This qualitative case study employs pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as a framework for exploring secondary history teachers' conceptions of historical violence in relation to curriculum, pedagogy, and their objectives for students. Participants first describe how they define the term "historical violence," but the study turns on the ways participants account for their students' intellectual and emotional well-being when broaching various instances of historical violence that do (and do not) fit into their conceptions. The author argues that teachers change their orientations toward violence based in part on its temporal distance from the present, its perceived political sensitivity, and their estimations of different students' abilities and identities. In addition, participants discussed their rationales for surfacing or silencing instances of violence with students primarily with age-based (as opposed to experiential) notions of maturity, a finding that should be explored further in subsequent studies. The data is drawn from the perspectives of ten participant high school history teachers in a large public school district in the American Midwest. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]