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Robert Muchembled

A History of Violence: From the End of the Middle Ages to the Present 1st Edition

by Robert Muchembled (Author)

4.6 14 ratings

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Violence is so much in the news today that we may find it hard to believe that it is less prevalent than it was in the past. But this is exactly what the distinguished historian Robert Muchembled argues in this major new work on the history of violence. He shows that brutality and homicide have been in decline since the thirteenth century. The thesis of a ‘civilizing process', of a gradual taming, even sublimation, of violence, seems, therefore, to be well-founded.

How are we to explain this decline in public displays of aggression? What mechanisms have modernizing societies employed to repress and control violence? The increasingly strict social control of unmarried, male adolescents, together with the coercive education imposed on this age group, are central to Muchembled's explanation. Masculine violence gradually disappeared from public space, to become concentrated in the home. Meanwhile, a vast popular literature, precursor of the modern mass media, came to play a cathartic role: the duels of The Three Musketeers and the amazing exploits of Fantômas, as described in the new crime literature invented in the nineteenth century, now helped to purge the violent impulses.

And yet we seem, in the first few years of the twenty-first century, to be witnessing a resurgence of violence, especially among the youths of the inner cities. How should we understand this resurgence in relation to the long history of violence in the West?

ISBN-10

0745647472
ISBN-13

978-0745647470
Edition

1st
Publisher

Polity
Publication date

December 27, 2011
Language

English
Dimensions

6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Print length

388 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A vivid, thoughtful, deeply researched exploration of one of the main problems of human societies and a fascinating reflection on the 'extreme plasticity of civilizations'."
Times Higher Education

"This is one of Robert Muchembled's best books, a lucid and persuasive combination of broad sweep with vivid detail and of synthesis with original research."
Peter Burke, University of Cambridge

"In this wide-ranging book, Robert Muchembled, one of France's most talented historians, draws on a lifetime of study to elucidate the history of violence in Europe from the late middle ages to the present. In showing how Western Europe by the twentieth century had achieved the lowest level of interpersonal violence yet known to the world, Muchembled employs modern gender analysis to challenge historians to reconsider many long-held assumptions about the control of violent behaviour in the West."
Julius R. Ruff, Marquette University and author of Violence in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800

About the Author

Robert Muchembled is a French historian. In 1967, he passed the Agrégation in history. In 1985 he was awarded a doctorate for his thesis on attitudes to violence and society in Artois between 1440 and 1600. In 1986 he became Professor of Modern History at Paris 13 University.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Polity; 1st edition (December 27, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 388 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0745647472
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0745647470
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.27 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,377,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,207 in Anthropology (Books)
- #4,214 in Violence in Society (Books)
- #16,595 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 14 ratings

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4.6 out of 5

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Lark

Optimistic assessment of containment and decline of violence

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This is a book which I believe would appeal to the general reader or historical and social interest reader alike, it is written in a style and with a pace which I think suits it to the a wider readership than simply the studious or academic.

It has a good contents page, an index, select bibliogrpahy and endnotes of sources and references subdivided by chapter. The contents divide the book into chapters which are then further subdivided into three subheadings as follows:-

Chapter 1: What is violence?; Is Violence innate?; Violence and manliness; Semen and blood: a history of honour
Chapter 2: Violence: Seven centuries of spectacular decline; The reliability of the crime figures; Seven centuries of decline; The 'making' of young men
Chapter 3: The youth festivals of violence (thirteenth to seventeenth centuries); A culture of violence; Violent festivities and brutal games; Youth violence
Chapter 4: The urban peace at the end of the Middle Ages; The pacificatory towns; Controlling the young; Violence costs dear
Chapter 5: Cain and Medea:homicide and the construction of sexed genders (1500 - 1650); A judicial revolution; In pursuit of the ungrateful son: the spread of the blood taboo; Medea, the guilty mother
Chapter 6: The noble duel and popular revolt: the metamorphoses of violence; The duel, a French exception; Noble youths sharpen their swords; Popular violence and the frustrations of youth
Chapter 7: Violence Tamed (1650-1960); Murder is forbidden; The civilising town; Violence and changing concepts of honour in the countryside
Chapter 8: Mortal thrills and crime fiction (sixteenth to twentieth centuries): The devil, assuredly: the birth of crime fiction; From bloodthirsty murderer to well-loved bandits; blood and ink
Chapter 9: The return of the gangs: contemporary adolescence and violence: Death in paradise; Juvenile delinquency; 'Rebel without a cause', or 'eternal recurrence'
Is the end of violence possible?

As the chapter headings suggest this is an optimistic assessment of a decline in violence over time, there is an appraisal of how, with a focus upon gender and males, there has been a generation upon generation decline in violence through its regulation and control to its sublimination and restriction to fantasy, imagination as opposed to acted out reality.

This is a very optimistic assessment and could perhaps be criticised for what some historians would consider the "conceit of the present day for the past" or certain "progressivist mythologising". Even the chapter in which a less optimistic or more cautious note is sounded, the final chapter, chapter nine on the resurgence of youth gangs, clear connections are made to contemporaneous developments to do with longevity and its impact upon intergenerational conveyence of responsibility and authority. This point in itself is perhaps open to challenge as generational conflict has been a steady feature of human history itself and not a recent development consequent to one generation living longer and longer than ever before.

However, any possible criticism of that kind aside for one moment this is a great read, it was, I felt, as good as the next available title of a similar nature which I could think of The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes , slightly less verbose perhaps (although one is social history while the other is more psychological in content). One of the most interesting themes or ideas which I found was the suggestion of a relationship between the decline of violence through social regulation and entertainment. I was familiar with some ideas about sublimination but it appeared to be an interesting inversion of the concern that violent novels or films or even games could encourage violence.

One person found this helpful

Charles Vasey

A Gelded Youth

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This is an academic work largely (but not exclusively) based on the evidence from France. The author, professor of Modern History at Université Paris-XIII, opens with homicide rates pre-1600 (conveniently around the accession of the Bourbon dynasty in France) and demonstrates how they reduced dramatically in a number of steps until, today, homicidal violence is largely limited to a few centres of youth gangs and the deranged (if only temporarily).

The society in which Muchembled begins is one where violence between youths was an accepted part of life. The law sought not to stigmatise but to reconcile, so that a death in a fight would be dealt with by some form of legally-sponsored "treaty" between the two families - not unlike Anglo-Saxon blood money. However, as the towns began to require less violence if they were to function and to make money they sought to limit violence and to expel the violent from their midst. Once expelled (possibly maimed or branded in some easily identifiable way) these dangerous individuals could be slaughtered in the rat-hunts of the Maréchaussée (a force originally assembled to deal with a licentious soldiery).

Attempts were made to repress the middle and working class youth, although the aristocrats (and soldiers) attempted to claim the right to homicidal activity under the guise of the duel; this claim being based in part on the need to provide a military force skilled in killing. Soon the application of violence was attributed to some form of moral turpitude rather than being a natural part of being young and male. The soldiery were controlled under Louis XIV and homicide punished as both retribution and warning. By the 19th century this process had reached the point that violence was much less common and the need for it was being served by sports, and by violent crime stories. We had reached the stage now seen in much of the west where a fight results in the loser going to hospital and the winner to court.

The risings in the Paris banlieues that Sarkosy characterised as the work of "racaille" are seen by the author as just part of the general behaviour exampled through his book, but still far-less widespread than (say) in rural France in 1400.

This is an excellent book, but it is also a long one in which the arguments are carefully assembled. I have barely touched a number of its themes. It not a casual read, and it helps to have some background knowledge of France, but it is well-worth the effort if the topic interests you.

One person found this helpful

Peter

A difficult read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

The title of the book intrigued me as did the summary. The book is the result of a considerable amount of research and was translated from the French. That the author is an academic is obvious, as is the fact that much of the results of the research came from French sources. Once I realised this I'm afraid that I had not sufficient interest to read the entire book, though delving piecmeal into the book, gave rise to some interesting information, clearly gathered from contemporary sources. The statistics have to be viewed in light of the dearth of real written information and I wonder whether the difference between British and French culture will have an effect on criminal behaviour in the two countries.

It would I think help, a readers efforts to enjoy this book, if he or she were more acquainted with France and its history.

Unlike another reviewer I am not so sanguine as the author in terms of their being less violence in the UK. To my mind, there is far more cruelty and less inhibition attached to violent behaviour these days. But perhaps, this perception is due to the wonderful British press!

I think that this book is aimed not at the casual reader, but more at academics attached either to the Law and Order fraternity, or perhaps psychologists or psychiatists. It is not an easy read.

One person found this helpful

Mark Shackelford

Interesting if dry history of violence

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

"A History of Violence" is a rather academic text, and is also originally French, and gives a dry, text book assessment of Violence through the Ages from 13th century to today.

Reading our daily papers, we see violence everywhere - every day we are frightened of being attacked or murdered, we make our homes into fortresses and we are nervous of going out at night. It seems we live in a very violent age, or do we?

Statistically we are more likely to die in a traffic accident, or similar misadventure than to suffer violence. I think that we are more aware of violence - through the Media - than ever before, and the tabloids are full of gory details. But, as this book suggests, the actual levels of violence are much less than previous centuries, when there were no tabloids or TV to advertise it.

The book gives many statistics showing that personal violence, at least in Western Europe and specifically in France, has become unacceptable. However it shows that we see more violence - whether in the media, in graphic detail in TV programs, or perhaps worse still in the ever more violent computer games. We see violence all around us - but we don't actually suffer from it.

Read this book at you might feel safer at home, or out at night!

HJK

Hope for the future

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

A History of Violence - From the End of the Middle Ages to the Present - in Europe.

The original book was written French and I am reviewing the English translation.

This book is really a text book - most definately an academic work - not a coffee table book. There are no illustrations, photographs or diagrams and no tables. There is a very large bibliography and numerous notes to the chapters for anyone who wishes to read more on the subject.

The author looks at violence and society from the 13th century to the present day (original publication date 2008 for the French version). There are lots of facts figures and statistics showing how violence has been curbed and that brutality and homicide has been on the decline since the 13th century.

He uses many examples from France but there are also enough from England to make it relevent to English readers.

I found the book interesting and it gives a very different picture from the one given in the popular Media which would suggest that violence is on the increase and that aggressive youths are rampaging across the streets of Europe.

As this seems a very well researched book - then this does give us all Hope for the Future.

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