Medieval Polities and Modern Mentalities Book

Since this has three sections with three separate authors each warrants its own review.

1) Hutton's section on 20th century pagan witchcraft is fantastic. Five star worthy. His work is well-researched, well written, produces a good, balanced view of different perspectives and admits when there's not enough evidence to say something for certain. He provides a sound, scholarly history of modern paganism, one that is fair and sympathetic without being biased or swayed from the evidence. I understand now why he manages to be so highly praised and beloved by both scholars and pagans (and scholarly pagans). I'll most definitely be reading more of his stuff.

2) Fontaine's section is good when he's sticking to his main research topic. However, while he successfully dispels unfair stereotypes and myths about Satanists he fails to provide the same well-researched courtesy to Heathens. The tiny, cursory section on Heathenism was absolutely awful. His main point was to distinguish it from Satanism, which could have been accomplished in a single sentence. His attempts to give a general understanding of the beliefs of Heathens was clearly based on limited research and experience, failed to distinguish between things that should have been clearly defined, and over-generalized in ways that were extremely problematic. While it's true that there are neo-Nazi groups that use Norse symbols and imagery (without necessarily sharing the religious beliefs) and it's true that there are Heathen groups and individuals who follow the religion and also tend towards racist and far right political views, there are also Heathens who practice the religion who are not at all racist, right-wing Neo-Nazis. Fontaine fails to recognize that this last group even exists. At moments he is less general but after all the generalizations he does make and with the overall information provided in the piece the picture painted of Heathens is damaging and unfair. In describing Heathen beliefs he makes the following claims: Heathenism "encourages racism, anti-Semitism and an aggressive stance to any opposition," "Heathens object strongly to multiculturalism and to pluralism of any sort," and "relations with neo-pagans of other persuasions are not always amicable because of the Heathens' right-wing views, their association of power with violence, and their commitment to an old-fashioned view of gender." I happen to know of some Heathens who this is not at all true of and who would be pretty miffed to hear these sorts of broad claims applied to them. An otherwise well-researched, scholarly book furthering such unfounded generalizations and stereotypes on a religious group that is already little understood and commonly negatively stereotyped is unacceptable and unfortunate. I find myself wishing this small section of an otherwise very good book had just been omitted entirely.

3) Blécourt's section is interesting and well researched, but tedious at times.

I know that going on about a mere five page bad section of this book while giving minimal air time to what was good about it might give the reader of this review a bad impression. However, it's important to me that I make clear what Fontaine did not.

Overall the book is well-written, well-researched, compelling, informative and provides a good, fair, balanced view of its subjects (with one exception, as I've pointed out). I would definitely recommend this book if you have an interest in a scholarly approach to the topic.