18:20:00.000-04:00Jeff,I think he's mainly considered a writer of po...Jeff,<BR/>I think he's mainly considered a writer of popular books using recycled information. The anthrax idea has been advanced by medical historians and I think the jury is still out on it, but it is an idea that is taken seriously.<BR/><BR/>He wrote a very catty book about 20th-century medievalists called "Inventing the Middle Ages." It's a fascinating read, but I do think he's unfair to a number of people. One would think after reading it, for example, that Ernst Kantorowitz and Percy Schramm are not worth reading, and in fact they are much more worth reading than, say, Norman Cantor.Liamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17265036866243982434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14639740.post-1147813235632091762006-05-16T17:00:00.000-04:002006-05-16T17:00:00.000-04:00Liam,Not to get too far off topic, but as a mediev...Liam,<BR/><BR/>Not to get too far off topic, but as a medieval historian living in New York, do you happen to know Norman Cantor? Whether you know him or not, I'd be interested in knowing what your take on him is. He seems to be the guy who is somewhat in vogue now for writing about medieval history for the popular mass market. <BR/><BR/>Speaking for myself, I find that he gets under my skin a little bit. I read <I>In the Wake of the Plague</I> last year, and I thought he was really going out on a limb by claiming that the mortality associated with the Black Death may actually have been largely attributable to anthrax rather than the bubonic plague. This sounded a little trendy to me... like he was trying a little bit too hard to draw modern-day parallels with what was in the news at the time. How do other scholars feel about that? Also, in the intro to one of his books (can't remember which one off-hand), he seemed to be taking a strong anti-Church stance, and was giving an indication that he was trying to issue a corrective to the pro-church bias that had been taken by Irish-sympathetic medieval historians in the previous generation.<BR/><BR/>Regards,<BR/>JeffJeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10754406706300818849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14639740.post-1147463775690109412006-05-12T15:56:00.000-04:002006-05-12T15:56:00.000-04:00Best wishes for you Filius' first communion ... wh...Best wishes for you Filius' first communion ... what is the bow for?<BR/><BR/>I read a little about the supression of the Templars, the burning at the stake of the last grand master. The story reminds me of the suppression of the Jesuits in Portugal, the Tavora affair.<BR/><BR/>About Nick Cave, it seems everyone has a different Jesus, which I find encouraging :-)crystalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05681674503952991492noreply@blogger.com