Harry Potter and History

Description

A guide to the history behind the world of Harry Potter--just in time for the last Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part II)

Harry Potter lives in a world that is both magical and historical. Hogwarts pupils ride an old-fashioned steam train to school, notes are taken on parchment with quill pens, and Muggle legends come to life in the form of werewolves, witches, and magical spells. This book is the first to explore the real history in which Harry's world is rooted.

Did you know that bezoars and mandrakes were fashionable luxury items for centuries? Find out how Europeans first developed the potions, spells, and charms taught at Hogwarts, from Avada Kedavra to love charms. Learn how the European prosecution of witches led to the Statute of Secrecy, meet the real Nicholas Flamel, see how the Malfoys stack up against Muggle English aristocrats, and compare the history of the wizarding world to real-life history.

• Gives you the historical backdrop to Harry Potter's world
• Covers topics ranging from how real British boarding schools compare to Hogwarts to how parchment, quills, and scrolls used in the wizarding world were made
• Includes a timeline comparing the history of the wizarding world to Muggle "real" history

Filled with fascinating facts and background, Harry Potter and History is an essential companion for every Harry Potter fan.
Acknowledgments: Writing Magical History xi

Harry Potter’s Timeline xiii

Introduction: A Half-Blood World? 1
Nancy R. Reagin

PART ONE “The Burrow Is Just Outside Ottery St. Catchpole”: When Muggles and Wizards Lived Side by Side 7

1 Magic for Daily Use and Profi t: Mandrakes, Charms, Bezoars, and Love Potions in the Muggle and Wizarding Worlds 9
Birgit Wiedl

2 Severus Snape and the Standard Book of Spells: Ancient Tongues in the Wizarding World 39
M. G. DuPree

3 Beastly Books and Quick-Quills: Harry Potter and the Making of Medieval Manuscripts 55
Alexandra Gillespie

4 Nicolas Flamel: The Alchemist Who Lived 73
Don Keck DuPree

5 Why the Statute of Secrecy? Real Historical Oppression of Witches and Wizards 91
Birgit Wiedl

PART TWO After the Statute of Secrecy: Parallel Worlds 125

6 Was Voldemort a Nazi? Death Eater Ideology and National Socialism 127
Nancy R. Reagin

7 “Magic Is Might”: How the Wizarding Government Gained Its Power 153
Janice Liedl

8 Were the Malfoys Aristocrats? The Decline and Fall of the Pure-Blooded 173
Laura Loiacono and Grace Loiacono

9 School Ties, House Points, and Quidditch: Hogwarts as a British Boarding School 193
Susan Hall

10 Of Marranos and Mudbloods: Harry Potter and the Spanish Inquisition 219
Ruth Abrams

PART THREE Women and Witches, Werewolves and Muggle-Borns: Magical Hierarchies 243

11 Witches vs. Women: What Muggles Could Learn from Wizarding History 245
Janice Liedl

12 Marx, Magic, and Muggles: Class Conflict in Harry Potter’s World 269
Susan Hall

13 Hairy Snout, Human Heart? Werewolves in Harry Potter’s World and in European History 293
Eveline Brugger

Hermione Raised Her Hand Again: Wizards Writing History 309
Anne Rubenstein

The Hogwarts Faculty 323

Index: Notable Magical Words of Our Time 327

Sujets

• Young Adult Literature
• Children's Literature
• Literary Criticism
• Idioma inglés
• Idioma galés
• Ministry of Magic
• Death Eater
• Lord Voldemort
• Irish
• English
• Voldemort
• European
• Welsh
• Scottish
• Musique irlandaise
• Harry Potter
• J. K. Rowling
• Anglais

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 28
• EAN13: 9781118003268
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Contents
Acknowledgments
Harry Potter s Timeline
Introduction: A Half-Blood World?
Part One: The Burrow Is Just Outside Ottery St. Catchpole : When Muggles and Wizards Lived Side by Side
Chapter 1: Magic for Daily Use and Profit
One Who Is Said to Carry a Brass Cauldron in which Witches Brew : Severus Strioportius Snape, or What the Potions Master and Professor Sprout Are Really Enthusiastic About
He Who Must Not Be Named : Charms, Spells, Curses, and the Power of Words
The Most Difficult of All Magical Arts : Divination, Necromancy, and Astrology, or Are Muggles the Better Wizards?
For the Love of Magic: Love Potions, Entranchement Charms, and Wax Images
Forgetting about Magic: A European-wide Memory Charm?
Chapter 2: Severus Snape and the Standard Book of Spells
Hocus Pocus
The Empire Strikes Back
The Killing Curse
Chapter 3: Beastly Books and Quick-Quills
From the Slaughterhouse into the Goblet of Fire: Making and Using Parchment
Under the Eye of Madam Pince: Medieval Libraries and Their Books
Scrivenshaft s and Flourish and Blotts: Shopping for Medieval Books
Written in Blood: Putting Quill and Ink to Parchment
A Twelve-Inch Essay for Potions: Books versus Scrolls
A Magical Curriculum
Chapter 4: Nicolas Flamel
Croton Capitatus, a Plant to Inspire
Welsh Gingers at Hogwarts
Muggles and Mugwumps
It s a Longbottom, Short-Sell Kinda Day
Chapter 5: Why the Statute of Secrecy?
The Persecution of Witches: A Phenomenon through the Ages?
The Dark Ages Weren t So Dark
Two for the Stake: Wendelin the Weird and Petronilla of Meath
Desiring with Supreme Ardor: Sir (Nearly Headless) Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, Lisette de Lapin, and Margery Jourdemayne
Too Little, Too Late? The Wizarding International Statue of Secrecy and the Witch-Hunt Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Witch Hunts-Yesterday s News?
Part Two: After the Statute of Secrecy : Parallel Worlds
Chapter 6: Was Voldemort a Nazi?
Toujours Pur?
But Wait: Isn t Grindelwald the German Villain Here?
Voldemort s New Order
The Rule of Law? Edicts and Decrees in the Racial State
What s on Your Family Tapestry? Blood Status and Denunciation
The Wandless and Social Death
But Draco s Not Really a Member of the Hitler Youth, You Know
The Nurmengard Trials?
Chapter 7: Magic Is Might
Wise Men and Wizengamots
King s Councils and the Wizards Council
The PM and the Other Minister
Welcome to the Ministry of Magic
Magic Is Might
Chapter 8: Were the Malfoys Aristocrats?
What Is an Aristocrat? Puzzling Out the Malfoys
Keeping Up One s Standards: Class Politics and Conflict in the Wizarding World
The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall: Great Wars and the Aristocracy of Both Worlds
Fading into Obscurity
Chapter 9: School Ties, House Points, and Quidditch
Slytherin Ascendant: The Great Days of the British Public School
Back to the Future: Harry Potter and the Return of the Boarding Schools
Unfogging the British Education System
Sorcery and Certification
Tom Riddle s Schooldays: Poor Pupils at Hogwarts
Christianise It or Crush It : Religion and Education in Muggle Britain
Miss! Please, Miss!
Why Now, Why Hogwarts?
Chapter 10: Of Marranos and Mudbloods
On Blood Purity
The Spanish Inquisition
How Were the Inquisitors Like the Death Eaters?
Why Do Death Eaters Use Torture?
Jews and Muggles, Mudbloods and Conversos
Racism in a Pre-modern Society: Inflicting the Mark
Part Three: Women and Witches, Werewolves and Muggle-Borns : Magical Hierarchies
Chapter 11: Witches vs. Women
The Monstrous Regiment of Women
A Galleon of Her Own
Blue Stockings and Broomsticks
A Different Sort of S.P.E.W.
Potions, Pills, Bodies, and Wands: Domestic and Private Life
Chapter 12: Marx, Magic, and Muggles
Little Whinging and Much Angst
Transfiguring the Class System
Engineering Social Change
Magical Capital
Magical Technology
Magical Labor
All Wizards Are Equal . . . but Some Are More Equal Than Others
The Malignant Ministry
Conclusion
Chapter 13: Hairy Snout, Human Heart?
Werewolves: A History
Werewolves and Witchcraft
That Time of the Month: Werewolves and the Moon
Lupin versus Greyback: A Study in Contrasts
Hermione Raised Her Hand Again
Old-School History: Binns, Bagshot, and Other Nineteenth-Century Historians
Hermione, a History: The Trio Goes Right to the Source(s)
Sorting the Sources
The Hogwarts Faculty
Index
Wiley Pop Culture and History Series
Series Editor: Nancy Reagin
Twilight and History
Edited by Nancy Reagin

Copyright 2011 by John Wiley Sons, Inc. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
Chapter opener design by Forty-Five Degree Design LLC
Illustration credits: p.3, from the 1681 edition of Saducismus Triumphatus, London, by Joseph Glanvill; p. 11, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, KK 1001; pp. 17, 20, Library of the University of Salzburg, Special Collections, W II 251 ( Hortus Sanitatis, Strasbourg, Johann Pr ss, 1497); p. 75, from Paul Lacroix, Manners, Customs, and Dress during the Middle Ages, and during the Renaissance Period (London: Chapman Hall, 1876); p. 93, Zentralbibliothek Luzern, Hs. S. 23, fol. 60r
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Reagin, Nancy Ruth, date.
Harry Potter and history / Nancy Reagin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-57472-0 (paper : alk. paper); ISBN 978-1-118-00324-4 (ebk.);
ISBN 978-1-118-00325-1 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-00326-8 (ebk.)
1. Rowling, J. K.-Characters. 2. Literature and history. 3. Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) 4. Children s stories, English-History and criicism. 5. Fantasy fiction, English-History and criticism. I. Title.
PR6068.093Z846 2011
823 .914-dc22
2011010968
For Mary,
the first magic that ever happened to me
Acknowledgments
Writing Magical History
That was far easier than I thought it would be, said Hermione as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds [after their History of Magic exam]. I needn t have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager.
-Sorcerer s Stone, 203
Like Hermione Granger, I found my task-editing this book-much easier than I thought it would be. But unlike Hermione, it was precisely because I wanted to learn all about things like the Werewolf Code of Conduct: my fellow contributors obliged splendidly, creating chapters that are full of clever insights and interesting nuggets of research regarding magical history. They were a joy to work with, and I want to thank all of them for bringing their passion for the wizarding world to the job of writing about it.
The editors at Wiley continue to be a godsend. Connie Santisteban, Eric Nelson, and Ellen Wright could probably write their own book about working with academic authors who are also fans-a challenging group to manage-and they made it all seem simple, squeezing in late-arriving photos of bezoars and woodcuts of mandrakes with good humor. Lisa Burstiner, who managed the book s production, brought both her attention to detail and her expertise in the series to working with me; having her assigned to the project could only be attributed to Felix Felicis.
I owe the most to the Harry Potter fandom, however, which originally drew me into the Potterverse. Waiting for each new book in the series together, imagining what would happen next and arguing about each clue: my fellow fans made the experience of J. K. Rowling s marvelous story and characters much better for me than the books ever could have been if experienced alone. The wizarding world is endlessly absorbing, especially when you have such friends to explore, discuss, and debate it with, and my companions (and co-conspirators) in HP have enriched my life enormously. In return, I offer them this book, which I hope will give t