Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Combat Stress in Pre-modern Europe

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Editors:
  1. Owen Rees

    1. Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Kathryn Hurlock

    1. Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  3. Jason Crowley

    1. Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Offers an up-to-date exposition of pre-modern historical studies on the topic of combat stress and PTSD
  • Discusses the methodological obstacles in using modern medical/psychological models to understand pre-modern experiences
  • Covers a broad chronological period from Ancient Greece to the British Civil Wars

Part of the book series: Mental Health in Historical Perspective (MHHP)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
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

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Combat Trauma in Pre-modern Europe: An Introduction

    • Kathryn Hurlock, Owen Rees, Jason Crowley
    Pages 1-14

  3. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: An Ancient Greek Case Study in Retrospective Diagnosis

    • Owen Rees
    Pages 15-35

  4. A Collective War Trauma in Classical Athens? Coping with the Human Cost of Warfare in Aeschylus’ Persians

    • Giorgia Proietti
    Pages 37-61

  5. Combat Trauma and Ajax: A Script-Based Approach

    • Constantine Christoforou
    Pages 63-82

  6. Legal Evidence for Roman PTSD?

    • Andrew Fear
    Pages 83-100

  7. Terrible but Unavoidable? Combat Trauma and a Change to Legal Proscriptions on Roman Military Suicide Under Hadrian

    • Joanne E. Ball
    Pages 101-122

  8. Was There Combat Trauma in the Middle Ages? A Case for Moral Injury in Pre-modern Conflict

    • Kathryn Hurlock
    Pages 123-150

  9. Fear and Loathing in Eyrbyggja Saga: Combat Trauma in Medieval Iceland

    • Chelsea Grosskopf
    Pages 151-169

  10. Understandings of Adversity and Resilience Amongst Women and Children During the Seventeenth-Century British Civil Wars

    • Ismini Pells
    Pages 171-198

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 199-204
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book examines the lasting impact of war on individuals and their communities in pre-modern Europe. Research on combat stress in the modern era regularly draws upon the past for inspiration and validation, but to date no single volume has effectively scrutinised the universal nature of combat stress and its associated modern diagnoses. Highlighting the methodological obstacles of using modern medical and psychological models to understand pre-modern experiences, this book challenges existing studies and presents innovative new directions for future research. With cutting-edge contributions from experts in history, classics and medical humanities, the collection has a broad chronological focus, covering periods from Archaic Greece (c. sixth and early fifth century BCE) to the British Civil Wars (seventeenth century CE). Topics range from the methodological, such as the dangers of retrospective diagnosis and the applicability of Moral Injury to the past, to the conventionally historical, examining how combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder may or may not have manifested in different time periods. With chapters focusing on combatants, women, children and the collective trauma of their communities, this collection will be of great interest to those researching the history of mental health in the pre-modern period.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Owen Rees, Kathryn Hurlock, Jason Crowley

About the editors

Owen Rees is Associate Lecturer in Ancient History at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. An ancient Greek historian with a recognized expertise in the historiographical debate surrounding ancient post-traumatic stress disorder, he has published widely on ancient Greek socio-military history and the medical humanities.

Kathryn Hurlock is Reader in Medieval History at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. She is co-ordinator of the Returning Soldier Network, a collaborative network examining the figure of the returning soldier or veteran from the ancient world to the modern day. Kathryn has published widely on the crusades, including two monographs on aspects of British crusading.

Jason Crowley is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, where he specialises in the psychology of combat and combat motivations. As a comparative historian, he works with theories and evidence generated by the experience of modern warfare, but his main focus is on the citizens of Classical Athens who served as hoplites, heavy-infantrymen, during the wars of the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation