Bringing together distinguished scholars in honor of Professor Teofilo F. Ruiz, this volume presents original and innovative research on the critical and uneasy relationship between authority and spectacle in the period from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, focusing on Spain, the Mediterranean and Latin America. Cultural scholars such as Professor Ruiz and his colleagues have challenged the notion that authority is elided with high politics, an approach that tends to be monolithic and disregards the uneven application and experience of power by elite and non-elite groups in society by highlighting the significance of spectacle. Taking such forms as ceremonies, rituals, festivals, and customs, spectacle is a medium to project and render visible power, yet it is also an ambiguous and contested setting, where participants exercise the roles of both actor and audience. Chapters in this collection consider topics such as monarchy, wealth and poverty, medieval cuisine and diet and textual and visual sources. The individual contributions in this volume collectively represent a timely re-examination of authority that brings in the insights of cultural theory, ultimately highlighting the importance of representation and projection, negotiation and ambivalence.

For undergraduate or graduate courses in World History This impressive collection of readings illustrates that the history of the world is as much about the relationships among societies as it is about transformations and continuities within societies. Exchanges: A Global History Reader is designed as an introduction to the discipline of world history. Unlike other source collections, Exchanges helps students look beyond strictly delineated regionalism and chronological structures to understand history as a product of ongoing debate. Structured around a series of interconnected themes and debates, and pairing both primary and secondary sources, Exchanges challenges both students and teachers to rethink history. Praise for Exchanges: A Global History Reader The authors have successfully produced a text that will allow students to explore the ways in which historical writing has generated important debates about world history.... It offers a rich and diverse compilation of reading materials that provide students with ideas about world history, but also with models of historical writing.... Moreover, it offers examples from a wide range of geographical areas, something that will help broaden the horizons of the average student. --Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia, Montclair State University The method of placing competing narratives side by side is one of the best strategies for demonstrating the nature of history as an interpretation.... I am very excited about the possibilities that this text could provide for transforming my World Civilizations course. An attentive student will find his or her basic assumptions challenged on every page, and it is this kind of intellectual transformation that I seek to facilitate as a teacher. --Carolyn R. Dupont, Eastern Kentucky University I think this textbook goes a long way toward helping students to think more deeply and more historically about the state of the world today.... The fact that the book is focused upon the five big questions of world history is a great plus. Too many world history readers have a diffuse focus and don't really add up to a book that promotes sustained, focused inquiry. --Mark Jones, Central Connecticut State University I would describe the book as an introduction to being a world historian. Through a selection of thematic case studies, students are able to compare theories, test historians' interpretations against the primary evidence, and access the range of material that allows them to develop their own interpretations of the worlds they inhabit and inherit. --Lesley Mary Smith, George Mason University Exchanges focuses more than any other reader on the interconnectedness of regions and the debates pertaining to the new world history.... The authors successfully demonstrate that history is contested to this day. Not only is this a more accurate portrayal of historical scholarship than most readers provide, it is also more interesting for the students, who are more likely to appreciate history if they see it as contested, often for reasons closely connected with the state of the world today. --A. Martin Wainwright, University of Akron

Bringing together distinguished scholars in honor of Professor Teofilo F. Ruiz, this volume presents original and innovative research on the critical and uneasy relationship between authority and spectacle in the period from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, focusing on Spain, the Mediterranean and Latin America. Cultural scholars such as Professor Ruiz and his colleagues have challenged the notion that authority is elided with high politics, an approach that tends to be monolithic and disregards the uneven application and experience of power by elite and non-elite groups in society by highlighting the significance of spectacle. Taking such forms as ceremonies, rituals, festivals, and customs, spectacle is a medium to project and render visible power, yet it is also an ambiguous and contested setting, where participants exercise the roles of both actor and audience. Chapters in this collection consider topics such as monarchy, wealth and poverty, medieval cuisine and diet and textual and visual sources. The individual contributions in this volume collectively represent a timely re-examination of authority that brings in the insights of cultural theory, ultimately highlighting the importance of representation and projection, negotiation and ambivalence.

The Middle Ages: A New History, 1000-1400 provides students with an engaging and enlightening journey through the historical events, social and personal dynamics, intellectual developments, and religious beliefs of the Middle Ages. The book begins with an overview of Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Proceeding chapters cover the peasantry and rural society; religious life and the church; political history in Iberia, France, Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, and Italy in the 11th century; and trade, commerce, guilds, and the economy. Students learn about Islamic, Jewish, and Christian intellectual traditions, and the experiences of the disenfranchised-the poor, minorities, women, and "others." They study key political events that shaped Scandinavia, the Holy Roman Empire, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries. Additional chapters address topics related to the church and its institutions-including the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Mendicant Orders, and more-as well as secular administration, finance, and legal systems. Closing chapters discuss medieval popular culture and entertainment, as well as the many calamities that struck Europe between 1300 and 1400, including famine, plague, war, rebellions, and a conflicted and weakened church. Illuminating and well-researched, The Middle Ages is an ideal textbook for courses in world and European history.

This impressive collection of readings illustrates that the history of the world is as much about the relationships "among "societies as it is about transformations and continuities "within" societies." ""Exchanges: A Global History""Reader "is designed as an introduction to the "discipline" of world history. Unlike other source collections, "Exchanges "helps students look beyond strictly delineated regionalism and chronological structures to understand history as a product of ongoing debate. Structured around a series of interconnected themes and debates, and pairing both primary and secondary sources, "Exchanges "challenges both students and teachers to rethink history.