Campaign for the American Reader: Pg. 69: "From Chivalry to Terrorism"

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Pg. 69: "From Chivalry to Terrorism"

Leo Braudy is University Professor and Bing Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

His book From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity (2003) "tracks the complex relationship between the changing methods and goals of warfare and shifting models of manhood. This journey takes us from the citizen soldiers of ancient Greece to the medieval knights to the misogynistic terrorists of Al Qaeda."

I asked the author to apply the "page 69 test" to his book. Here is what he reported:

I think such a cross-section or salami slice works better for nonfiction than for fiction. The agenda of nonfiction is more similar page by page than is fiction's. Of course in nonfiction there are arguments to be built up, anecdotes to be told, facts to be asserted or disputed, characters to be sketched and theories to be invoked or contradicted. Any one page can have some or a few or even all of these going on at once. But nonfiction has to lay its cards on the table a lot earlier and keep referring to them with a lot more frequency than does fiction, which can wander on and on for a hundred or more pages before hitting you with those zingers that makes you want to keep on reading. Page 69 in From Chivalry to Terrorism follows through on this distinction. I can’t say it stands alone, but it does give a brisk idea of how the rest of the book goes about the business of trying to sketch the history of the interplay between changes in warfare and changes in ideas about masculinity. Page 69 in particular looks at the way medieval warriors and medieval peoples asserted status by connecting themselves to the heroes of the past: “Thus the French descended from the Franks and the greatness of Charlemagne, the English from Brutus (the great-grandson of Aeneas), the Norman and Scandinavians from the Vikings, while Thor himself, according to the thirteenth-century Prose Edda, was a descendant of Priam, the king of Troy and the father of Hector.” The genealogy of past heroes was invoked to guarantee heroism in the present, even when that present hero’s connection to the mythical or historical past was made up by some paid historian or poet. It’s an early moment in the story of how masculinity asserts its connection to history, before gunpowder, cannons, airplanes, and nuclear bombs complicate the easy equation of masculine honor and masculine prowess in war.

Many thanks to Leo Braudy for the input.

Click here to read an excerpt from From Chivalry to Terrorism.

Among the praise for the book:

“History in the grand manner, pulled off with brilliance, wonderful imagination and considerable erudition.... Fascinating.” —Washington Post Book World

“A terrific topic.... The book displays Braudy’s loving immersion in his subject, fine grasp of historical complexity, and aversion for glib or dogmatic judgments.” –New York Times Book Review