Harry Potter and History (eBook)

Nancy R. Reagin is a professor of history and women's and gender studies at Pace University, who has published several books in modern European history. She's also an active fan who has worked on fan archives and websites, and she has helped build fan organizations. She is appalled by Professor Binns's teaching methods and would enjoy using pensieves, Veritaserum, and Time-Turners in her own research.

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