Böcker av Ruth Mazo Karras

Exploring the different configurations of David in biblical and Talmudic commentaries, in Latin, Hebrew, and vernacular literatures across Europe, in liturgy, and in the visual arts, Ruth Mazo Karras offers a rich case study of how ideas and ideals of masculinity could bend to support a variety of purposes within and across medieval cultures.

A "common woman" in medieval England was a prostitute, distinguished as such less for taking money for sex than for belonging to all men in common. Karras's book tells the story of these women, their experiences, relations, and treatment under the law, and concludes that prostitution was central to the medieval understanding of feminity.

Traditional marriage was not the only option for couples in medieval Europe. Alternative forms of union could make lives precarious but also provided a degree of flexibility. The study draws on a wide geographical and chronological range of examples in order to illustrate local difference while bringing out broad patterns.

"The book ... will find a broad audience. It would work well in the classroom... Effectively combating the nonspecialist's view of the Middle Ages as a monolithic and static society, it will encourage more subtle thinking about gender identities in the past and in the present.-American Historical Review