So reports are that Fiorina is using as an applause line, the claim that her undergraduate degree in medieval history gives her a special understanding of ISIS and how to respond to them. \u00a0It goes like this, according to ABC News<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cFinally my degree in medieval history and philosophy has come in handy,\u201d Fiorina said Sunday night, \u201cbecause what ISIS wants to do is drive us back to the Middle Ages, literally.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n Pressed to explain how her bachelor\u2019s degree in medieval history will help her in dealing with ISIS, Fiorina listed off a number of brutal techniques that ISIS is using that were common in medieval times and said it is not an exaggeration to say that the group is operating under a mentality based in the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single one of the techniques that ISIS is using, the crucifixion, the beheadings, the burning alive, those were commonly used techniques in the Middle Ages,\u201d Fiorina told reporters during a media availability, \u201cso we can\u2019t avert our eyes and pretend it\u2019s an exaggeration that ISIS wants to take its territory back to the Middle Ages but that is in truth what they want to do and are attempting to do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, as you can imagine, it didn\u2019t take long for columns to appear criticizing her (and for my old Medievalist grad school friends to start sharing these links on facebook):<\/p>\n The Guardian<\/a> published, \u201cNo, Carly Fiorina, a degree in medieval history doesn\u2019t qualify you to fight Isis,\u201d by David M Perry, who says he\u2019s a professor, though The Guardian doesn\u2019t provide his credentials \u2014 it\u2019s likely, though, that he\u2019s a professor of history<\/a> at Dominican University in Illinois. \u00a0His main complaint is that<\/p>\n It\u2019s vital to recognize, though, as John Terry writes in Slate<\/a>, that the viciousness of Isis emerges from its modernity, not its artificial links to the past. Terry writes: \u201cIsis is not re-enacting the seventh-century Arab conquests, even though some among its ranks may think they are. They\u2019re nostalgic for a make-believe past, and those among them who know plenty about Islam\u2019s first decades have conveniently revised medieval history to fit modern ideological needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Isis depends on modernity. Their growth was made possible by modern wars \u2013 from the division of the Middle East post-World War I to the most recent wars in Iraq and Syria. It\u2019s only in this ultra-modern context that a group like Isis could grow and flourish. They expertly deploy modern technology to recruit and communicate. Some of their recruits even purchased Islam for Dummies before trying to head to the war zone. Now there\u2019s an ultra-modern \u201cfake it until you make it\u201d mentality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And the New York Times<\/a> published, \u201cCarly Fiorina Goes Medieval,\u201d by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, who has three gripes: \u00a0first, the fact that Fiorina ignores the very \u201cmodern\u201d nature of ISIS, e.g., their use of social media; second, her seeming rationale that if ISIS is \u201cprimitive\u201d they do not deserve Geneva Convention protections; and third, the fact that she maligns this world which she studied, during which the university developed, where torture, common misperceptions aside, fell into disuse, and in which Muslim-ruled Spain is hailed as tolerant of diverse religions.<\/p>\n So: \u00a0to begin with, let\u2019s understand Fiorina\u2019s central point. \u00a0Really all she\u2019d doing is saying, \u201cdon\u2019t pretend these things are all exaggerations; recognize that human being are indeed capable of horrifying brutality and this is what\u2019s happening here.\u201d \u00a0She\u2019s labeling this as \u201cmiddle ages\u201d to make a connection to her degree, but she\u2019s saying that we have a responsibility to recognize what ISIS is doing. \u00a0Everyone likes to say of the Holocaust, \u201cnever again,\u201d but no one actually wants to sacrifice the lives of our countrymen to do anything about it. \u00a0(Not that there are necessarily any good answers in every case.)<\/p>\n But let\u2019s think about this further: \u00a0is there a better sound bite Fiorina could have adopted, a better way to connect the study of Medieval history to the present-day situation with ISIS?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the fact that the straw-man\/knee-jerk \u201cliberal\u201d explanation for all manner of unhappiness is that the Middle East is angry and resentful because the West colonized them. \u00a0It\u2019s true that countries such as Britain were quite busy creating colonies all over the world in the 1800s, but the British controlled Iraq for only a brief period of time, after the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I; the French stuck around somewhat longer in Syria, until the end of World War II, but in both cases this is only a small piece of a much larger history of rule by one empire after the next, from the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians, to Alexander the Great and the Macedonians, the Roman Empire, to the first Islamic Empires, to the Mongols and the Ottoman Turks.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s true, though a trivial observation, to say that ISIS says, and believes, that they are on a mission to reclaim for Islam all territory that had ever been under Islamic rule \u2014 and don\u2019t forget that this includes Spain, in the Middle Ages, and included the Balkans and significant portions of present-day Hungary during the Ottoman expansion. \u00a0(No, I\u2019m not sourcing this \u2014 go read Wikipedia. \u00a0Fun fact: \u00a0the reason why there were ethnic Germans in Hungary was because the country had lost a significant portion of its population by the beginning of the 1700s when the Ottomans were kicked out.) \u00a0There is also, consequently, a long history of Muslim vs. Christian warfare, though generally in the form of Muslim conquest and Christian reconquest (e.g., Spain, Sicily, and, attempted, in the Holy Land, during the Middle Ages; Greece and Ottoman Turkish Europe later), if for no other reason than because the Christians were there first, and one might reasonably question to what extent the desire to propagate Islam was a motivator, vs. waves of conquering tribes who just happened to be, or became, Muslim.<\/p>\n Now, to be sure, the varying Muslim rulers did not compel their subjects to convert to Islam, though the record of tolerance is clearer in some times and places than others. \u00a0In places such as Spain or Greece, the Moors and the Turks, respectively, were the ruling elite with the mass of the population largely remaining Christian. \u00a0In other places, a significant minority of Christians remained until comparatively recently (e.g., ,the Coptic and Chaldean Christians, and even Christian Palestinians). \u00a0But in the western half of North Africa, existing Christian churches were in fact wiped off the map, not immediately, but within a couple centuries of the Islamic conquest (see here<\/a> for my prior post, or go to your local library).<\/p>\n Besides which, does it do any good to say, \u201coh, no, ISIS misunderstands the history of Islam, which is replete with tolerance\u201d? \u00a0Whether the Caliphate they seek is a real historical event or wholly imaginary, it does no good to deny what they\u2019re up to, or to treat them as inconsequential. Remember that idiotic Margaret Mead-attributed<\/a> quote? \u00a0\u201cNever doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.\u201d \u00a0(Perhaps it shows my age to even mention it; all sorts of activists friends in college loved this quote.)<\/p>\n But remember that whole Arc of History bit? \u00a0Well, you probably don\u2019t, but Obama was on a kick about saying that \u201chistory does not belong\u201d to the Bad Guys because we, the Good Guys, will inevitably win, and I was on a kick about this, blogging-wise, last fall, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n What history ought to teach us is that there\u2019s a whole parade of empires, nations, rulers, elected officials, and over and over again they\u2019ve thought that the brutality of the past is over with, only to discover that it reappears. \u00a0After all, how was it that the Nazis succeeded? \u00a0In part, because to so many people, what they were doing was incomprehensible in a civilized society. \u00a0German Jews who could have fled, didn\u2019t, because the path the Nazis planned was unimaginable. \u00a0All over Europe, Jews reported for \u201cresettlement\u201d because no one could fathom it being anything other than what the Germans claimed it was.<\/p>\n And, yes, every such empire ultimately disappears and we can imagine it was because Good Won Out, but only if we ignore the tremendous human cost in the meantime.<\/p>\n Now, does History teach us the precise strategy to use with respect to ISIS, or, now, with respect to Putin? \u00a0No, not really. \u00a0As much as there are common themes, there is also no one single template such a war takes. \u00a0Does History tell us to Stay the Hell Out? \u00a0Only if you deliberately choose that interpretation. \u00a0What about \u201cdon\u2019t go to war in the Middle East without a good exit plan\u201d, as the Guardian writer counsels? \u00a0No, there is nothing unique about the Middle East except that we\u2019ve created an image in our minds \u2014 the Romans, Arabs, Mongols and the Turks had no problem \u201cgoing to war\u201d there, though admittedly they had no interest in \u201cexiting\u201d. \u00a0(Places such as Afghanistan may be a different story, though not because of history so much as geography.)<\/p>\n What about with respect to the masses flowing from the Middle East and beyond into Germany \u2014 does History allow us to predict the end result? \u00a0Can we say, \u201cjust as Germanic tribes flowing into the Roman Empire caused its fall, so too these new invaders will destroy Germany\u201d? \u00a0No, not really. \u00a0The fate of Germany is in its leaders\u2019 hands, not a matter of some relentless force called History.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019ll grant you this, though: \u00a0Putin\u2019s entry into the conflict in Syria shouldn\u2019t have been the least bit of a surprise, and it\u2019s a reminder that a wait-and-see dithering about isn\u2019t going to make the problem go away of its own accord.<\/p>\n What the study of history can offer are potential paths, pitfalls, directions, patterns, and reminders that nothing\u2019s as easy as it looks. \u00a0It\u2019s a cautionary tale, and, most of all, it\u2019s a reminder that there is a bigger picture and a larger context to current affairs than a simply decade or even century look back.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So reports are that Fiorina is using as an applause line, the claim that her undergraduate degree in medieval history gives her a special understanding of ISIS and how to respond to them. \u00a0It goes like this, according to ABC News: \u201cFinally my degree in medieval history and philosophy has come in handy,\u201d Fiorina said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[259,287],"class_list":["post-2973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fiorina","tag-middle-ages"],"yoast_head":"\n