The birth of British self-defence: 1604-1904

Bowman, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2264-7596 2023. The birth of British self-defence: 1604-1904. Martial Arts Studies (14) , pp. 52-65. 10.18573/mas.182

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Abstract

This article examines the discourse of self-defence as it emerged and developed in the British context after the introduction of self-defence as a legal term in English common law in 1604. Twentieth-century self-defence discourse is comparatively more well-researched than previous periods, but this study suggests that the concerns, contours and characteristics of current self-defence discourse were established much earlier, growing in the seventeenth, flowering in the eighteenth and maturing during the nineteenth centuries. The study traces this development by examining self-defence books published in Britain between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries. This covers a 300-year period from 1604 (the year that the legal precedent for self-defence was set in England) to 1904 (the year in which publications on jujutsu mark an orientalist reconfiguration of a hitherto Eurocentric self-defence discourse).

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CB History of civilization D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History
Publisher:	Cardiff University Press
ISSN:	2057-5696
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	29 September 2023
Date of Acceptance:	12 September 2023
Last Modified:	27 Nov 2023 11:14
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/162838

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