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Not bad at all!
I have to openly admit it. I sometimes am tempted to judge a book by its title. Particularly those put out by mainstream academia, whose editors and publishers are so immersed in their remote little niche of the ivory tower that something like Men and Violence: Gender, Honor, and Ritual in Modern Europe and America not only sounds perfectly politically correct, but actually quite good.
Despite the Birkenstockian post-doc title, Spierenburg's collection of essays and studies are GOOD. Authors include Ute Frevert, who despite a certain missionary zeal against us Mensur-fighting Neanderthals toward the end of her Ehrenmänner ranks high among my favorite researchers into the murky past of the Central European duel. Then there's a provocative piece called "The Victorian Criminalization of Men" by Martin J. Wiener, which in my humble opinion is worth the purchase of this book all by itself. And then there are two excellent studies on popular knife fighting rituals in the Netherlands and Rome by Spierenburg himself and by Daniele Boschi.
If you had the opportunity to watch the Discovery Channel's series Deadly Duels (if not, you can purchase the videos through amazon.com), you will be familiar with the work and opinions of Robert Nye and Steven Hughes, who also contributed highly interesting articles to this collection.
In short, anyone interested not only in the how an edged weapon was wielded, but for what reasons and in what cultural contexts, is in for a treat. The rest...check out The Cutting Edge!
Author: Spierenburg, Pieter (ed.)
Title: Men and Violence: Gender, Honor, and Ritual in Modern Europe and America, Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP, 1998; paperback; 279 pp. ISBN: 0814207537; US$17.95 at amazon.com
Hammerterz Rating: HHHH
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