Description: The Fabric of War traces the rich history of flags and banners in Renaissance Europe through a critical analysis of the cultural, ideological, material, and artistic histories of these complex and ubiquitous objects. It examines banners as numinous textiles that animated and adorned battle, energized and embellished armies, constructed and celebrated victory. Though flags are often investigated as mere symbols to be deciphered - as heraldic code revealing identity - they were vibrant and charismatic textiles whose mutability, movement, and multivalency constituted their appeal and salience. Banners propelled their viewers not only to decipher or identify, but to act.
Review Quotes: 'Scholars will enjoy this small but informative book on the banners and flags of the medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern periods. This is especially so since Gagné and McCall discuss banners' physicality and functions, as well as the ideas and associations they generated ... What really stands out, however, is the explication of the variegated ideas associated with banners, such as spolia, status markers, alliance-solidifying gifts, communitarian expressions, territorial possession, and objects having religious and apotropaic qualities. The authors nicely move the discussion beyond the Continent as Europeans encounter the flags and pennants of America's Indigenous peoples, as well as those of Japan ... Recommended.' R. T. Ingoglia, Choice