This book is aimed at students coming to the study of western European medieval history for the first time, and also graduate students on interdisciplinary medieval studies programmes. It examines the place of the Middle Ages in modern popular culture, exploring the roots of the stereotypes that appear in films, on television and in the press, and asking why they remain so persistent. The book also asks whether 'medieval' is indeed a useful category in terms of historical periodization. It investigates some of the particular challenges posed by medieval sources and the ways in which they have survived. And it concludes with an exploration of the relevance of medieval history in today's world.

Political corruption has recently emerged as a key area in the study of advanced industrial nations. Not only has it become more visible than in the past, its sheer scale in some countries has had a significant impact on the functioning of their political institutions. Martin Bull and James Newell have assembled a group of experts to address the importance of this phenomenon for contemporary Western democracies—as well as for the new democracies of Eastern Europe, for the European Union, and at the international level.

In this volume, historians, critics, and theorists review 3000 years of apocalyptic thought. Tracing the history of millenarianism from ancient times to the 17th century, each theorist investigates the modern and postmodern debates in which apocalyptic themes are recirculated. From Zoroaster to Derrida, thinkers have used the dramatic language of apocalyptic to uncover the ends of the world, exploring the relationship between ends as purposes and ends as terminations, and the connections between religious and secular versions of apocalyptic theory. In the resulting interplay of closure and disclosure, they have sought to find purpose to lift, and a conclusion to history. As the millennium draws to a close, questions about the end of the world seem increasingly urgent. This volume then is a guide to these bewildering questions and discourses of the limit. It should be of interest to anyone participating in contemporary debates in cultural studies, religious studies, literary theory, postmodernist philosophy and history. Malcolm Bull is the co-author (with Keith Lockhard) of "Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-Day Adventism and the American Dream".

This book is aimed at students coming to the study of western European medieval history for the first time, and also graduate students on interdisciplinary medieval studies programmes. It examines the place of the Middle Ages in modern popular culture, exploring the roots of the stereotypes that appear in films, on television and in the press, and asking why they remain so persistent. The book also asks whether 'medieval' is indeed a useful category in terms of historical periodization. It investigates some of the particular challenges posed by medieval sources and the ways in which they have survived. And it concludes with an exploration of the relevance of medieval history in today's world.

Political corruption has recently emerged as a key area in the study of advanced industrial nations. Not only has it become more visible than in the past, its sheer scale in some countries has had a significant impact on the functioning of their political institutions. Martin Bull and James Newell have assembled a group of experts to address the importance of this phenomenon for contemporary Western democracies - as well as for the new democracies of Eastern Europe, for the European Union and at the international level.