"Cruelty and Civilization" offers an in-depth look at the Roman games as a force vital to the functioning of an Empire. Gladiatorial combats, chariot races and other spectacles were a kind of public opiate for the citizens of Ancient Rome. These rites gave rhythm and excitement to daily life in the Empire. From one year to the next, the Roman citizen lived in anticipation of the next games; through them he was able to forget the mediocrity of his own condition as well as his political enslavement. The most minutely organized productions were staged at vast expense, and Rome developed cults for arena champions, who were simultaneously idols and outcasts, doomed to a bloody death.
Roland Auguet not only reconstructs in detail the conduct of these spectacles (gladiatorial combats, the sacrifice of prisoners to wild beasts, the chariot races, the combats between man and beast or beast and beast), but also analyzes the feelings of the crowd and the calculations ofits rulers. He explains why the games dominated the life of the city. Examining the games in the context of a broader study of Roman customs, this book provides a synthesized view of how Roman civilization was to a large degree based on the games.

This is the first scholarly edition of Aubrey's Brief Lives since 1898, the first to include the complete text of the three Brief Lives manuscripts (including censored and deleted material, title pages, antiquarian notes, and the indices), and the first to provide a full general and critical introduction and comprehensive commentary. This edition is the first to respect the original arrangement of the Lives in Aubrey's manuscripts. Brief Lives is presented as an antiquarian and collaborative text, containing the autograph papers of biographical subjects, the annotations of those among whom the manuscripts circulated, and wax seals. As well as 25 facsimile pages, there are over 160 images, reproducing for the first time all Aubrey's horoscopes, pedigrees, coats of arms, and topographical sketches as they are found in the manuscripts. The text respects the mise-en-page of the manuscript and its status as an incomplete and heavily revised work-in-progress while presenting an edited, rather than a diplomatic, text. The commentary presents extensive new research on manuscript sources including much material not previously known to be Aubrey's or associated with him. It also reflects the state of current scholarship. Each life is introduced by a headnote placing the life in context. This gives the dates and sequence of composition and an account of Aubrey's relationship with the biographical subject, the circulation of knowledge of that subject in Aubrey's circle, and a full account of Aubrey's notes on the subject of the life in other manuscripts and correspondence. Aubrey's biographical informants also have a long note, as do uncompleted or missing Lives.

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aScholars whose interests include the political, diplomatic, and economics aspects of the early republic will find these works rewarding additions to their reading.a
--"Journal of the Early Republic"

aThis book. . . achiev[es] a badly needed analysis of Hamiltonas impact on his and later times.a
--"The Historian"

"Talleyrand, who was acquainted with all of the statesmen of Europe, once remarked that he had never encountered anyone 'equal to Alexander Hamilton.' Hamilton may, in fact, have been the greatest of the American Founding Fathers. He was certainly one of the most important. Despite this, he has rarely been given his due. This superb collection of essays goes a considerable distance towards redressing the balance and towards restoring an American statesman to the central place that he occupied in his own time."
--Paul A. Rahe, author of "Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution"

"Here are many fresh thoughts by many of the most innovative scholars at work on Alexander Hamilton today. Every student of the new republic and many general readers who are captivated by the subject will want to read this volume."
--Lance Banning, author of "Conceived in Liberty: The Struggle to Define the New Republic, 1789-1793"

"This supberb collection of essays goes a considerable distance towards redressing the balance and towards restoring an American statesman to the central place that he occupied in his own time."
--Paul A. Rahe, author of "Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution"

Revolutionary War officer, co-author of theFederalist Papers, our first Treasury Secretary, Thomas Jefferson's nemesis, and victim of a fatal duel with Aaron Burr: Alexander Hamilton has been the focus of debate from his day to ours. On the one hand, Hamilton was the quintessential Founding Father, playing a central role in every key debate and event in the Revolutionary and Early Republic eras. On the other hand, he has received far less popular and scholarly attention than his brethren. Who was he really and what is his legacy?

Scholars have long disagreed. Was Hamilton a closet monarchist or a sincere republican? A victim of partisan politics or one of its most active promoters? A lackey for British interests or a foreign policy mastermind? The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton addresses these and other perennial questions. Leading Hamilton scholars, both historians and political scientists alike, present fresh evidence and new, sometimes competing, interpretations of the man, his thought, and the legacy he has had on America and the world.

This book explores the preaching and printing of sermons by royalists during the English Revolution. While scholars have long recognised the central role played by preachers in driving forward the parliamentarian war-effort, the use of the pulpit by the king's supporters has rarely been considered. The Lord's battle, however, argues that the pulpit offered an especially vital platform for clergymen who opposed the dramatic changes in Church and state that England experienced in the mid-seventeenth century. It shows that royalists after 1640 were moved to rethink earlier attitudes to preaching and print, as the unique potential for sermons to influence both popular and elite audiences became clear. As well as contributing to our understanding of preaching during the Civil Wars therefore, this book engages with recent debates about the nature of royalism in seventeenth-century England. -- .

The tremendous changes in the role and significance of religion during Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation affected all of society. Yet, there have been few attempts to view medicine and the ideas underpinning it within the context of the period and see what changes it underwent. This study charts how both popular and official religion affected orthodox medicine as well as more popular healers. Illustrating the central part played by medicine in Lutheran teachings, the Calvinistic rationalization of disease, and the Catholic responses, the contributors offer new perspectives on the relation of religion and medicine in the early modern period. It should be of interest to social historians as well as specialists in the history of medicine.

A minor Bohemian nobleman who within the space of a few years became a prince and one of the greatest landowners of his age; a military entrepreneur who twice saved the Holy Roman Emperor from disaster with armies he raised, financed and led, but was then twice dismissed; an able general who rescued the Empire from invasion by the Swedish King Gustavus II Adolphus, but was accused of planning to defect to the self-same Swedes; the emperor's commander-in-chief, but assassinated on the emperor's orders; a successful soldier who fell because he tried too hard to make peace; Wallenstein was all these things. Contemporary legends and propaganda were taken up by early biographers of this fascinating character to create a historical myth, elements of which are still present in many more recent accounts. In this book, Geoff Mortimer sets out to clarify the picture and to resolve the enigma.

Italy 1636 is one of the most closely-researched and detailed books on the operation of early modern armies anywhere, and is explicitly inspired by neo-Darwinian thinking. Taking the French and Savoyard invasion of Spanish Lombardy in 1636 as its specific example, it begins with the recruitment of the soldiers, the care and feeding of the armies and their horses, the impact of the invasion on civilians in the path of their advance, and the manner in which generals conducted their campaign in response to the information at their disposal. The next section describes the unfolding of the long and stubborn battle of Tornavento, where Spanish, German, and Italian soldiers stormed the French in their entrenchments, detailing the tactics of both the infantry and the cavalry, and re-evaluating the effectiveness of Spanish methods in the 1630s. The account focuses on the motivations of soldiers to fight, and how they reacted to the stress of combat. Gregory Hanlon arrives at surprising conclusions on the conditions under which they were ready to kill their adversaries, and when they were content to intimidate them into retiring. The volume concludes by examining the penchant for looting of the soldiery in the aftermath of battle, the methods of treating wounded soldiers in the Milan hospital, the horrific consequences of hygienic breakdown in the French camp, and the strategic failure of the invasion in the aftermath of battle. This in turn underscores the surprising resilience of Spanish policies and Spanish arms in Europe. In describing with painstaking detail the invasion of 1636, Hanlon explores the universal features of human behaviour and psychology as they relate to violence and war.

From the middle of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century the Baltic sea was the scene of frequent conflicts between the powers that surrounded it. As the fortunes in the struggle changed, so did the composition of opposing alliances and the identity of the leading participants. Not only were the littoral states concerned by the outcome; other European states were anxious thoughout the period with what went on in the Baltic, where the emergence of one dominant power could be potentially dangerous and where many had important commercial interests. Stewart Oakley makes clear the causes and course of the conflicts and explains the varying fortunes of the participants. It traces the emergence of Sweden, poor as it was in resources, as the leading power in the area in the early 17th century, the early unsuccessful attempts by the Muscovite state to break through to the Sea, the eventual collapse of Sweden's "empire" at the beginning of the 18th century and final emergence of Russia as the leading player on the stage. The main part of the work ends with the failure of Sweden's final attempt to regain something of its former status.

This book is the first extensive study of ideas on earthquakes before the Lisbon earthquake in 1755. The earthquake had a deep impact on European culture, and the reactions to it stood in a long tradition that, before this study, had yet to be explored in detail. Thinking on Earthquakes investigates both scholarly theories and views that were propagated among the early modern European population. Through a chronological approach, Vermij reveals that in contrast to the Ancient and medieval philosophers who suggested rational explanations for earthquakes, supernatural ideas made a powerful comeback in the sixteenth century. By analysing a variety of sources such as pamphlets, sermons, and treatises, this study shows how changes in the ideas on earthquakes were a result of social and political demands as well as from improvements in the means of communication, rather than from scientific methods. Thus, Vermij presents an illuminating case for the production of knowledge in early modern Europe. A range of events are explored, including the Ferrara earthquake in 1570 and the Vienna earthquake in 1590, making this study an invaluable source for students and scholars of the history of science and the history of ideas in early modern Europe.

Tracing the emergence of the domestic kitchen from the 17th to the middle of the 19th century, Sara Pennell explores how the English kitchen became a space of specialised activity, sociability and strife. Drawing upon texts, images, surviving structures and objects, The Birth of the English Kitchen, 1600-1850 opens up the early modern English kitchen as an important historical site in the construction of domestic relations between husband and wife, masters, mistresses and servants and householders and outsiders; and as a crucial resource in contemporary heritage landscapes.

Through a series of sharply focused studies spanning three centuries, David Rollison explores the rise of capitalist manufacturing in the English countryside and the revolution in consciousness that accompanied it. Combining the empiricism of English historiography with the rationalism of Annales, and drawing on ideas from a wide range of disciplines, he argues that the explosive implications of the rise of rural industry created new social formations and altered the communal, cultural and social contexts of peoples lives. Using localized case studies of families and individuals the book starts with significant detail and moves out to build up a subtle and innovative view of English cultural identities in the early modern period.

"There is a welcome intellectual coherence and high scholarship to this latest volume in Berghahn's series on Austrian and Habsburg Studies." -German History

"This volume is a splendid addition to the invaluable Austrian and Habsburg Studies series. Each of its contributors has approached his or her subject in a novel way, and the result is a collection that obliges the reader to look at things with a fresh eye." -N-Net Reviews

..".a splendid volume...The essays in this volume offer scholars several fine theoreticl alternatives for pursuing new narratives about Austro-Hungarian society." -Central European History

"The book succeeds by exploring the ways in which dynastic patriotism really operated... It] offers a highly important contribution to scholarship. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars studying Habsburg and central and east Europeanhistory, identity formation, as well as monarchy as a political institution will greatly benefit from and need to read this book." -Slavic Review

"As with earlier volumes in this series, these essays are well-written and based on original research. There are extensive notes following each essay and a general index for the whole volume. Several topics are somewhat extraneous to the overall theme but readers will find them all of interest." -German Studies Review

The overwhelming majority of historical work on the late Habsburg Monarchy has focused primarily on national movements and ethnic conflicts, with the result that too little attention has been devoted to the state and ruling dynasty. This volume is the first of its kind to concentrate on attempts by the imperial government to generate a dynastic-oriented state patriotism in the multinational Habsburg Monarchy. It examines those forces in state and society which tended toward the promotion of state unity and loyalty towards the ruling house. These essays, all original contributions and written by an international group of historians, provide a critical examination of the phenomenon of "dynastic patriotism" and offer a richly nuanced treatment of the multinational empire in its final phase.

Laurence Cole is Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of Fur Gott, Kaiser und Vaterland: Nationale Identitat der deutschsprachigen Bevolkerung Tirols 1860-1914 (2000), and has recently edited Different Paths to the Nation: National and Regional Identities in Central Europe and Italy, 1830-1870 (2007). He is also co-editor of European History Quarterly.

Daniel Unowsky received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is Associate Professor of History at the University of Memphis. He is the author of The Pomp and Politics of Patriotism: Imperial Celebrations in Habsburg Austria, 1848-1916 (2005), and currently serves as book review editor for the Austrian History Yearbook."

This original and persuasive book examines the moral and religious revival led by the Church of England before and after the Glorious Revolution, and shows how that revival laid the groundwork for a burgeoning civil society in Britain. After outlining the Church of England's key role in the increase of voluntary, charitable, and religious societies, Brent Sirota examines how these groups drove the modernization of Britain through such activities as settling immigrants throughout the empire, founding charity schools, distributing devotional literature, and evangelizing and educating merchants, seamen, and slaves throughout the British empire-all leading to what has been termed the "age of benevolence."

Fully revised, updated and extended to include the momentous developments of 2020, this fourth edition of Peter Rietbergen's highly acclaimed Europe: A Cultural History is a major and original contribution to the study of Europe. The book examines the structures of culture in this part of Eurasia from the beginnings of human settlement on to the genesis of agricultural society, of greater polities, of urban systems, and the slow transitions that resulted in a (post-)industrial society and the individualistic mass culture of the present. Using both economic and socio-political analytical concepts, the volume outlines cultural continuity and change in Europe through the lenses of literature, the arts, science, technology and music, to show the continent's ever-changing identities. In a highly readable style, it expertly contextualizes such diverse and wide-ranging topics as Celtic society, the Roman legal system, the oppositions between 'elite' and 'popular' culture in pre-industrial Europe, Michelangelo's world-view, the interaction between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, the growth of a society of time and money, the appeal of fascism and other totalitarian ideologies, and the ways the songs of Sting express late twentieth-century thinking. Structured both chronologically and thematically, the text is distinctive in the attention consistently paid to the many ways Europe has been formed through its contacts with non-European cultures, especially those of Asia and the Americas. This edition concludes with an epilogue that discusses the ways Europe's recent past - including the long-term efforts at further unification, and the various forms of opposition against it - has been both interpreted and misinterpreted; the importance of globalization; and the major challenges facing Europe in the present, amongst which are the consequences of the pandemic of 2020. With a wide selection of illustrations, maps, excerpts from primary sources and even lyrics from contemporary songs to support its arguments, the text remains the definitive cultural history of Europe for both the general reader and students of European history and culture.

In January of 1649, after years of civil war, King Charles I stood trial in a specially convened English court on charges of treason, murder, and other high crimes against his people. Not only did the revolutionary tribunal fi nd him guilty and order his death, but its masters then abolished monarchy itself and embarked on a bold (though short-lived) republican experiment. The event was a landmark in legal history. The trial and execution of King Charles marked a watershed in English politics and political theory, and thus also affected subsequent developments in those parts of the world colonized by the British. This book presents a selection of contemporaries' accounts of the king's trial and their reactions to it, as well as a report of the trial of the king's own judges once the wheel of fortune turned and monarchy was restored. It uses the words of people directly involved to offer insight into the causes and consequences of these momentous events.

"Performing Libertinism in Charles II's Court: Politics, Drama, Sexuality" examines the performative nature of Restoration libertinism by reading reports of libertine activities and texts of libertine plays within the context of the fraternization between George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Sir Charles Sedley, Sir George Etherege, and William Wycherley. Webster argues that libertines, both real and imagined, performed traditionally secretive acts, including excessive drinking, sex, sedition, and sacrilege, in the public sphere. This eruption of the private into the public challenged a Stuart ideology that distinguished between the nation's public life and the king's and his subjects' private consciences. Although this eruption was contained by the early 1680s, the libertine performances this book analyzes nevertheless played an important part in the history of English radicalism.

The period 1618-1648 was one of the most complex in European history. Religion interacted with rebellion and dynastic rivalry in a series of conflicts in central Europe known collectively as the Thirty Years War. This book guides the reader through the period by surveying the narrative of events and establishing the essential chronological framework. In addition Stephen Lee looks at such key issues as the motives of the participants, their gains and losses, as well as at the religious, military, social and economic aspects of the War. Each section in the book incorporates the most recent research.

The Cheese and the Worms is an incisive study of popular culture in the sixteenth century as seen through the eyes of one man, the miller known as Menocchio, who was accused of heresy during the Inquisition and sentenced to death. Carlo Ginzburg uses the trial records to illustrate the religious and social conflicts of the society Menocchio lived in. For a common miller, Menocchio was surprisingly literate. In his trial testimony he made references to more than a dozen books, including the Bible, Boccaccio's Decameron, Mandeville's Travels, and a "mysterious" book that may have been the Koran. And what he read he recast in terms familiar to him, as in his own version of the creation: "All was chaos, that is earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and of that bulk a mass formed-just as cheese is made out of milk-and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels." Ginzburg's influential book has been widely regarded as an early example of the analytic, case-oriented approach known as microhistory. In a thoughtful new preface, Ginzburg offers his own corollary to Menocchio's story as he considers the discrepancy between the intentions of the writer and what gets written. The Italian miller's story and Ginzburg's work continue to resonate with modern readers because they focus on how oral and written culture are inextricably linked. Menocchio's 500-year-old challenge to authority remains evocative and vital today.

Wills from lower social status shed light on religious, social and cultural history. Lincolnshire has an extensive archive of sixteenth-century probate material, preserved in the registers of the consistory and archdeaconry courts of Lincoln, the peculiar court of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral, and thearchdeaconry court of Stow. Unlike the wills proved by the archiepiscopal probate courts of Canterbury and York, those from Lincolnshire reflect a population of lower social status. The overwhelming majority come from the ranks of husbandmen, yeomen, or tradesmen, rather than the gentry. In this respect the wills offer a valuable source for the cultural and religious preoccupations of the 'middling sort' and those lower in the social spectrum on the eve of the Reformation. Equally, the detailed bequests of property, livestock and land provide an insight into the material culture and prosperity of the testators, as well as extensive genealogical and topographical information of interest to local, regional and family historians.

Filling a major gap in historical, literary, and post-colonial scholarship, Imperialisms examines the identity statements of the world's major imperialisms in multiple theatres of competition over the course of four centuries. Filling a major gap in historical, literary, and post-colonial scholarship, Imperialisms examines early identity statements and nuances of dominance of the world's major imperialisms in various theatres of competition. Developed in collaboration with leading scholars in the field, this book balances historical essays and case studies, and encourages investigations of conversant and competing imperialisms, their practices, and rhetoric of self-justification. Europe (west and east), India, the New World, Africa, and the Far East are among the sites of imperialism featured here, which are analyzed in relation to intersecting debates on politics, religion, literature, nationalism, commerce, conversion, and race. Valuable for preliminary or advanced studies, Imperialisms provides multiple points of entry into and guidelines for a conversation both current and vigorous.

Rethinking Catholicism in Renaissance Spain claims that theology and canon law were decisive for shaping ideas, debates, and decisions about key political and religious problems in Renaissance Spain. This book studies Catholic thought during the Spanish Renaissance, with the various contributors specifically exploring the ecclesiology and heresiology of the period. Today, these two subjects are considered to be strictly branches of theology, but at the time, they were also dealt with in the field of canon law. Both ecclesiology, which studied the internal structure of the Church, and heresiology, which identified theological errors, played an important role in shaping ideas, debates, and decisions concerning the major political and religious problems of the late medieval and early modern periods. In contrast to the conventional monolithic view of Spanish Catholic thought on ecclesiastical matters, the chapters in this book demonstrate that there was a wide spectrum of ideas in the field of theology and canon law. The topics analyzed include Church and Crown relations, diplomatic controversies, doctrinal debates on slavery, ecclesiological disputes in dialogue with the Council of Trent, and theories for distinguishing heresies and repressing them. This book will be essential reading for those interested in disciplines such as Church history, political history, and the history of political and legal thought.

This volume reproduces key historical texts concerning `colonial knowledges'. The use of the adjective 'colonial' indicates that knowledge is shaped by power relationships, while the use of the plural form, 'knowledges' indicates the emphasis in this collection is on an interplay between different, often competing, cognitive systems. George Balandier's notion of the colonial situation is an organising principle that runs throughout the volume, and there are four sub-themes: language and texts, categorical knowledge, the circulation of knowledge and indigenous knowledge. The volume is designed to introduce students to a range of important interventions which speak to each other today, even if they were not intended to do so when first published. An introductory essay links the themes together and explains the significance of the individual articles.

Encounters with a 'multicultural' Britain in the Tudor and Stuart periods written with an eye to debates about immigration and ethnicity in today's Britain. This book recovers the encounter with a "multicultural" Britain by British travellers in the Tudor and Stuart periods. When William Camden, writing in the sixteenth century, set out to write the history of Britannia, he deliberately took to the roads to discover it first-hand, and those diverse cultures guided and informed his journeys. Here, John Cramsie offers original perspectives on Camden's multicultural Britain through the study of British travellersand their narratives. We meet characters such as the Tudor traveller John Leland, who intended to tell the peoples of England and Wales about themselves; chronicle how they came to settle the towns, villages, valleys, and mountaintops they called home; record the marks they left in the landscape; and celebrate the noble histories and cultures they created. Dozens - eventually hundreds - of Britons shared the same passion to meet their island neighbours and relate their experiences. The individuals studied in this book include actual as well as armchair travellers and those who blurred the boundaries between them. Their letters, diaries, journals, and histories range from the epic,poignant, and matter of fact to the exotic, preposterous, and hateful; the sources include actual and imaginative narratives and those which combined both elements. Travellers painted Britain with, in Leland's words, native colours that were rich, vibrant, and, above all, complex. Their remarkable journeys are the story of how Britons over two centuries met, interacted, and attempted (or not) to understand one another. Written with an eye to debates aboutimmigration and ethnicity in today's Britain, the book emphasizes the long history of making and remaking the island's cultural mosaic. The encounter with Britain's native colours has been a burden of history and opportunity formillennia, not simply for our own times. JOHN CRAMSIE is Associate Professor, Department of History, Union College, NY.