Background
Little, Lester Knox was born on October 21, 1935 in Providence. Son of Arthur Foster and Edith Caroline (Hyde) Little.
( "'May they be cursed in town and cursed in the fields. ...)
"'May they be cursed in town and cursed in the fields. May their barns be cursed and may their bones be cursed. May the fruit of their loins be cursed as well as the fruit of their lands.' French monks of the Middle Ages hurled curses like these at their enemies, seeking supernatural assistance when no secular judge could help them. In a long-awaited book written with elegance and erudition, Lester Little undertakes the first full-length study of these maledictions. . . . The book's focus is the way that religious communities--especially the monks who followed Benedict's Rule and hence were known by his name--used liturgical cursing to safeguard their integrity and their possessions, against both laymen and other ecclesiastics." --Journal of Social History
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801481139/?tag=2022091-20
( "In this stimulating and important book Lester Little a...)
"In this stimulating and important book Lester Little advances the original thesis that, paradoxically, it was the leading practitioners of voluntary poverty, Franciscan and Dominican friars, who finally formulated a Christian ethic which justified the activities of merchants, moneylenders, and other urban professionals, and created a Christian spirituality suitable for townsmen. Little has synthesized a vast body of specialized literature in Italian, German, French, and English to write an interpretive essay which pro- vides a new perspective on the interaction between economic and social forces and the religious movements advocating the apostolic ideal of voluntary poverty….Little's book is a major contribution, not only to the history of the religious movement of voluntary poverty, but also to the interdisciplinary study of the middle ages." ―Journal of Social History
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801492475/?tag=2022091-20
Little, Lester Knox was born on October 21, 1935 in Providence. Son of Arthur Foster and Edith Caroline (Hyde) Little.
AB, Dartmouth College, 1957; Master of Arts, Princeton University, 1960; Doctor of Philosophy, Princeton University, 1962.
History instructor, Princeton University, 1961-1963; assistant professor of history, University of Chicago, 1963-1969; associate professor, University of Chicago, 1969-1971; associate professor of history, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1971-1976; professor, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1976-1982; Dwight W. Morrow professor of history, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, since 1982; department chairman history, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1986-1989; director, Smith College in Italy, 1989-1991. Visiting professor of history University of California, Berkeley, 1988, Yale University, 1995, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales, Paris, 1996.
( "In this stimulating and important book Lester Little a...)
( "'May they be cursed in town and cursed in the fields. ...)
( "'May they be cursed in town and cursed in the fields. ...)
Member American History Association, Medieval Academy American.
Married Lella Gandini, April 7, 1972. Stepchildren: Andrea Dell'Antonio, Ian Dell'Antonio.