Bad Medievalism and the Modernity Problem

Challenges the assumptions made over the medieval/modern divide by examining the medieval roots of modern racism Humanists have long insisted on a chasm separating modernity and the Middle Ages. In Bad Medi­evalism and the Modernity Problem , Kathy Lavezzo demonstrates how the temporal divide scholars typically accept is a fiction that has shaped racial discourse over a longue durée . The hard line drawn between “then” and “now” is of a piece with the line separating whiteness from humans deemed