The Duel in Early Modern England

"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
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.