Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages

Brandeis University Press has published Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages (2013) by Patrick Geary, Professor in the School of Historical Studies. The book, which is based on Geary’s Menahem Stern Jerusalem Lectures to the Historical Society of Israel, examines the role of language and ideology in the study and history of the early Middle Ages. Ultimately, ideology, church authority, and emerging secular power always trumped language as a force for unity.