The Uses of the Middle Ages in Modern European States: History, Nationhood and the Search for Origins

Featuring an international team of authors and offering broad European coverage, this volume - the first of its kind - shows how modern states and societies have used the history of the Middle Ages to legitimize themselves. In doing so, it draws on some of the most famous and fascinating medieval themes, from Icelandic sagas, through Switzerland's William Tell and the Czech Hussites, to the Serbian battle of Kosovo. It investigates in particular the ways in which new and smaller states have invented or reinvented themselves on an imagined medieval foundation and how rival traditions have interacted with each other. It also shows the often uneasy relationship between professional and popular understandings of history, and reveals some of the highly politicized uses to which the work of historians has been put in many different countries.

Robert Evans has been Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford, UK since 1997. His main publications are: Rudolfll and his World; The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy; and Austria, Hungary, and the Habsburgs: Essays on Central Europe, c. 1683-1867. His current research is on the Habsburg lands from the 16th to the 20th century, especially modern Hungary, and Welsh history in a comparative context.
Guy P. Marchal is emeritus professor of General and Swiss History, University of Lucerne, Switzerland. His main relevant works include: Die frommen Schweden in Schwyz. Das `Herkommen der Schwyzer and Oberhasler' als Quelle zum schwyzerischen Selbstverstandnisim 15. und 16. Jahrhundert; Geschichte der Schweiz und der Schweizer; Schweizer Gebrauchsgeschichte. Geschichtsbilder, Mythenbildung und nationale Identitat. His main interests lie in the history of mentalites, historical anthropology, historiography and the history of traditions.