In early modern Europe violence was a constant; both in domestic and international wars and at the more local level violence was common practice in negotiating social relations. The Violent Early Modern: New Approaches captures the state of the art in early modern violence studies, a field that has centered political violence, social movements, war, and ritual. Building on that groundwork, this collection foregrounds newer humanist questions — race, gender, and the interplay of popular and elite cultures — while grounding each chapter firmly in original source material.
The volume is organized into four sections: Violence and Culture, Violence and Justice, Violence and Gender, and Violence and the Other, together demonstrating the manifold arenas of early modern life that violence persistently and deliberately shaped. The volume marks a genuine shift in the field: not simply an update, but a reframing of what early modern violence studies can ask. The chapters in each section are based on original interpretations of archival sources, print materials, or art and objects, and place these interpretations and arguments within the relevant historiographies to show how early modern violence studies is rooted in multidisciplinary traditions of scholarship. Due to its interdisciplinarity, this volume broadens the field’s coverage of early modern violence as a whole, and with its strong mix of senior and junior scholars, represents not only the state of the field at this moment but also its future.
Designed for students and scholars alike, the volume offers both an accessible entry point for those new to the field and a valuable reference for academics seeking a refresher or update — filling a real gap, as no broad reader has captured the field's current state in some time.