M. Rambaran-Olm

"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" Satan declared. And so the fiend left and took 1/3ʳᵈ of heaven's army with him. Or so goes the tale of Satan's origin story in one of the most popular retellings of Lucifer's fall in the 17ᵗʰ-century poet John Milton's epic Paradise Lost. Not many people know that there is also an Old English version of this story nestled in the 10ᵗʰ-century early English Junius Manuscript.

As Crusader scholars, Gabriele and Perry are well equipped and informed about how white supremacists misappropriate medieval events, themes, and imagery. In several chapters, and in the epilogue, they reference how fascists and neo-Nazis have weaponized the Middle Ages. The Bright Ages challenges some racist and fascist notions (for example chapters pointing to a less white Europe 5, 7, 8, 10 and the epilogue); however, Europe, Christianity, and whiteness remain central themes of the book.

People in the United States and Great Britain have long drawn on imagined Anglo-Saxon heritage as an exemplar of European whiteness. Before becoming president, Teddy Roosevelt led his “Rough Riders” on the 1898 U.S. invasion of Cuba with a copy of Edmond Demolins’ racist manifesto Anglo-Saxon Superiority in tow.