What is revenge, and what purpose does it serve? On the early modern English stage, depictions of violence and carnage—the duel between Hamlet and Laertes that leaves nearly everyone dead or the ghastly meal of human remains served at the end of Titus Andronicus—emphasize arresting acts of revenge that upset the social order. Yet the subsequent critical focus on a narrow selection of often bloody "revenge plays" has overshadowed subtler and less spectacular modes of vengeance present in early modern culture. In Civil Vengeance, Emily L. King offers a new way of understanding early modern revenge in relation to civility and community. Rather than relegating vengeance to the social periphery, she uncovers how facets of society—church, law, and education—relied on the dynamic of retribution to augment their power such that revenge emerges as an extension of civility. To revise the lineage of revenge literature in early modern England, King rereads familiar revenge tragedies (including Marston's Antonio's Revenge and Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy) alongside a new archive that includes conduct manuals, legal and political documents, and sermons. Shifting attention from episodic revenge to quotidian forms, Civil Vengeance provides new insights into the manner by which retaliation informs identity formation, interpersonal relationships, and the construction of the social body.

What is revenge, and what purpose does it serve? On the early modern English stage, depictions of violence and carnage—the duel between Hamlet and Laertes that leaves nearly everyone dead or the ghastly meal of human remains served at the end of Titus Andronicus—emphasize arresting acts of revenge that upset the social order. Yet the subsequent critical focus on a narrow selection of often bloody "revenge plays" has overshadowed subtler and less spectacular modes of vengeance present in early modern culture. In Civil Vengeance, Emily L. King offers a new way of understanding early modern revenge in relation to civility and community. Rather than relegating vengeance to the social periphery, she uncovers how facets of society—church, law, and education—relied on the dynamic of retribution to augment their power such that revenge emerges as an extension of civility. To revise the lineage of revenge literature in early modern England, King rereads familiar revenge tragedies (including Marston's Antonio's Revenge and Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy) alongside a new archive that includes conduct manuals, legal and political documents, and sermons. Shifting attention from episodic revenge to quotidian forms, Civil Vengeance provides new insights into the manner by which retaliation informs identity formation, interpersonal relationships, and the construction of the social body.

Companion to the The Baptist Heritage, this book provides documents that will enrich the study of Baptist history.

Prose and poetry selections from the Colonial Period and National Period.

We are in trouble. Our social, financial, and religious institutions are crumbling. Our criminal justice system is a prime example of society’s dysfunction.More than 1 in 100 Americans are now in jail.Taxes now finance the incarceration of 1 in 53 of adults in their 20s.There are now 2.3 million people locked up in the U.S. (the same number of prisoners in Russia and China combined).The U.S. accounts for 5 percent of the world’s population--and 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. What courtroom veteran and law professor Sylvia Clute saw on a daily basis was all too often the miscarriage of justice. Because of her legal background, Clute focuses on legal horror stories to demonstrate her underlying thesis: The crisis in our legal system is merely symptomatic of a rot found in each of our institutions. It is rooted in a philosophy of dualism that pits us against one another. It is rooted in a philosophy that fails to recognize the oneness or unity of all life. Clute unfolds her argument for applying the philosophy of non-duality to not only our criminal justice system, but to all social relationships. She explores the roots of dualist thinking in the religious traditions of the world and offers the hope that if individuals--and societies--can move beyond dualistic thinking, we will create a society that is truly just and authentically caring. Part social policy, part metaphysics, this is a book for all who are looking for a new model for individual and societal relationships.

This book explores the motives of local political elites and armed groups in carrying out violence against civilians during civil war.