Description: In Rules and Rituals in Medieval Power Games Gerd Althoff highlights the great impact of unwritten rules (Spielregeln) and rituals in establishing order in prestate societies. He underpins this view with new examples and insights taken from the German perspective and thus offers a model suitable for comparison with other societies.
Brief description: Gerd Althoff, Ph.D. (1974), Münster, has been Full and Senior Professor of Medieval History at that university from 1997-2018. His many publications include Spielregeln der Politik im Mittelalter (WBG, 1997); Die Macht der Rituale (WBG, 2003); and Family, Friends and Followers (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Review Quotes: "This volume is a welcome contribution. Gerd Althoff is a major German historian of the early Middle Ages whose generation of scholars developed a new perspective on German political history [...] The value of the cultural turn as found in the work of Gerd Althoff and his generation of historians has provided a signal service - most especially in German historiography - of separating medieval German history from the awfully destructive legacy of an intense nationalistic modern historiography centered on the German state. For helping provide this specific »German Perspective« we are in his debt and can appreciate the import of this volume in his honor."
Joseph P. Huffman, in Francia 2020 (4).