The Duel in Early Modern England: Civility, Politeness and Honour

by Markku Peltonen

Overview

Arguments about the practice of the duel in early modern England were widespread. Markku Peltonen, the distinguished intellectual historian, examines the debate, and reveals how the moral and ideological status of duelling was considered within a much broader cultural context of courtesy, civility and politeness. Understanding the duel involves knowing crucial issues in the cultural and ideological history of Stuart England. Peltonen's wide-ranging study engages the attention of a significant audience of historians and cultural and literary scholars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521025201
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/16/2006
Series:	Ideas in Context , #65
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Markku Peltonen is Senior Lecturer in General History, Department of History, University of Helsinki.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The rise of civil courtesy and the duelling theory in Elizabethan and early Stuart England; 2. The Jacobean anti-duelling campaign; 3. Duelling, civility and honour in Restoration and Augustan England; 4. Anti-duelling campaigns 1660–1720; 5. Politeness, duelling and honour in Bernard Mandeville; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Markku Peltonen has written a revealing and thoughtful analysis of both the intellectual origins and ideological functions of dueling, arguing taht the practice entered English life as an appropriation of the Italian Renaissance notion of civility and increasingly served to legitimate native political and social values." - Seventeenth-Century News Brett F. Parker, University of South Carolina Upstate

From the Publisher