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.