Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"[I]ntelligent, well written, and provocative . . . In the Carolingian era, Adam Romig argues in this stimulating new study, the discourse surrounding perfect masculinity was concerned less with a set of traits and behaviours than it was with 'a profound cultural valuation of love, emotional sensitivity, and care for others' . . . The conclusion artfully draws together the analytical strands of the study and suggests some of its implications for the rest of the Middle Ages and beyond." *
Early Medieval Europe *
"[T]his book is a tremendous contribution to how we think about early medieval Europe. It shows how words and ideas move history, how important it is to always remember that the periods we study were populated by real live human beings who cared about things, and how important it is to forsake scholarly pieties and return ad fontes in order to listen to what they really were trying to say to their own time." *
The Medieval Review *
"
Be a Perfect Man is a bold and well-crafted book that engages with the history of emotions, the cognitive turn in the humanities, divinity studies, and Carolingian history. Andrew J. Romig confronts and overturns current readings of Carolingian lay masculinity in ways that will prompt controversy." * Lynda Coon, University of Arkansas *
"
Be a Perfect Man is a pathbreaking book. It not only takes an innovative approach to the relationships among gender, authority, and agency but also deftly weaves these culturally contingent relationships together between the shifting poles of secularity and nonsecularity in the Carolingian era. It is a well-written, evocative, and engaging history that will inspire others to pursue the kind of broader, comparative, literary-critical, and philosophical questions that it poses." * Courtney M. Booker, University of British Columbia *
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations
Introduction. Ideology, Gender, and Discourse in the Carolingian World
Chapter 1. The Authority of the Ascetic Male
Chapter 2. Manifestos of Carolingian Power
Chapter 3. Louis the Pious and the Manliness of Forgiving
Chapter 4. Questioning Caritas in the Time of Troubles
Chapter 5. The Emergence of the Secular-Spiritual Hybrid
Conclusion. Manliness and Empathy
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
