Richard Allen Landes (born June 26, 1949) is an American historian and author who specializes in medieval millennial thinking. Until 2015 he taught at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, and then began working at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

, where his current interests include defending the politics of Israel in the light of what he calls

media manipulation Media manipulation is a series of related techniques in which partisans create an image or argument that favors their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies, manipulation, outright deception (disinformation) ...

by Palestinians.

Biography

Landes is the son of the late American-Jewish Harvard Professor of Economics and History

David Landes David Saul Landes (April 29, 1924 – August 17, 2013) was a professor of economics and of history at Harvard University. He is the author of ''Bankers and Pashas'', '' Revolution in Time'', ''The Unbound Prometheus'', ''The Wealth and Poverty of ...

. His early publications were concerned with

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

; his first published monograph was a translation of the ''vita'' of

Saint Martial Saint Martial (3rd century), called "the Apostle of the Gauls" or "the Apostle of Aquitaine", was the first bishop of Limoges. His feast day is 30 June. Life There is no accurate information as to the origin, dates of birth and death, or the acts ...

; his second on the scribe and forger

Adémar de Chabannes Adémar de Chabannes (988/989 – 1034; also Adhémar de Chabannes) was a French/Frankish monk, active as a composer, scribe, historian, poet, grammarian and literary forger. He was associated with the Abbey of Saint Martial, Limoges, where he ...

. Until 2015 he was a professor in the Department of History at

, and the director of Boston University's Center for Millennial Studies. Since 2015, he is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Communication at

, in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

, Israel.

Academic work

Landes specializes in millennial thinking in the Middle Ages, particularly around the year 1000. In 2000, Landes published what was said to be the first encyclopedia on the topic of millennial movements in Europe, the ''Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements''. Landes also published "Celebrating ''

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

''" wherein he argues that the Palestinian critic

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...

and Arabs in general do not like to be orientalized because of honour-shame culture. In "''

'', a Thousand and One Times" and "Warientalism, or the Carrier of Firewood," Landes' discourse is labelled Warientalist, a concept that refers to a discourse defined by power and sentiment rather than knowledge.

Israel and "Pallywood"

Landes coined the term

Pallywood Pallywood, a portmanteau of "Palestinian" and " Hollywood", is a coinage used to describe supposed media manipulation, distortion or fraud by some Palestinians putatively designed to win the public relations war with Israel. The term came into c ...

("Palestinian Hollywood"), described by Ruthie Blum as referring to "productions staged by the Palestinians, in front of (and often with cooperation from) Western camera crews, for the purpose of promoting anti-Israel propaganda by disguising it as news."

Books

Monographs

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Edited books, collections

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landes, Richard 1949 births Living people Boston University faculty Scholars of antisemitism American historians Jewish American historians 21st-century American Jews