Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism, and the War on Terror

by Bruce Holsinger

President Bush was roundly criticized for likening America’s antiterrorism measures to a “crusade” in 2001. Far from just a gaffe, however, such medievalism has become a dominant paradigm for comprehending the identity and motivations of America’s perceived enemy in the war on terror. Yet as Bruce Holsinger argues here, this cloying post-9/11 rhetoric has served to obscure the more intricate ideological machinations of neomedievalism , the global idiom of the non-state non-governmental organizations, transnational corporate militias, and terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda. Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism, and the War on Terror addresses the role of neomedievalism in contemporary politics. While international-relations theorists promote neomedievalism as a model for understanding emergent modes of global sovereignty, neoconservatives exploit its conceptual slipperiness for their own tactical ends. Holsinger concludes with a careful parsing of the Bush administration’s torture memos, which enlist neomedievalism’s model of feudal sovereignty on behalf of the abrogation of human rights.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

117 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2007

About the author

Bruce Holsinger is the author of five novels, including Culpability (forthcoming from Spiegel & Grau), The Displacements and The Gifted School (both from Riverhead), and many works of nonfiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age (Yale University Press). His books have been recognized with the Colorado Book Award, the John Hurt Fisher Prize, the Philip Brett Award, the John Nicholas Brown Prize, the Modern Language Association's Prize for a First Book, and others. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications and he has been profiled on NPR's Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

He teaches in the Department of English at the University of Virginia, where he specializes in medieval literature and modern critical thought and serves as editor of the quarterly journal New Literary History. He also teaches craft classes and serves as board chairman for WriterHouse, a local nonprofit in Charlottesville.

Reviews

[Kevin Vrieze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a remarkable little book. Nominally a pamphlet, but much more dense and thoughtful than the average. It is a remarkable development of the metaphor of medievalism as a literary concept to its twisted use as the latest incarnation of Neoconservative thought and its influence on American thought, values, and politics. The abuse of terminology by political forces in government is staggering. It was published in 2007, but could easily do with an added chapter or two to reflect the US presidential campaign(s). That said Holsinger has all the bases covered in this analysis. While Holsinger gives reference to P.W. Singer's Corporate Warriors, the potential is clearly there to work this in as a major thread in a wider treatment of the topic. His chapter on the development of rationale legitimize US use of torture is brilliant.

If there is a drawback in the book, one might argue the advanced vocabulary, in the absence of explanation, is a bit distracting. Counterfactuality would be one word. Catachresis another. Both fit, but one has to take time to explore probable meaning and that tended to get in the way of flow in the read. My mentor in graduate school once told me one cannot use "two-bit" words for a fifty-cent concept. That said, more development in the next edition would he helpful. While a bibliography would have been nice, a re-read of this work to find sources would definitely be worth the effort.

Still, this price for a well-done academic analysis of what is a very serious issue for the future of the US. This one puts Game of Thrones in a totally new perspective, and makes careful reading of news and government reports even more crucial. The comparison of medieval, medievalism in its various forms, and Neomedievalisim, is brilliant work for such a short work. His apt quote of Edward Said was a nice finishing touch. We may all be touched by medievalism. Indeed, modern news is filled with it. That said the presence of bias in bases of power, does not mean acceptance elsewhere. The worst would be to permit it to continue. (My response.) Great read, if dense.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

provocative and thoughtful. some of it was very good and some of it needs more development. also, and maybe this is jut the academic in me, the pamphlet style is interesting but still needs at least a rudimentary bibliography.

[Ess Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful exploration of the crusade rhetoric of 9/11, the torture memos and all of the political maneuvering by the Bush Administration in that era, as well as the Islamic response to same. A quick, absorbing read on their rhetorical use of medievalism

[Karl Steel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I recall, most useful for its final few pages, where BH engages with the Perils of 'Traveling Theory.' Would be useful to give to grad students in an intro to theory section.