Tracing the cultural history of violence through the ages, these six volumes explore how it has been understood, created, carried out and controlled from the ancient world to the modern day.

This ambitious and magisterial work asks questions about the history of violence and presents rich case materials to illustrate broad trends and nuances of the culture of violence over most of human history. As a key theme throughout history, violence has played a central role in, one could argue, most events, movements and countries. This collection considers how violence can offer an insight into societies of the past.

In a work that spans 6 periods, 8 key themes within the history of violence are considered by 54 experts and can be followed through the ages. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and its structure allows the reader to either hone in one particular period, or trace a specific theme across the ages through each of the volumes.

The six volumes cover: 1. Antiquity (500 BCE to 800 CE)

2. The Middle Ages (800 to 1450)

3. The Renaissance (1450 to 1650)

4. Age of Enlightenment (1650 to 1800)

5. Age of Empire (1800 to 1920)

6. Modern Age (1920 to the present).

Themes (and chapter titles) are: understanding and defining violence, sacred violence, spaces of violence, authority and violence, persecution, oppression and subjection, emotion and violence, representations of violence, and technologies of violence.

The page extent for the pack is approximately 1630pp.

The Cultural Histories Series

A Cultural History of Violence is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, and part of a fully-searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).