Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence

«Writing history… aims at calming the dead who still haunt the present, and at offering them scriptural tombs.»
Michel de Certeau, The Writing of History, New York and Chichester, Columbia University Press, 1988.
The Evolution of the Perception of Violence
Our perception of violence and its very definition are closely linked to modern sensitivity. What is considered violent in the 21st century may not necessarily have been four centuries earlier. Similarly, what is perceived as violent today in a particular country may not necessarily be so in another. How we perceive violence is subject to significant historical and cultural variations. Expressions such as “mass murder”, “mass crimes”, or “mass rape” appeared in the mid-20th century. Acknowledging this evolution, the OEMV adopts the more general term of “mass violence”…