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Review
| Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War, by Allen J. Frantzen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 335 pages with illustrations and photos. $35.00, cloth.
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| This is a wonderfully well written, original, and interesting book about the link between World War I and medieval notions of chivalry and sacrifice. Frantzen argues that chivalry and notions of Christian sacrifice did not die on the battlefields of the Hundred Years War or with the coming of an industrialized, secular society, but rather have remained a central part of warfare in the modern era. He writes, "Modern soldiers, like medieval knights, saw themselves as executioners avenging insults to sacred beliefs and institutions; they also saw themselves as sacrificial victims". Frantzen's evidence is a multitude of written material and visual images, including memorials, stained glass windows, posters, and postcards, all of which are beautifully displayed in the text. His scholarship is superb, and he demonstrates a solid grasp of both medieval European society and World War I. |
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Because the book deals with two periods which are rarely taught in tandem, few high school teachers or teachers of introductory European history courses would likely want to use this book except perhaps as supplementary reading or resource material. Yet Frantzen's book offers many possibilities; it is a pleasure to read, and it covers more than just the aforementioned topics. It also examines Christian morality and changing notions of masculinity. Therefore, many different kinds of courses, including those on intellectual history, gender, ethics, the history of warfare, or the history of propaganda would find Bloody Good an engaging and useful book. It would work particularly well in a seminar style class covering one of the above topics or even World War I or medieval Europe. One thing is sure; Frantzen's book is a welcome addition to the literature on these topics and will spark lively and important discussion. |
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For while Frantzen's material underscores the persistence of medieval notions of chivalry and sacrifice during the period of the First World War, it does not, despite a poignant final chapter, make a strong case that ordinary soldiers and Europeans in general, especially in the most industrial and secularized regions, embraced such ideas. For example, the need to introduce conscription in virtually every belligerent country during World War I suggests that calls for sacrifice were of limited effectiveness. Having said this, appeals by governments and private organizations that played on notions of chivalry and sacrifice are surely strong evidence in themselves of the pervasiveness of medieval attitudes towards war in the early twentieth century. Perhaps Frantzen's perspective is to be welcomed as a riposte to the prevailing secular perspectives of our own time, most notably Paul Fussell's popular book, The Great War and Modern Memory. Indeed, as Frantzen himself suggests, an understanding of how notions of chivalry and sacrifice motivate soldiers is relevant today, "for these ideas, old as they are, help to explain violence in the modern world". |
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| Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts |
Tom Lamont |
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