James William Brodman

James William Brodman (b. 1945) is an American historian who devoted his scholarly career to the social and religious history of medieval Europe, with a particular emphasis on the Iberian Peninsula.

Brodman received a BA from Canisius University and a MA and PhD in history, studying under Charles Julian Bishko, at the University of Virginia. He spent the majority of his academic life as a professor of medieval history at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) , where he retired at the end of 2011 and holds the title of Professor Emeritus.

Brodman's research focuses on religion and social policy in the Middle Ages. His first book was Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier (1986). This book, according to the Hispanic American Historical Review, describes "the activities of the Mercedarians within the broader context of the contemporary development of popular Christian piety, which increasingly expressed itself in acts of charity."

His next book, Charity and Welfare: Hospitals and the Poor in Medieval Catalonia (1998), focused on the history of poverty and care. This book, as reviewed in The Catholic Historical Review, describes the evolution of social welfare in medieval Spain, with an emphasis on the role of hospitals and the concept of charity as "both a Christian social action and a secular duty." Additionally, a review in Speculum notes that hospitals in the Middle Ages differed from those of our contemporary understanding, noting that patients received little medical care and these institutions, instead, focused on providing food and shelter to the poor.

Brodman's third book, Charity and Religion in Medieval Europe (2009) , published by the Catholic University of America Press, broadened his research across geographies and institutions and aimed to clarify the early connections between charity and religion in the Middle Ages, arguing that "spiritual and religious charity underpinned the medieval church, but also extended to the practice of giving by the laity" , including artisans, shopkeepers, farmers, and their wives who became lay brothers and sisters. At the same time, as noted in Speculum, Brodman offers a counter-argument to the emphasis placed on the poor as a category for analysis by social historians, arguing instead that they are more than likely "passive recipients of religiously-inspired largesse."

Beyond his academic research, Brodman served as President of the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain and founded the Library of Iberian Resources Online (LIBRO), a digital initiative aimed at making scholarly work on medieval Iberia freely accessible to researchers worldwide.

Publications (selected) Brodman, James. “The Mystery of Mary: Patronal Transformation in the Order of Mercy,” in Els Turquets d’Algar. La redempció de captius per l’Ordre dels Mercedaris al Camp de Morvedre. I Jornades internacionals d’historia a Algar de Palància. Edited by María Julia Martínez García et al. Algar: Ajuntament d’Algar de Palància, 2018, 117-26. Brodman, James. “The Siete Partidas and the Law of Charity in Thirteenth-Century Castile,” in The Emergence of León-Castile, c. 1085-1500, ed. James J. Todesca. Farmham, England: Ashgate, 2015, 81-91. Brodman, James. “New Perspectives on the Creation of the Mercedarian Order,” in Maria Teresa FERRER MALLOL (ed.). Jaume I. Commemoració del VIII centenari del naixement de Jaume I. Volume 2: L’economia rural. L’articulació urbana. Les institucions eclesiàstiques. L’expansió territorial. El comerç. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 2013, 389-399. Brodman, James. “Captives or Prisoners: Society and Obligation in Medieval Iberia,” Anuario de la Historia de Iglesia, 20 (2011): 201-19. Brodman, James. “Hospitals in the Middle Ages,” in A Companion to the Medieval World, ed. Edward English and Carol Lansing (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 257-75. Brodman, James. “Religion and Discipline in the Hospitals of Medieval France,” in The Medieval Hospital and Medical Practice, ed. Barbara Bowers. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2007, 123-32. Brodman, James. “Unequal in Charity? Women and Hospitals in Medieval Catalonia,” Medieval Encounters, 12 (2006): 26-36. Brodman, James. “Rule and Identity: The Case of the Military Orders,” The Catholic Historical Review, 87 (2001), 383-400. Brodman, James. "What is a Soul Worth? Pro anima Bequests in the Municipal Legislation of Reconquest Spain," Medievalia et Humanistica, 20 (1994): 15-23. Brodman, James. "Exceptis militibus et sanctis: Restrictions upon Ecclesiastical Ownership of Land in the Foral Legislation of Medieval Castile and Valencia," En la España medieval, 15 (1992): 63-75. Brodman, James. "Municipal Ransoming Law on the Medieval Spanish Frontier," Speculum, 60 (1985): 318-30.