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subtlymelancholy's review
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.5
The content is solid, informative, and the voice of the author is engaging, however I would have preferred the organization to be a little more chronological and/or region specific. Not a bad introduction.
insearchofsheila's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed how Karrass addressed our modern day construction of sexuality in contrast to the medieval period, destroying any opinion that studying medieval sexuality is irrelevant. She proves that modern law systems and beliefs certainly derive from the past. Two points fueling her thesis is that medieval attitudes about sex were conflicted and complicated and that gender played a fundamental organizing role in medieval sexuality. This is certainly addressed in the sexual rules set by the Church and the fact that society ultimately ignored them. Overall a good and very informational read.
bkclub4one's review against another edition
3.0
I don't even know why I picked this up, but it wasn't bad at all. I definitely learnt a lot of new stuff plus it got me thinking, which is a good thing.
riotsquirrrl's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book designed as an introductory text for undergrad students or for non-history-majors. I'm evaluating this book based on that audience and framing, rather than as a monograph for more advanced scholars. Scholars looking for more advanced reading on the topic would benefit from looking up the extensive bibliography and citations.
I think it's easier to overlook the book's flaws when put into this context. Other reviewers have gone into them in more detail as to the weaknesses of the work, although the major flaw is that Mazo Karras is very fast and loose with both the terms "medieval" and "Europe" with citations mostly focused on 13th-15th Century England, France, Germany, and Italy. But she adds lots of tidbits from time periods and areas as disparate as Ancient Rome, Byzantium, 13th century Iceland, and 9th century Baghdad. With an introductory textbook, this smorgasbord of information is more easily overlooked as the purpose is to provide the reader with just a taste of everything.
I think I would also review this book more favorably if I had not recently read Francis Gies' Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages. Gies' book more clearly lays out the exact influence the Catholic Church had on changing ideas of marriage; it also goes into more depth about issues of kinship and incest. Most importantly, Gies' book probes into the economic factors that determined marriage age and the number of children both peasant and noble families had, leading Gies to conclude that peasants, especially in England and France, tended to delay marriage for women until their late teens to early 20s . Versus Mazo Karras who on multiple occasions stated that marriage was at 14 for girls and 16 for boys, removing the complicated geographical and cultural reasons for later or earlier marriage. Mazo Karras' weakest chapter is the chapter on marriage.
What does Mazo Karras do well? Her introduction does a solid job of describing how we use primary sources to draw conclusions about the past and then goes on to demonstrate how she uses primary sources herself to make assertions. The book also does a solid job explaining the centrality of chastity/unchaste divide that separated the populace more decisively than straight/gay might do now. The book also strives to bring in the views of marginalized populations in Europe, such as Jewish people and Muslims, sex workers, concubines, and people we would call LGBTQ today. The downside is that Mazo Karras never really digs into the Jewish/Muslim issues as much as I wish she would have. A significant number of pages is given up to explaining exactly how ideas of same-sex attraction were different during the Middle Ages, and that it is impossible to know if people really had sex or if they were intimate friends. As a person who's read enough queer history, it was redundant to read, but I think it's important for the author to lay this out for people new to the discussion of sexualities.
Tl;dr: scholars will find this work to be redundant at times and filled with holes in coverage, but the length and tone make the work more ideal for less experienced scholars. That is to say that I found it to be a useful book, but not the comprehensive overview that it might have been.
I think it's easier to overlook the book's flaws when put into this context. Other reviewers have gone into them in more detail as to the weaknesses of the work, although the major flaw is that Mazo Karras is very fast and loose with both the terms "medieval" and "Europe" with citations mostly focused on 13th-15th Century England, France, Germany, and Italy. But she adds lots of tidbits from time periods and areas as disparate as Ancient Rome, Byzantium, 13th century Iceland, and 9th century Baghdad. With an introductory textbook, this smorgasbord of information is more easily overlooked as the purpose is to provide the reader with just a taste of everything.
I think I would also review this book more favorably if I had not recently read Francis Gies' Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages. Gies' book more clearly lays out the exact influence the Catholic Church had on changing ideas of marriage; it also goes into more depth about issues of kinship and incest. Most importantly, Gies' book probes into the economic factors that determined marriage age and the number of children both peasant and noble families had, leading Gies to conclude that peasants, especially in England and France, tended to delay marriage for women until their late teens to early 20s . Versus Mazo Karras who on multiple occasions stated that marriage was at 14 for girls and 16 for boys, removing the complicated geographical and cultural reasons for later or earlier marriage. Mazo Karras' weakest chapter is the chapter on marriage.
What does Mazo Karras do well? Her introduction does a solid job of describing how we use primary sources to draw conclusions about the past and then goes on to demonstrate how she uses primary sources herself to make assertions. The book also does a solid job explaining the centrality of chastity/unchaste divide that separated the populace more decisively than straight/gay might do now. The book also strives to bring in the views of marginalized populations in Europe, such as Jewish people and Muslims, sex workers, concubines, and people we would call LGBTQ today. The downside is that Mazo Karras never really digs into the Jewish/Muslim issues as much as I wish she would have. A significant number of pages is given up to explaining exactly how ideas of same-sex attraction were different during the Middle Ages, and that it is impossible to know if people really had sex or if they were intimate friends. As a person who's read enough queer history, it was redundant to read, but I think it's important for the author to lay this out for people new to the discussion of sexualities.
Tl;dr: scholars will find this work to be redundant at times and filled with holes in coverage, but the length and tone make the work more ideal for less experienced scholars. That is to say that I found it to be a useful book, but not the comprehensive overview that it might have been.
ededdandeda's review against another edition
4.0
Went in thinking "the lack of sexual freedom was probably not as bad as modern society thinks it was!"
I was wrong. Turns out, it was much worse.
I was wrong. Turns out, it was much worse.
shannonhenes's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
medieval homies needed to let loose some times
aprilbooksandwine's review against another edition
5.0
I had to read this book for class. It's pretty interesting and definately not nearly as boring as I would have expected.
lisa_setepenre's review against another edition
5.0
Doing Unto Others is an introductory text to the study of sexuality in medieval Europe, exploring not just the dominant Christian view but also the Jewish and Islamist views of sexuality. Karras’s approach is less about reading modern sexualities onto the past but about reconstructing how medieval people viewed sexual identity and activity.
I highly recommend this. Karras’s text is authoritative and scholarly but written in an accessible way that prevents it from being impenetrable or too intimidating. She is very open about the problems with evidence – the lack of it or how it, once stripped of its original context, can be misinterpreted to mean something it was never intended, most notably in discussing same-sex attraction and relationships. But she never does with the intention of denying that same-sex attraction and relationships took place – a frequent pitfall lesser historians are constantly falling into. She also points out that all our modern conceptions of sexuality, including heterosexuality, were concepts alien to medieval people and instead prioritises the medieval perspective.
Karras’s approach is broad, not just in terms of religion but also in the time and location. I would’ve liked a definition of what is meant by ‘medieval Europe’ as that is a rather long stretch of time and location. Certainly, Karras pulls evidence from a wide variety of locations, times and sources.
I found this an excellent resource not just in terms of same-sex behaviour but around the medieval concepts of chastity/celibacy/virginity and how the medieval world viewed sex between man and woman. Karras’s work in producing a scholarly but very readable text is to be applauded and I will be seeking out her other work.
I highly recommend this. Karras’s text is authoritative and scholarly but written in an accessible way that prevents it from being impenetrable or too intimidating. She is very open about the problems with evidence – the lack of it or how it, once stripped of its original context, can be misinterpreted to mean something it was never intended, most notably in discussing same-sex attraction and relationships. But she never does with the intention of denying that same-sex attraction and relationships took place – a frequent pitfall lesser historians are constantly falling into. She also points out that all our modern conceptions of sexuality, including heterosexuality, were concepts alien to medieval people and instead prioritises the medieval perspective.
Karras’s approach is broad, not just in terms of religion but also in the time and location. I would’ve liked a definition of what is meant by ‘medieval Europe’ as that is a rather long stretch of time and location. Certainly, Karras pulls evidence from a wide variety of locations, times and sources.
I found this an excellent resource not just in terms of same-sex behaviour but around the medieval concepts of chastity/celibacy/virginity and how the medieval world viewed sex between man and woman. Karras’s work in producing a scholarly but very readable text is to be applauded and I will be seeking out her other work.
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