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  • © 2017

Emotion, Ritual and Power in Europe, 1200–1920

Family, State and Church

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Applies developments in emotionology to an historical context
  • Considers emotions not only as a part of human experience but as a driver of social change
  • Develops readers’ understanding of how emotions act within ritual to inform balances of power

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions (PSHE)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. Emotion, Ritual and Power: From Family to Nation

    • Merridee L. Bailey, Katie Barclay
    Pages 1-20
  3. Familial and Personal Rituals: Local and Community Networks

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21
  4. Back Matter

    Pages 305-320

About this book

This volume spans the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries, across Europe and its empires, and brings together historians, art historians, literary scholars and anthropologists to rethink medieval and early modern ritual. The study of rituals, when it is alert to the emotions which are woven into and through ritual activities, presents an opportunity to explore profoundly important questions about people’s relationships with others, their relationships with the divine, with power dynamics and importantly, with their concept of their own identity. Each chapter in this volume showcases the different approaches, theories and methodologies that can be used to explore emotions in historical rituals, but they all share the goal of answering the question of how emotions act within ritual to inform balances of power in its many and varied forms. 

Chapter 5 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Editors and Affiliations

  • School of History and Politics, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Merridee L. Bailey, Katie Barclay

About the editors


Merridee L. Bailey is a Senior Research Fellow in the ARC Centre for the History of Emotions, The University of Adelaide, Australia. She works on the history of England and Europe in the later medieval and early modern periods and is the author of Socialising the Child in Late Medieval England. 


Katie Barclay is a DECRA fellow in the ARC Centre for the History of Emotions, The University of Adelaide, Australia. She is the author of Love, Intimacy and Power, and numerous articles on family life and emotions. Her current research looks at intimacy amongst the Scottish poor.




Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Emotion, Ritual and Power in Europe, 1200–1920

  • Book Subtitle: Family, State and Church

  • Editors: Merridee L. Bailey, Katie Barclay

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44185-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-44184-9Published: 06 March 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-83005-6Published: 20 July 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-44185-6Published: 25 February 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2946-5958

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-5966

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXI, 320

  • Topics: Cultural History, History of Religion, Memory Studies, Emotion

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access