Thinking of the Medieval: Midcentury Intellectuals and the Middle Ages

The mid-twentieth century gave rise to a rich array of new approaches to the study of the Middle Ages by both professional medievalists and those more well-known from other pursuits, many of whom continue to exert their influence over politics, art, and history today.Attending to the work of a diverse and transnational group of intellectuals - Hannah Arendt, Erich Auerbach, W.E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Erwin Panofsky, Simone Weil, among others - the essays in this volume shed light on these thinkers in relation to one another and on the persistence of their legacies in our own time.This interdisciplinary collection gives us a fuller and clearer sense of how these figures made some of their most enduring contributions with medieval culture in mind.Thinking of the Medieval is a timely reminder of just how vital the Middle Ages have been in shaping modern thought.