Many studies on hostages have used a much broader and extensive time frame, covering only briefly developments in the Middle Ages. It is indeed true that medieval hostageship has been – perhaps quite intentionally – overlooked. However, it is also interesting to discover that hostages were not only used in the context of armed conflict, but also in endless financial transactions. Nonetheless, the Middle Ages are selected as the main focus of this book, due to the practice of hostageship being at its peak in this period and, as the author puts it, featuring in ‘every major politico-military development or event between the fifth and fifteenth centuries’ (p. In first providing a general overview of the history of hostages, hostage precursors are revealed in Rome and Persia, and even pre-Islamic Arabia. And finally, despite the societal progress made in key areas such as law and governance, ‘physical control over people remained crucial’ in the politics of this time, though one also sees international law and economics coming to the fore. Secondly, as society changed, so did the nature of hostageship. The author is very clear in his claims: firstly, medieval hostageship was not only a guarantee as such, but was firmly embedded in contemporary politics. 5), although it also existed in an exceedingly multi-facetted way in the Middle Ages. Drawing on the work of Ascan Lutteroth, Kosto also identifies the modern distinction between hostages forcibly taken and hostages given as a result of negotiation, which has been seen as a product of modern international law (p. But essentially, this is a deeply historical investigation and the parts of the book where it deals with the modern period are not central to its thesis. Kosto somewhat understates the variety of modern hostageship and could have emphasized this further. 220–6), he seems to overlook the modern use of the term and only makes reference to it, briefly, in terms of the Hostage Convention of 1979, the US Lieber Code or the Nuremberg Trials. However, aside from a few pages at the end of the book (p. The pitfalls of linguistic interpretation in history are evident and Kosto is very good at putting the medieval usage of 'hostage' in context. This distinction between the modern sense of the term and the medieval one is something Kosto continually addresses in his bid to avoid the historian’s most cardinal sin, anachronism. In attempting to emphasise the distinction between the modern perception of hostageship and that of the medieval era, Kosto argues that in the past hostageship was seen as not simply a legal issue, but also as a political one. (2) However, the meaning of hostageship has undergone many transformations over time, some of which are brought under the microscope Professor Adam Kosto as he dissects the development of this phenomenon during the Middle Ages. Williams said the correctional officer was able to walk out of the jail and is now in the hospital.The word ‘hostage’ might immediately bring to mind hostile situations: the entrapment of a wealthy businessman’s daughter in exchange for money, a terrorist incident (1) or a manifestation of domestic abuse. “We’re glad that the detention officer wasn’t more seriously hurt and we were able to get him out of there and protect him,” Gourley said. Gourley said they will interview officers in the coming days and are conducting interviews of those involved in the situation. Officers with the Oklahoma City Police Department also responded to the scene to provide aid and were among the officers who administered the lethal force, according to Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley. Gas was deployed during the situation, Johnson said. The team tried to de-escalate the situation, but the inmate had the detention officer in a “hostage position” with “something held to his neck,” Johnson said, so responders used lethal force. Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III said his department dispatched the senior tactical team to the scene just after 4 p.m. The hostage situation occurred in a segregation pod, where the “inmates that are most difficult to handle are housed,” Williams explained. Louis jail attack corrections officer, set fires in their unit
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