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The Problem of Violence in Early Modern Europe

Seminar Question

  • What are the key issues which the historian of violence in early modern Europe needs to address?

Required Reading

All students should read

Ruff, Julius R., Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800Link opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2001), Introduction

AND two of the following items:


E-Resources


Further Reading

Adler, Jeffrey S., and Thomas W. Gallant, ‘What Do Historians Have to Say about Violence?Link opens in a new windowThe Harry Guggenheim Foundation Review of Research 4 (2000)

Arendt, Hannah, On Violence (New York, 1970)

Arnade, Peter, 'Carthage or Jerusalem? Princely Violence and the Spatial Transformation of the Medieval into the Early Modern CityLink opens in a new window', Journal of Urban History 39/4 (2013), 726-748

Bernstein, Richard J., Violence: Thinking without BanistersLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2013)

Bessel, Richard, Violence: A Modern Obsession (London, 2015), Introduction

Besteman, Catherine, ed., Violence: A ReaderLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2002)

Body-Gendrot, Sophie, and Pieter Spierenburg, eds, Violence in Europe: Historical and Contemporary PerspectivesLink opens in a new window (New York, 2008)

Carroll, Stuart, 'Thinking with ViolenceLink opens in a new window', History and Theory, Special Issue: Theorizing Histories of Violence, 56/4 (2017), 23-43.

Eisner, Manuel, 'Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent CrimeLink opens in a new window', Crime and Justice 30 (2003), 83-142.

Elias, Norbert, The Civilizing ProcessLink opens in a new window, trans. Edmond Jephcott, 2 vols (New York, 1978-82)

Evans, Brad, and Natasha Lennard (eds), Violence: Humans in Dark Times (San Francisco, 2018)

Evans, Brad, and Terrell Carver, 'The Subject of Violence', in Brad Evans and Terrell Carver, eds, Histories of Violence: Post-war Critical ThoughtLink opens in a new window (London, 2017), pp. 1-13.

Feldman, Allen, Formations of Violence: the Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern IrelandLink opens in a new window (Chicago, 1991)

Gartner, Rosemary, and Bill McCarthy (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Crime (Oxford, 2014) [Especially the essays in Part II]

Gómora, Daniela Yvette Fernández, The Concept of Violence and the Contentious Politics of Legitimacy: Implications for International Relations Theory and PracticeLink opens in a new window, Tesis Licenciatura (Universidad de las Américas Puebla, 2008)

Guilaine, Jean, and Jean Zammit, The Origins of War: Violence in PrehistoryLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2005)

Hale, J.R., 'Violence in the Late Middle Ages: A Background', in Lauro Martines, ed., Violence and Disorder in Italian Cities, 1200-1500 (Berkeley, 1972), pp. 19-37.

Hallenberg, Mats, 'The Golden Age of the Aggressive Male? Violence, Masculinity and the State in Sixteenth-Century SwedenLink opens in a new window', Gender & History 25/1 (2013), 132–49.

Heitmeyer, Wilhelm, and John Hagan (eds), International Handbook of Violence ResearchLink opens in a new window (Dordrecht, 2003)

Johnson, Eric A., and Eric H. Monkkonen, eds, The Civilization of Crime: Violence in Town and Country since the Middle AgesLink opens in a new window (Urbana, 1996)

Lacour, Eva, ‘Faces of Violence Revisited. A Typology of Violence in Early Modern Rural GermanyLink opens in a new window’, Journal of Social History 34/3 (2001), 649-667.

Malešević, Siniša, The Sociology of War and Violence (Cambridge, 2010)

Mantecón, Tomás A., 'The Patterns of Violence in Early Modern SpainLink opens in a new window', trans. Edward Behrend‐Martínez, Journal of The Historical Society 7 (2007), 229-264.

Meumann, Markus, ‘The Experience of Violence and the Expectation of the End of the World in Seventeenth-Century Europe’, in Joseph Canning, Hartmut Lehmann and Jay Winter (eds), Power, Violence and Mass Death in Pre-modern and Modern Times (Farnham, 2004), pp. 141–62.

Ong, Walter J., Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality and Consciousness (Ithaca, 1981)

Roberts, Penny, 'French Historians and Collective ViolenceLink opens in a new window', History and Theory, Special Issue: Theorizing Histories of Violence, 56/4 (2017), 60-75.

Roth, Randolph, 'Homicide in Early Modern England 1549-1800 : The Need for a Quantitative SynthesisLink opens in a new window', Crime, History & Societies 5/2 (2001), 33-67.

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy, and Philippe I. Bourgois, 'Making Sense of Violence', in Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe I. Bourgois, eds, Violence in War and Peace: An AnthologyLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2004), pp. 1-31.

Schinkel, Willem, Aspects of Violence: A Critical Theory (Basingstoke, 2010)

Schwerhoff, Gerd, 'Criminalized Violence and the Process of Civilization: A ReappraisalLink opens in a new window', Crime, History & Societies 6/2 (2002), 103-126.

Sharpe, James, A Fiery and Furious People: A History of Violence in England (London, 2015)

Spierenburg, Pieter, A History of Murder: Personal Violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the PresentLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2008). See the reviews by Trevor DeanLink opens in a new window and Robert ShoemakerLink opens in a new window.

Spierenburg, Pieter, ed., Men and Violence: Gender, Honor and Rituals in Modern Europe and AmericaLink opens in a new window (Columbus OH 1998)

Spierenburg, Pieter,'Punishment, Power, and History: Foucault and EliasLink opens in a new window', Social Science History 28 (2004), 607-636.

Spierenburg, Pieter, 'Violence and the Civilizing Process: Does it Work?Link opens in a new window' Crime, History & Societies 5/2 (2001), 87-105.

Spierenburg, Pieter, Violence and Punishment: Civilizing the Body Through Time (Cambridge, 2013)

Springer, Simon, and Philippe Le Billon, Philippe, 'Violence and Space: An Introduction to the Geographies of ViolenceLink opens in a new window', Political Geography 52 (2016), 1-3.

Tilly, Charles, The Politics of Collective ViolenceLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2003)

Watson, Katherine D., 'Introduction', in Katherine D. Watson, ed., Assaulting the Past: Violence and Civilization in Historical Context (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 1-19.

Wood, John Carter, 'Conceptualizing Cultures of Violence and Cultural Change', in Stuart Carroll, ed., Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical PerspectiveLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2007), pp.79-96.

Wood, John Carter, 'It's a Small World After All?: Reflections on Violence in Comparative Perspectives', in Barry Godfrey, Clive Emsley and Graeme Dunstall, eds, Comparative Histories of CrimeLink opens in a new window (Cullompton, 2003), pp. 36-52.

Wood, John Carter, 'The Limits of Culture? Society, Evolutionary Psychology and the History of Violence', Cultural and Social HistoryLink opens in a new window 4/1 (2007), 95-114.

Wood, John Carter, 'Locating Violence: The Spatial Production and Construction of Physical Aggression', in Katherine D. Watson, ed., Assaulting the Past: Violence and Civilization in Historical Context (Newcastle, 2007), pp. 20-37.

Ziemann, Benjamin, 'Histories of ViolenceLink opens in a new window', Reviews in History (2012)

Raphael, Fighting Men