Emotions in a Crusading Context, 1095-1291: (Emotions in History)

Emotions in a Crusading Context is the first book-length study of the emotional rhetoric of crusading. It investigates the ways in which a number of emotions and affective displays ED primarily fear, anger, and weeping ED were understood, represented, and utilized in twelfth- and thirteenth-century western narratives of the crusades, making use of a broad range of comparative material to gauge the distinctiveness of those texts: crusader letters, papal encyclicals, model sermons, chansons de geste, lyrics, and an array of theological and philosophical treatises. In addition to charting continuities and changes over time in the emotional landscape of crusading, this study identifies the underlying influences which shaped how medieval authors represented and used emotions; analyzes the passions crusade participants were expected to embrace and reject; and assesses whether the idea of crusading created a profoundly new set of attitudes towards emotions. Emotions in a Crusading Context calls on scholars of the crusades to reject the traditional methodological approach of taking the emotional descriptions embedded within historical narratives as straightforward reflections of protagonists' lived feelings, and in so doing challenges the long historiographical tradition of reconstructing participants' beliefs and experiences from these texts. Within the history of emotions, Stephen J. Spencer demonstrates that, despite the ongoing drive to develop new methodologies for studying the emotional standards of the past, typified by experiments in 'neurohistory', the social constructionist (or cultural-historical) approach still has much to offer the historian of medieval emotions.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I. Fear 1: To Fear Death or Trust in God? 2: The Multifaceted Nature of Fear Part II. Tears and Grief 3: The Lachrymose Crusader 4: Discourses of Tears and Sorrow Part III. Anger and its Management 5: Zealous Wrath for the Holy Land 6: Restraining Rage Conclusion

About the Author :
Stephen J. Spencer completed his doctorate at Queen Mary University of London, where he taught on the crusades, Islam and the West, knighthood and chivalry, and medieval mentalities. He is currently a Past and Present Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, conducting research on the memorialization of the Third Crusade in western Europe and the Latin East before 1300.

Review :
Following the footsteps of L. Febvre, Spencer investigates the emotions described in the narrative sources produced during expeditions to the Holy Land. ..... The fear is a negative feeling attributed to the female gender and defeated enemies, but not absolutely condemnable. Weeping can arise from a variety of causes, but it is mostly a positive reaction and do not weaken male identity. Anger, on the other hand, always remains a socially dangerous feeling and is considered negative; the value of the individual is manifested by his ability to control anger. This is an extremely impressive, nuanced, and extensive study, based on a very wide range of sources in Latin and Old French, as well as Greek and Arabic works in translation and modern scholarship on the history of both the Crusades and emotions. This is an important book, which will undoubtedly be a key reference on its subject, and stimulate further research. This book will undoubtedly be the go-to authority for anyone interested [in] the history of emotions in the context of the crusades, or indeed of the medieval historiography of the crusades in general. … Additionally, it will be of significant value to scholars and students of the medieval history of emotions writ large.' Spencer's study emerges as a bold, innovative, and much-needed addition to the canon of crusade historiography.