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

1. What is violence? - Is violence innate? - Violence and manliness. - Semen and blood: a history of honour. - 2. Violence: seven centuries of spectacular decline. - The reliability of the crime figures. - Seven centuries of decline. - The 'making' of young men. - 3. The youth festivals of violence (thirteenth to seventeenth centuries). - A culture of violence. - Violent festivities and brutal games. - Youth violence. - 4. The urban peace at the end of the Middle Ages. - The pacificatory towns. - Controlling the young. - Violence costs dear. - 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. - 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. - 7. Violence tamed (1650-1960). - Murder is forbidden. - The civilizing town. - Violence and changing concepts of honour in the countryside. - 8. Mortal thrills and crime fiction (sixteenth to twentieth centuries). - The devil, assuredly: the birth of crime fiction. - From bloodthirsty murderer to well-loved bandit. - Blood and ink. - 9. The return of the gangs: contemporary adolescence and violence. - Death in paradise. - Juvenile delinquency. - 'Rebel without a cause', or 'eternal recurrence' Met lit. opg., index. VI, 377 p. ; 23 cm