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Vengeance has long fascinated historians. For some, it has been the key to understanding why some societies are violent and others less so. Revenge has been studied in relation to the growth of law, the increase in power of state authority and levels of violence. Yet while vengeance is popularly associated with disorder, historians were inspired by anthropological work that explored how feuding or revenge was not necessarily chaotic, but could be an ordered system of dispute resolution. This course investigates the history and historiography of revenge, tracing different parts of the realities behind these complex phenomena – such as the actual incidence and typology of violence or the gendered nature of such practices – and the theoretical models used by historians to understand vendetta, feuding and other forms of revenge. The course centres on the early modern period (c.1450-1700), but stretches back to the medieval and forward to the modern period. The geographic focus, although not exclusive, will be Eurasia. Approaches to studying revenge emerge from different disciplines, times and places. Stories about the decline of revenge – the restraint of violence – have been central to long-term histories of ‘civilization’ and state formation; this course will allow students to assess critically these explanations of change over time in relation to practices of violence and vengeful emotions. The course unites the history of violence, law, politics and the emotions.
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