Thomas Devaney. Enemies in the Plaza

As Elias Canetti observed in his study of mass behavior, crowds have been a powerful if at times mysterious force in history, both as a product of long-term historical patterns and as agents for sudden change. Whether spontaneously generated or purposefully assembled, crowds are monstrosities. They can behave predictably, occasionally as unified beasts; but since they are necessarily made up of many, sometimes countless, independently motivated beings, there is always the potential for sudden and violent fragmentation and opposition. Thomas Devaney’s Enemies in the Plaza: Urban Spectacle and the End of Spanish Frontier Culture, 1460–1492 examines roles assigned to crowds by political and religious leaders in shaping military and economic policy, interfaith relations, and political priorities during the second half of the fifteenth century. During the period under consideration in this volume, Christian populations on the Castilian frontier witnessed a gradual shift away from an uneasy but productive peace with Muslims in Granada, to the reemergence of overt Christian-Muslim conflict across borders. At the same time, fissures began emerging in the uneasy accord that had provided the infrastructure for functioning multireligious communities. Legal and conventional privileges that protected the life and livelihood of Jews, Muslims, and conversos living on the Christian side of the frontier disintegrated during the final decades of the fifteenth century. The process of establishing a new status quo, Devaney argues, unfolded under the direction of local ruling elites, who tapped into the powerful connection between military tournaments, religious symbolism, urban spaces, and political theater to bolster public support for renewed military engagement with Muslim forces in Granada.

Ancient history · Crowds · Fifteenth · Frontier · Opposition (politics) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spectacle · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies