The family,honour and gender in Sicily: models and new research*

This article shows how the latest research into Sicily's social and economic history calls into question certain well‐established interpretations of the history of the family and its structures, the paradigm of Mediterranean honour, and the theory of familism. This new appraisal also highlights the major significance of the history of women and gender identity.     

Fear, interest and honour: outlines of a theory of International Relations

This article justifies the need for a new paradigm of politics based on the spirit. Fifth-century Greeks considered it one of three psychic drives, the other two being appetite and reason. The spirit reflects the universal human need for self-esteem, which is achieved by emulating the skills, character and accomplishments of people considered praiseworthy by our society. According to Socrates, the spirit loves honour and victory. It responds with anger to any impediment to self-assertion in private or civic life. It desires to avenge all slights of honour or standing to ourselves and our friends. It demands immediate action, which can result in ill-considered behaviour, but can be advantageous in circumstances where rapid responses are necessary. Even a cursory examination of international relations in this modern period indicates the continuing importance of the spirit, and the need to conceptualize it in a manner that helps us to understand this important but hitherto ignored dimension of politics at every level of social aggregation.     

The very personal history of Nithard: family and honour in the Carolingian world

Nithard's Histories of the civil wars fought between Louis the Pious's sons reveal much about mid‐ninth‐century nobility, political values, and the author's changing social position. This article considers how Nithard's immediate familial history affected the text's composition. We argue that his incorporation of authorial voice and detail, crafting of the royal lineage, and emphasis on fraternitas suggest that Nithard employed the text to fight for legitimacy and honour, both familial and individual. We propose that the Histories should be read as a social commemoration of Nithard's familial memories, thus complicating the assumption that family histories were the purview of women.     

Beyond marriage and the convent: women, class and honour in Renaissance Italy

Ann Crabb, The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family Solidarity in the Renaissance Stanley Chojnacki, Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician Society Monica Chojnacka, Working Women of Early Modern Venice Joanne M. Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice     

Duelling after the Duce: postwar conflicts of honour in Italy

Unlike other western European countries, Italy did not see the waning of the duel of honour after the First World War. On the contrary, there was an increase in the practice during the 1920s as the Fascists used mechanisms of honour to facilitate and legitimize their rise to power. However, Mussolini's regime found the individualism of the chivalric tradition inconsistent with its totalitarian notions of discipline and duty and worked in a variety of subtle ways to try to eliminate the ritual from Italian life. For the most part, the Second World War finished the process and, in the wake of defeat, destruction and partisan conflict, duelling virtually disappeared as a means of settling disputes of honour among elites. Nevertheless, one can point to a handful of formal duels, which adhered to traditional regulations, that occurred in the decade after the war. This article investigates these encounters in order to understand why these particular participants decided to opt for a ritual that was both out of fashion and had lost much of its legal immunity. It also argues that their actions actually demonstrate just how alienated the duel had become from Italy's social mainstream after the war.