ABSTRACT
Few categories of conduct evoke more concern than ‘violence’. Social critics equate violence with decay, statesmen deplore its prevalence, and unprecedented resources are marshalled to combat it. By far the most significant role in the generation of disputes about violence is played by a consideration which perhaps best accounts for their extreme intractability. It is significant that the champions of various definitions are not even able to agree to differ, but are all evangelists in the cause of their own conception of violence. The violent events of history, the wars and revolutions, will clearly conform to our conception, but more importantly another class of events noted as violence by far fewer historians than are the strict cases, will also fall within our purview. It will be important not only to have such a wide conception of violence but to emphasise the consequences of having one.
