Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe

Transforms our understanding of Europe between 1500 and 1800 by exploring how ordinary people felt about their enemies and the violence it engendered.

Stuart Carroll (Author)

9781009287326, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 March 2023

490 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 3.3 cm, 0.86 kg

'Based on extensive research in several languages, this book is the first major study of enmity across western Europe in the early modern period. Stuart Carroll argues that enmity remains one of the greatest challenges to liberal democracy and, as such, the concept of enmity remains of central importance today. This book makes a direct challenge to our very understanding of early modern Europe and it is an original and significant contribution to the histories of the state, violence, the law, and emotions.' Jonathan Davies, University of Warwick

In this original study Stuart Carroll transforms our understanding of Europe between 1500 and 1800 by exploring how ordinary people felt about their enemies and the violence it engendered. Enmity, a state or feeling of mutual opposition or hostility, became a major social problem during the transition to modernity. He examines how people used the law, and how they characterised their enmities and expressed their sense of justice or injustice. Through the examples of early modern Italy, Germany, France and England, we see when and why everyday animosities escalated and the attempts of the state to control and even exploit the violence that ensued. This book also examines the communal and religious pressures for peace, and how notions of good neighbourliness and civil order finally worked to underpin trust in the state. Ultimately, enmity is not a relic of the past; it remains one of the greatest challenges to contemporary liberal democracy.

Introduction
Italy
1. The use of the law
2. The politics of vendetta
3. The culture of vendetta
4. The decline of vendetta
Germany
5. Rethinking the feud
6. The culture of enmity in Early Modern Germany
7. Sühne: the theory and practice of peace-making
France
8. Village politics and vendetta
9. Peace and justice under the absolute monarchy
England
10. Justice and violence
11. Enmity in Early Modern England
Comparisons
12. The experience of enmity
13. Enmity and sacred space
14. Living with the enemy.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]