This volume examines the French Revolution's relationship with and impact on religious communities and religion in a transnational perspective. It challenges the traditional secular narrative of the French Revolution, exploring religious experience and representation during the Revolution, as well as the religious legacies that spanned from the eighteenth century to the present. Contributors explore the myriad ways that individuals, communities, and nation-states reshaped religion in France, Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, and around the world.

This 1995 book contributes to both modern German history and to the sociological understanding of crime in modern industrial and urban societies. Its central argument is that cities, in themselves, do not cause crime. It focuses on the problems of crime and criminal justice during Germany's period of most rapid urban and industrial growth - a period when Germany also rose to world power status. From 1871 to 1914, German cities, despite massive growth, socialist agitation and non-ethnic German immigration, were not particularly infested with crime. Yet the conservative political and religious elites constantly railed against the immoral nature of the city and the German governmental authorities, police, and court officials often overreacted against city populations. In so doing, they helped to set Germany on a dangerous authoritarian course.

This book contributes to modern German history and to the sociological understanding of crime in urban societies. Its central argument is that cities do not cause crime. It focuses on crime during Germany's period of most rapid growth. From 1871-1914, German cities, despite massive growth, socialist agitation, non-ethnic immigration, and the censure of conservative elites, were not particularly crime-infested. Nevertheless, governmental authorities often overreacted against city populations, helping to set Germany on a dangerous authoritarian course.

Along with most of the rest         of Western culture, has crime itself become more "civilized"?         This book exposes as myths the beliefs that society has become more violent         than it has been in the past and that violence is more likely to occur         in cities than in rural areas.       The product of years of study         by scholars from North America and Europe, The Civilization of Crime         shows that, however violent some large cities may be now, both rural and         urban communities in Sweden, Holland, England, and other countries were         far more violent during the late Middle Ages than any cities are today.       Contributors show that the         dramatic change is due, in part, to the fact that violence was often tolerated         or even accepted as a form of dispute settlement in village-dominated         premodern society. Interpersonal violence declined in the seventeenth         and eighteenth centuries, as dispute resolution was taken over by courts         and other state institutions and the church became increasingly intolerant         of it.       The book also challenges a         number of other historical-sociological theories, among them that contemporary         organized crime is new, and addresses continuing debate about the meaning         and usefulness of crime statistics.       CONTRIBUTORS: Esther Cohen,         Herman Diederiks, Florike Egmond, Eric A. Johnson, Michele Mancino, Eric         H. Monkkonen, Eva Österberg, James A. Sharpe, Pieter Spierenburg,         Jan Sundin, Barbara Weinberger