Uses Of The Middle Ages In Modern European States, The

Description:
This is the first collection of its kind, with a broad European coverage and very international team of authors. It shows how modern states and societies have used the history of the Middle Ages to legitimize themselves, and draws on some of the most famous and fascinating medieval themes, from Icelandic sagas, through Switzerland's William Tell and the Czech Hussites, to the Serbian battle of Kosovo. The volume investigates especially the ways in which new and smaller states have invented or reinvented themselves on an imagined medieval base and how rival traditions have interacted with each other. It also shows the often uneasy relation between professional history and popular understandings of history, and some of the highly politicized uses to which the work of historians has been put in many different countries.

Table of Contents:
List of Contributors Introduction; G.Marchal PART I: CELTS AND SCANDINAVIA Transmission and Translation of Medieval Irish Sources in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries; B.Cunningham The 'Decline of Norway': Grief and Fascination in Norwegian Historiography on the Middle Ages; J.E.Myhre 'Braves Step out of the Night of the Barrows': Regenerating the Heritage of Early Medieval Finland; D.Fewster Interpreting the Nordic Past: Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts and the Construction of a Modern Nation; G.Halfdanarson PART II: BENELUX A Serious Case of Amnesia: The Dutch and their Middle Ages; P.Raedts Medieval Myths and the Building of National Identity: the Example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; M.Margue& P.Peporte An Era of Grandeur: The Middle Ages in Belgian National Historiography, 1830-1914; J.Tollebeek PART III: BALKANS To Whom Does Byzantium Belong? Greeks, Turks and the Present of the Medieval Balkans; J.Niehoff-Panagiotidis The Image of the Kosovo Battle (1389) Today: A Historic Event, a Moral Pattern, or the Tool of Political Manipulation; M.A uica PART IV: CENTRAL EUROPE Italy's Various Middle Ages; M.Moretti& I.Porciani Medievalism and Swiss National Identity; G.Marchal The Public Instrumentalization of the Middle Ages in Austria since 1945; H.Wolfram 'Old Czechs were Hefty Heroes': The Construction and Reconstruction of Czech National History in its Relationship to the 'Great' Medieval Past; F.A mahel Conclusion; R.J.W.Evans Bibliography Index

Author Biography:
ROBERT EVANS has been Regius professor of History at the University of Oxford, UK since 1997. His main publications are: Rudolf II and his World; The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy; Austria, Hungary, and the Habsburgs: Essays on Central Europe, c. 1683-1867. His current research is on the Habsburg lands, 16th to 20th century, especially modern Hungary; and Welsh history in comparative context. GUY P. MARCHAL is Emeritus professor of General and Swiss History, University of Lucerne. Main relevant works: Die frommen Schweden in Schwyz. Das 'Herkommen der Schwyzer und Oberhasler' als Quelle zum schwyzerischen Selbstverstandnis im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert; Geschichte der Schweiz und der Schweizer; Schweizer Gebrauchsgeschichte. Geschichtsbilder, Mythenbildung und nationale Identitat. Special interests in the history of mentalites, historical anthropology, historiography and the history of traditions.