Selecting a timely theme for a volume to be published eighteen months later often requires considerable prescience, not to mention a little serendipity. But that was not the case with this installment of Studies in Medievalism. Indeed, this volume could hardly have been dedicated to anything other than political medievalism (studies), for its predecessor had far more accepted submissions on that subject than would fit into a single volume.

This volume therefore echoed its predecessor in calling for essays that build on particular examples of medievalism to address the following, larger questions:

And judging from the fact that this call for papers joined its predecessor in attracting an extraordinarily large number of responses, there can be little doubt that its theme has enduring resonance for contemporary scholars.

Indeed, given the current state of academic, national, and global affairs, the wonder may be that scholars of medievalism are writing about anything besides politics. Since the 2008 recession, populists have severely tested and often overturned the established political order in many regions, frequently with disastrous consequences for liberal values and their defenders. That, in turn, has often led to a backlash, particularly by academics and other intellectuals who have recently seen their priorities, funding, and sometimes entire institutions devastated by the opposition. And emotions on both sides are now being exacerbated by a global pandemic, authoritarian crackdowns, and other demonstrations of the many divisions between and within that larger polarity.

Amid past crises of such magnitude, many people found refuge in a halcyonic, often highly imaginary vision of the Middle Ages. But with ever-expanding knowledge of that era and with the growth of self-awareness and skeptical postmodern perspectives, such retreats have been more challenging and often displaced by a tendency to find medieval parallels for contemporary problems.

As suggested by our previous volume, which is devoted to discrimination in medievalism (studies), politics are never far from such displays of prejudice. Even when bigots are not professional politicians, they often act politically in deploying the Middle Ages to attract followers. In tracing their biases to medieval beliefs, aligning themselves with medieval heroes, or condemning their enemies as medieval barbarians, they frequently distort the past in whatever ways and to whatever degree will best serve their purposes in the present and/or future. Indeed, they sometimes invoke a patently false middle ages in the very course of condemning any correction as “fake.”

Nor have scholarly discussions of such acts been entirely free of politics. Beyond the tactical maneuvering inherent in any attempt to sway opinion, highly political ideologies have often come into play when academics have discussed how the Middle Ages have been or should be treated, particularly with regard to traditionally privileged or persecuted communities. In accord with recent trends throughout higher education, many scholars have condemned one or more forms of discrimination in medievalism, but other academics have conspicuously avoided or even defended such biases, and, at least in the eyes of some critics, far too few educators have frequently and vigorously condemned those defenders and/or the medievalists they protect.

In calling for submissions to this volume of Studies in Medievalism, I therefore felt compelled to ask:

Perhaps owing to the extraordinary combativeness in other, highly public attempts to answer such questions, few submitters addressed how these questions might apply directly to them and/or their colleagues. Instead, the essays in this volume's thematic section concentrate on the ways in which medievalism has been manipulated by politicians and other public figures to promote their followers’ and/or own interests.