This book explores key themes in European history through case studies scrutinizing the much-debated concept of “social control” from its exercise within the family and local communities to interventions at the highest state level. A wide range of regulated practices and institutions can be treated as manifestations or forces of social control. Their common feature is the way in which they develop a set of practices and rituals, some of which are enduring and seemingly unchanging, some in a state of transition or subjected to challenges, and others “new” and in the process of formation. The articles in this book cover a time span from the early modern period up to the twentieth century, and a geographical spread from various locations in Nordic countries to continental Europe and the British Isles.