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Robert Muchembled

A History of Violence: From the End of the Middle Ages to the Present Hardcover – 1 Jan. 2012

by Robert Muchembled (Author)

4.5 15 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

9780745647463
ISBN-13

978-0745647463
Edition

1st
Publisher

Polity
Publication date

1 Jan. 2012
Language

English
Dimensions

16 x 3.3 x 23.62 cm
Print length

388 pages
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Product description

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

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0745647464
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Polity; 1st edition (1 Jan. 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 388 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780745647463
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0745647463
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16 x 3.3 x 23.62 cm

Customer reviews:
4.5 15 ratings

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El Loro

One to come back to.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2012

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

I read this book, I enjoyed this book but marshalling my thoughts into a review was a challenge. Throughout I had the sense of not-quite-wholeness.

Like some of Foucault's work, part of it might be the way it kicks off with and keeps coming back to France and French history, it could partly be the choice of examples Muchembled studies, part if it could be the sense that some of it is too finely spun.

It has definite weaknesses. It glosses over most of the modern era; it does not really look at violence and the media; most glaringly, it does not look at state violence.

But it also has many strengths. Despite the shortcomings of academic translation, it is assured and engaging. The broad evidence base he uses is stimulating and suggests new things to look into. The overall picture is one of evidence trumping moral panic, which is always a plus.

So, perhaps its best read more than once, with enough time to reflect and read around between readings.

Helpful

Interesting if dry history of violence

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 February 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!

Helpful

Hope for the future

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 February 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.

Helpful

AN ACADEMIC REFERENCE BOOK FOR STUDENTS AND HISTORIANS WRITTEN FOR ACADEMIA

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2012

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

The first few pages of this book reminded me of my time at University when I read books on the history of crime and punishment.

It is a dry factual book, pretty much what you would expect a text book to be.

Initially I delved straight into the book and only afterwards looked at who and what the author was, Robert Muchembled is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Paris. The book was originally published in French as `Une histoire de la violence' in 2006. This book has definitely not been written as an easy read novel, it has been written as a reference book.
Students of this particular subject, Historians or prospective Lawyers may find this particular book relevant to their subjects.

It is not an easy read, I think that this is down to the fact that the book has been translated into English from French and that the technical translation is not particularly good. Some of the sentence structures and language can be confusing, jumbled and rather `odd'.

The subject matter of the book may appeal to a great many readers but take note that this is an academic text book for study and uses quite complex language.

It is however a fairly well researched and interesting book on the study of the subject, but let down by the way it has been translated. This may be due to the formality of the language of academia in the original French publication

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