The Subject of Violence: The Song of Roland and the Birth of the State

"This book provides the reader with a new, challenging, and sophisticated critical analysis of the Song of Roland." ―Choice

"[Haidu's] close reading of the Song of Roland is interesting, informative, and significant . . . "―American Historical Review

"Probably the most sophisticated book ever written on the Song of Roland. . . . It is at once a work of linguistic analysis, of literary theory, of literary history, and, finally, of history." ―R. Howard Bloch

Haidu argues that the 12th-century Song of Roland played an essential role in the creation of the nation-state, in that the narrative transforms the independent and violent warriors of the feudal period into the subordinate instruments of the nation-state by enforcing on them the subjection to the rule of monarchy.

PETER HAIDU is Professor of French at UCLA.