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:
- Bosworth, Mary, 'The Past as a Foreign Country? Some Methodological Implications of Doing Historical CriminologyLink opens in a new window', The British Journal of Criminology 41/3 (2001), 431-442.
- Broomhall, Susan, 'Introduction: Violence and Emotions in Early Modern Europe', in Susan Broomhall and Sarah Finn, eds, Violence and Emotions in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window (London, 2015), pp. 1-18.
- Carroll, Stuart, 'Introduction', in Stuart Carroll, ed., Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical PerspectiveLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2007), pp. 1-43.
- Davies, Jonathan 'Introduction', in Jonathan Davies, ed., Aspects of Violence in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window (Farnham, 2013), pp. 1-13.
- Dwyer, Philip, 'Violence and its Histories: Meanings, Methods, ProblemsLink opens in a new window', History and Theory, Special Issue: Theorizing Histories of Violence, 56/4 (2017), 7–22.
- Eisner, Manuel, 'Human Evolution, History and Violence: An IntroductionLink opens in a new window', The British Journal of Criminology 51/3 (2011), 473-478.
- de Haan, Willem, 'Violence as an Essentially Contested Concept', in Sophie Body-Gendrot and Pieter Spierenburg, eds, Violence in Europe: Historical and Contemporary PerspectivesLink opens in a new window (New York, 2008), pp. 27-40.
- Hanlon, Gregory, 'The Decline of Violence in the West: From Cultural to Post-cultural HistoryLink opens in a new window', English Historical Review 128 (2013), 367–400.
- Loetz, Francisca, A New Approach to the History of Violence: "sexual assault" and "sexual abuse" in Europe, 1500-1850Link opens in a new window, trans. Rosemary Selle (Leiden, 2015), Chapter One.
- Schwerhoff, Gerd, Benjamin Seebröker, Alexander Kästner, and Wiebke Voigt, 'Hard Numbers? The Long-term Decline in Violence Reassessed. Empirical Objections and Fresh PerspectivesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window', Continuity and Change 36 (2021), 1-32.
- Springer, Simon, and Philippe Le Billon, 'Violence and Space: An Introduction to the Geographies of Violence', Political GeographyLink opens in a new window 52 (2016), 1-3.
E-Resources
- Crime, History and Societies Link opens in a new window[Journal; articles published more than three years ago are available free]
- Charles Tilly ResourcesLink opens in a new window
Further Reading
Adler, Jeffrey S., and Thomas W. Gallant, ‘What Do Historians Have to Say about Violence?Link opens in a new window’ The Harry Guggenheim Foundation Review of Research 4 (2000)
Antony, Robert, Stuart Carroll, and Caroline Dodds Pennock, eds, The Cambridge World History of Violence: Volume 3, AD 1500-AD 1800Link opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2020)
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, Enmity and Violence in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2023)
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)