Matthew Spinka, Howard Kaminsky, and the Future of the Medieval Hussites

Thomas A. Fudge is professor of medieval history at the University of New England in Australia.

• 1.Why Study Hussites? 2.What does Biography tell us about Historiography?3.Matthew Spinka 4.Howard Kaminsky5.Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future

Matthew Spinka, Howard Kaminsky, and the Medieval Hussites is an intellectually stimulating romp across an important but neglected landscape. Thomas A. Fudge demonstrates the significance of Howard Kaminsky’s stature as a medievalist, his importance as one of the premier international interpreters of the Hussite movement, and his wizardry as a curious and brilliant student of religion. Fudge has rightly recognized Kaminsky’s central place in Anglophone historiography and along with the contributions of Matthew Spinka has clarified the development of Hussite scholarship in the West. Intellectually provocative and relentlessly probing, reflecting the patience of a detective, Fudge makes a powerful contribution to our understanding of the medieval world by underscoring the broader importance of historiographical reflection as well as the original contributions of the Hussite phenomena. An uncommon achievement.