How have our social and cultural perceptions of solitude changed across different cultures over the centuries? In a work that spans 2,500 years these ambitious questions are addressed by around 60 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. They illustrate broad trends and nuances of the social and cultural nature of solitude globally from antiquity to the present, covering a whole range of forms of ‘aloneness’, both positive and negative, chosen and imposed. These include the experience of healthy solitude and the suffering of loneliness, splendid isolation and alienation, exile and incarceration, meditative silence and oppressive silencing. Individual people grow and learn through both connection and separation, togetherness and individuation, so too do communities. The work is divided into six chronological volumes that share a consistent thematic structure. Readers can dive deep into a specific historical period, or track the evolution of a theme across the centuries. Volume Editors 1. Antiquity (800 BC – 500 CE): Aaron J Kachuck, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium 2. Middle Ages (500 – 1450): Bronwen Neil, Macquarie University, Australia, and Catherine Rosbrook, Ghent University, Belgium 3. Early Modern Age (1450 – 1700): Andrew Mattison, University of Toledo, USA 4. Eighteenth Century (1700 – 1800): Giovanni Tarantino, University of Florence, Italy 5. Nineteenth Century (1800 – 1900): Catherine Samiei, York St John University, UK, and Julian Stern, Bishop Grosseteste University, UK 6. Modern Age (1900 – present): Peter Scharff Smith, Oslo University, Norway. The six volumes cover: 1 – Antiquity (500 BCE to 500 CE); 2 – Middle Ages (500 to 1450); 3 – Early Modern Age (1450 to 1700); 4 – Eighteenth Century (1700 to 1800); 5 – Nineteenth Century (1800 to 1900); 6 – Modern Age (1900 to the present). Themes (and chapter titles) are: creative arts and solitude; religion and solitude; health and solitude; nature, the en
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