Violence and Honor in Prerevolutionary Périgord
Title Details

342 Pages

22.8 x 15.2 cm

2 b/w illus.

Series: Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe

Series Vol. Number: 18

Imprint: University of Rochester Press

Violence and Honor in Prerevolutionary Périgord

by Steven G. Reinhardt

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Reviews
Drawing on rich archival sources, explores the relationship between honor and violence in the Périgord region in prerevolutionary France.

Historians and scholars across other disciplines have long sought an explanation for why late medieval and early modern Europeans experienced elevated rates of violent crime, and for why society apparently tolerated such high levels of interpersonal violence. Most of our existing explanations focus on the macro level, looking at causes like the rise of the state or the concomitant cultural shift toward civility. In this study, author Steven G. Reinhardt utilizes a more micro-level, descriptive approach to examine the intersection of honor and violence in prerevolutionary France, in particular in the Périgord region between 1770 and 1790. Drawing on archival sources (such as interrogations, petitions, and inquests), Reinhardt vividly conveys the texture of ordinary people's everyday experiences.

Based on a sampling of criminal court cases from a region marginally integrated into the emerging capitalist economy, Violence and Honor in Prerevolutionary Périgord presents a series of extraordinarily rich narratives illustrating their subjects' understanding of the imperatives of the honor code. Combining careful scholarship with popular history, the book will interest historians of early modern Europe, legal scholars, and anthropologists of law, as well as students and general readers interested in the history of violence.

Steven G.Reinhardt is associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Violence and Honor
Honor in a Cross-Cultural Context
From Honor to Honnêteté in Old Regime Europe
"The Good Old Days" in Prerevolutionary Sarladais
"The Saint of Honor" in the Sénéchaussée of Sarlat
Women and Honor-Related Criminal Affaires
Policing Honnêteté: Shameful, Sinful, and Criminal Conduct
"Fallen Women" and Infanticide
Compromised Honor and Dangerous Liaisons
Honor and Homicide
Conlusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
"[A]n illuminating read, pointing to important themes of changing cultural norms and the intersection between the private sphere and the increasing encroachment of the state and criminal justice." H-FRANCE

Hardcover

9781580465830

February 2018

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9781787441774

February 2018

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Title Details

342 Pages

2.28 x 1.52 cm

2 b/w illus.

Series: Changing Perspectives on Early Modern Europe

Series Vol. Number: 18

Imprint: University of Rochester Press