A history of violence: from the end of the Middle Ages to the present

Abstract

* 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 forbidden * The civilizing 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 the crime fiction * From blood-thirsty murderer to well-loved bandit * 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?