Sara McDougall Justice for Jehanne review and information book with the tale of a medieval survivor. Princeton University Press will publish the book Justice for Jehanne, a narrative history that defies modern assumptions about women’s lives in the Middle Ages, written by Sara McDougall, professor of history at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, on September 16, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.
Sara McDougall Justice for Jehanne reviews and information
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Justice for Jehanna
The Tale of a Medieval Survivor
- Author: Sara McDougall (United States)
- Book type: Medieval history
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- To be released: September 16, 2026
- Length: 328 pages
- Format: hardback / ebook
- Prize: $ 29.95
- Buying options >
Blurb of the history book by Sara McDougall
In the winter of 1472, the city of Dijon, France, became the stage for a remarkable legal drama. On the mayor’s orders, an investigator named Jaques Borestel went door-to-door questioning his neighbors about an alleged sexual assault—and about the victim’s history and place in the community. At the center of Jaques’s inquiry was a woman named Jehanne, who took the unusual step of making a criminal complaint in an age when victims of sexual violence did so at their own peril. Justice for Jehanne follows Jaques’s investigation as he uncovers one woman’s story of resilience and survival.
Applying forensic analysis to witness testimony and Jaques’s case files, Sara McDougall finds in Jehanne a woman of many lives and many secrets. An outsider on her own in Dijon, Jehanne had every reason to distrust the local authorities, who regularly extorted money from the city’s most vulnerable residents. Separating facts from falsehoods, McDougall challenges preconceptions about the experiences of marginalized women in medieval France, showing how neighbors, clergy, and other residents aided Jehanne throughout her legal struggles—and how justice of a sort was exacted from her attackers.
Richly detailed and powerfully told, Justice for Jehanne paints an unforgettable portrait of a woman who mounted an extraordinary response to a crime that was so difficult to prosecute at the time, and of a community that gave her shelter, protection, and acceptance as she endeavored to survive on her own terms.
Sara McDougall is a professor of history at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and is an appointed faculty member at the CUNY Graduate Center for the fields of Biography and Memoir, French, History, and Medieval Studies.
