Les habitants d’ici doivent une fière chandelle à Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. Sans lui, qui se préoccuperait aujourd’hui d’un patelin à 1200 m sur un plateau venteux avec des moignons de tour sur un tertre herbeux. Il faut avoir lu “Montaillou village occitan” pour se rendre là-haut. Je ne l’imaginais pas en village de montagne, avec ses maisons basses enduites de gris et couvertes de bac acier. Il doit faire froid pendant l’hiver. Lorsque Jacques Fournier, évêque de Pamiers, débarque à Montaillou, il interrogera toutes les familles, mais ne cite pas le château qui venait d’être reconstruit, en revanche il consigne les frasques de la châtelaine, veuve, avec le curé. Le moyen âge est une période de liberté des mœurs, la vie est courte, urgence de vivre, mélange des genres et des classes, cette première renaissance permet bien des libertés.
Propriété des sires d’Alion, le château est mentionné au XIIe, détruit pendant la croisade, les trois murs restants aujourd’hui datent du XIIIe. La ruine serait de 1756 quand le site est la proie des flammes. Bernard d’Alion illustre bien la période trouble de la croisade contre les hérétiques, tour à tour sympathisant cathare et inféodé à Simon de Montfort, il perd ses terres au profit du comte de Foix, opposé aux Croisés. En épousant la frangine de Roger Bernard II de Foix il se réconcilie avec les cathares. Après la chute de Montségur il abrite des hérétiques, ce fait chevaleresque lui amène bien des soucis, emprisonné, condamné par le tribunal inquisitorial, finalement il est brûlé vif en 1257 à Perpignan. Dernier épisode, en 1308, Montaillou reconnu foyer d’hérétiques, est investi par les forces de l’inquisition, tous les adultes du patelin sont raflés et emprisonnés, c’est à ce moment qu’ils seront interrogés par Fournier le futur pape Benoît XII.
Trouver montaillou : passe à Ax-les-hermes, après prend la D613 vers la Chioula, puis à Prades la D105 vers la droite te mènera au spot. R.C.

As we wrapped up the Dayton Teaching American History grant project, history teachers and I organized the Dayton Teachers History Book Club. Participants teach in elementary, middle, and secondary schools and in language arts, social studies, computer technology, nursing as well as women’s studies, and African American history. We have been meeting for over two years. We read both historical fiction and non-fiction.

We read Emanuel Le Roy Ladurie’s Montaillou: the Promised Land of Error last month. Looking around for something a little lighter to follow it with, I learned from the Library of Congress Blog about the streaming video of David L. Robbins talk, “Nuts and Bolts of Historical Fiction” at The Center for the Book.

We read Robbins’ thriller about an assassination plot against FDR, The Assassins Gallery. It was a popular book, combining a compelling story with lots of historical detail. There were points when the author, who admits being inspired by the sales of The Da Vinci Code, seemed to have an eye to a movie contract; scenes in the novel felt like they were written for movies in the way that scenes in some movies look like they were designed for the spin-off computer games. However, the book was entertaining and it encompassed fascinating historical events and settings. We talked a lot about the research and writing of historical fiction. Robbins claimed that about 10% of his research about history and place makes it way into his novels and that “reading voraciously” with close attention to footnotes and bibliographies, is crucial to his work. Also crucial is serious on the ground study of the sites featured in the book. The podcast enhanced our discussion of The Assassins Gallery.

While Robbins writes for an adult audience, social studies teachers look for good historical fiction to engage their students while language arts teachers are eager for well-written historical fiction to share with their students. World history teachers complained about the dearth of resources including historical fiction for world history, particularly the ancient world. There’s good news on this front: the 2008 Newberry Medal award winner is Laura Amy Schlitz, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village while one of the 2008 Newberry Honor books is Christopher Paul Curtis’ Elijah of Buxton about life in a Canadian community of escaped slaves. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! is written to be performed by students as witty monologues or dialogues. The book does not shy away from issues of class, gender, and religious difference. The commentary as well as the illustrations are full of details of everyday life in the Middle Ages.

We all wished for essays and commentaries contextualizing the historical fiction in relation to history and explaining the relationship between history and fiction in the novels. Podcasts with authors like those offered by the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress or WETA Learning Media’s Meet the Author series available though ITunes and Reading Rockets may go a long way to fill that need.

When we get together, we talk a lot about history, teaching, the schools, our careers, and our lives in general. The group is very patient, listening to me sound out my ideas. Some participants are passionate readers who share great books that fill my shelves, reminding me of the friends that I have made through the club. Its important for the public to realize that teachers have a commitment that goes beyond the job on the clock; they read widely and talk substantively about both the content and approaches to teaching.

Next on the reading list is Kim Lacy Rogers’ Life and Death in the Delta: African American Narratives of Violence, Resilience, and Social Change.