Literature of European History I

Home , Caroline Walker Bynum, Natalie Zemon Davis

Dr. Sarah Covington Fall, 2015 Thurs., 4:15-6:15 Office: #5400 Hours: 3-4 p.m. (Th) or by appt. Contact: [email protected] 718-997-5393

Introduction This course will introduce you to the basic theories, methodologies, debates, and themes in the historical study of medieval and early modern history. In part one, we will survey the different conceptual and methodological approaches as they are applied to the period from approximately the twelfth through the eighteenth centuries. In part two, we will then move on to study classic and recent texts that apply such approaches to such essential topics as political thought and the emergence of states and nations; religion and the crisis of the reformation and counter-reformation; revolutions in science and technology; and transformations in social life and gender relations. This will be an intensive yet supportive course with the goal of helping you study for the first-year comprehensive examination; but aid you in laying the critical foundations for future studies, which makes it essential that you read more than the required books, and compile an extensive annotated bibliography for future use.

As such, our work will be collaborative; not only are you encouraged to see me in my office hours, but you should consult with each other and participate on blackboard (or in independent study groups) to share the material and your own comments and findings together.

Requirements

 Attendance and Participation (15%). You will be expected to read intensively in this course and to contribute substantially to the weekly discussions; attendance is therefore essential.

 Weekly Response Papers and presentation (40%). Every week you must submit a two-page critical essay on one reading of your choice, answering the questions I provide you in the handout. Four times this semester, you will be required to cover two books; you can choose when to do those, but preferably over the weeks we don’t have class. You should focus on the major themes, questions, and problems posed by the reading(s) for the week, and post your essay on blackboard by 9 a.m. on the day of the class. I will need my own hard copy, and will grade it with a + for outstanding, a  for good, and a - for a deficient essay with no penalty. You may miss two papers without penalty. You will also be expected to participate in discussions of the book you chose, contextualizing it in accordance to the other readings on historiography and method.

 Two Final Paper (25% each). In a mock-up of the examination question, you will be expected to write two 8-10 page papers that utilize a broad range of the readings and theoretical approaches, answering the following broad questions.

Paper 1: Based on conceptual/methodological approaches covered in part one of the class, describe the strengths and weaknesses of at least three of them. How do they react or relate to other approaches? How are they applied to the study of pre-modern history? Paper 2: What are the key questions that emerge around three of the topics in part two ((science, religion, the state, etc). How have these questions been addressed or answered by different historians?

Important Dates

Paper #1: Due October 29 Paper #2: Due December 10 First-Year Examination: Wednesday, December 16

READING: Required:

 At least one book a week, chosen from the list provided each session; two books a week in some cases (four times this semester). We will be coordinating the books with each other in order that most if not all are covered in each class. You are also encouraged to familiarize yourself with the other books, however.  Historiography readings (3rd column) in part one of the class. Available on blackboard. Recommended: Textbooks:  Daniel Waley and Peter Denley, Later Medieval Europe: 1250-1520  Eugene Rice and Anthony Grafton, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460- 1559 (2nd ed. (New York, 1994).

Useful Websites:  http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/ Annotated bibliographies of specialized areas, compiled by leading scholars in the field. See for Renaissance and Reformation, and for Medieval Studies.  http://home.uchicago.edu/~icon/teach/guideorals.pdf “Guide to the Study of Early Modern European History For Students Preparing their Oral Examination,” by Constantin Fasolt. Issued by the University of Chicago, very useful throughout your graduate career as a guide to sources and reference works, in addition to suggestions on how to study for exams and orals.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

8/27 Introduction to the course; overview of historiography; themes in medieval and early modern history; studying for the exam.

Part One: Historiographical Approaches and Methods

Week Topic

1. Christopher Given-Wilson, Chronicles: The Writing of 9/3 Historical Writing History in Medieval England (London, 2007) and the Problems 2. Burke, Peter. The Renaissance Sense of the Past. London, of the Pre-Modern 1969. 3. G.R. Elton, Practice of History 4. E.R. Carr, What is History 5. Peter Burke, “Western Historical Thinking in a Global Perspective – 10 Theses,” in Western Historical Thinking: An Intercultural Debate, ed. Jorn Rusen (2002) 6. Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question"and the American Historical Profession. (Cambridge University Press, 1988). 7. Garthina Walker, ed. Writing Early Modern History (Bloomsbury, 2005)

9/10 No Class; Monday schedule

9/17 Annales and the 1. E. LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou History of 2. F. Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of Mentalities the Possible (Philadelphia 1979). 3. Lucien Febrvre, The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1985) 4. Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (New York1962 trans.), pp. 15-49. 5. Marc Bloch, “Historical Analysis” in The Historian’s Craft (Manchester, 1992), pp. 138-189; with Boch, Feudal Society

9/24 No Class (Conference)

10/1 Marxist History, 1. R.I. Hilton, Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Economic History, Movement and the English Rising of 1381 (2nd ed., 2003) and “History from 2. Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down Below” (London, 1984) 3. Keith Wrightson, Earthly Necessities: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain (2000) 4. E.P. Thompson, Making of the English Working Class (1963) 5. William Beik, A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France (Cambridge, 2009) 6. Burke, Peter. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (1994).

1. Thomas Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3d ed. 10/8 History of Science (Chicago, 1996) and Ideas 2. Steven Shapin. The Scientific Revolution (Chicago, 1996) 3. David Lindberg and Robert S. Westman, eds. Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, 1990). 4. B.J.T. Dobbs and Margaret Jacob. Newton and the Culture of Newtonianism. Humanities Press, 1995 5. Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has No Sex?: Women in the Origins of Modern Science (Harvard UP, 1989). 6. Thomas Hankins, Science in the Enlightenment (Cambridge UP, 1985)

1. C. Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese 10/15 Anthropology and Cockfight,” in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Microhistory Essays. (New York 2000), 412-454. 2. Carlo Ginzberg, The Cheese and the Worms (Baltimore, 1992). 3. Natalie Zemon Davis , The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, MA, 1984) 4. Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (Oxford, 1997)

10/22 Gender and 1. Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Sexuality; the Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley, body 1987) 2. Merry Wiesner. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 2008) 3. Christine Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy (Chicago, 1995) 4. J. Scott, “Gender as a Useful Category for Analysis,” AHR 91 (1986), 1053-1075; Joan Scott, “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” [note: need to supplement with other books] 5.

Part Two: Specialized Areas: Medieval and Early Modern

10/29 The Middle Ages 1. Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago, 1982) 2. John Arnold, Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2005) 3. R.I. Moore, Formation of a Persecuting Society (revised; New York, 2007) 4. Huizinga, Waning [or Autumn] of the Middle Ages (Chicago, 1996) 5. David Niremberg, Communities of Violence (Princeton, 1996)

11/5 Humanism and 1. Grafton, Anthony. Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of the Renaissance Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450-1800 (Cambridge, MA, 1994) 2. Nauert, Charles. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, 1995) 3. Lauro Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy (Baltimore, 1988) 4. John M. Najerny (Ed), Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1300-1550 (Oxford, 2005)

11/12 States and 1. Steven A. Epstein, An Economic and Social History of Later Nations Medieval Europe, 1000-1500 (Cambridge, 2009) 2. Garrett Mattingly.G. Renaissance Diplomacy (Boston, 1955) 3. Geoffrey Parker. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West 1500-1800. 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1996) 4. J.H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 (Penguin), 2002). (2nd ed)

11/19 The 1. John Bossy, John. Christianity in the West, 1400- Reformation 1700 (Oxford, 1985) and Counter- 2. Duffy, Eamon. Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in Reformation England, 1400-1580.2d.ed. (New Haven, 2005) 3. MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation (New York, 2004) 4. John O’Malley. Trent and All That: Renaming Catholicism in the Early Modern Era (Cambridge, MA, 2000) 5. R. Po-Chia Hsia. Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe 1550-1750 (London, 1989) 6. R.W. Scribner. Popular Culture and Popular Movement in Reformation Germany (London, 1987)

11/26 No Class Thanksgiving

12/3 Print culture 1. Peter Dear. Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and and its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (Princeton, 2001) Technology; 2. Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Science and Modern Europe [abridged] (Cambridge, 1993) Medicine 3. Shapin, Steven, and Simon Schaffer. Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (Princeton, 1989) 4. Nancy G. Siraisi, Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice (Chicago, 1990)

12/10 The Ancient 1. Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger, Luxury in the Regime Eighteenth Century: debates, desires and delectable goods (2003)

2. Tim Blanning, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: old regime Europe 1660-1789 (2002) 3. Colin Jones and Dror Wahrman, eds. Age of Cultural Revolution (University of California, 2002). 4. Ian Baucom, Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery and the Philosophy of History (2005), 3-18, 94-112. 5. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983) 6. Felicity Nussbaum, ed., The Global Eighteenth Century (Johns Hopkins, 2003)

READING LIST

Note: You do not need to know all of the following books for the exam, but this list covers the material—and classic books in the field-- we will be discussing in class, and you will be asked to discuss a good sampling of them on the exam.

1. Althoff, Gerd, Johannes Fried, Patrick J. Geary, eds. Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography (Cambridge, 2002). 2. Aries, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York, 1965. 3. Arnold, John. Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe. London, 2005. 4. Bossy, John. Christianity and the West, 1400-1700 (1985)Braudel, Fernand. The Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of the Possible. Trans. by S. Reynolds Philadelphia 1979. 5. Brown, Peter. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity 6. Burke, Peter. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (1994). 7. Burke, Peter. The Renaissance Sense of the Past. London: Edward Arnold, 1969. 8. Bynum. Caroline Walker. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women Berkeley, 1987. 9. Cassirer, Ernst. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. Philadelphia, 1963. 10. Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre. Cambridge, 1983. 11. Dear, Peter. Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (2001) 12. Duffy, Eamon. Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580. 2d. ed. (2005) 13. Eisenstrein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe [abridged] (1993) 14. Elliott, J.H. Imperial Spain, 1469-1716. 2nd ed. New York, 2002. 15. Epstein, Steven. An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe, 1000- 1500 Cambridge, 2009. 16. Febrvre, Lucien. The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais. Cambridge, 1985. 17. Ferguson, Wallace K. The Renaissance in Historical Thought: Five Centuries of Interpretation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948. 18. Geertz, Clifford. “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. (New York 2000), 412-454 19. Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. 2nd ed. Baltimore, 1992. 20. Given-Wilson, Christopher. Chronicles: The Writing of History in Medieval England (London, 2007) 21. Grafton, Anthony. Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450-1800 (1994) 22. Grafton, Anthony. What Was History? The Art of History in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 23. Hindle, Steve. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England. New York, 2002. 24. Hsia, R. Po-Chia. Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe 1550- 1750 (1989) 25. Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages. Chicago, 1997. 26. Kelley, Donald. The Faces of History: From Herodotus to Herder. New Haven, 1998, pp. 1-99. 27. King, Margaret. Women of the Renaissance. Chicago, 1991. 28. Klapisch-Zuber, Christine. Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago, 1995. 29. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3d ed. Chicago, 1996 30. LeRoy Ladurie, Emmanuel. Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. (New York, 1979). 31. Lindberg, David and Robert S. Westman, eds. Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge, 1990. 32. MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation. New York: Viking, 2004. 33. Martines, Lauro. Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy (1988) 34. Mattingly.Garrett. Renaissance Diplomacy. Boston, 1955 35. Mendelson, Sara and Patricia Crawford, Women in Early Modern England, 1550-1720, (Oxford University Press) 2000. 36. Moore, R.I. Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250, 2nd Edition. New York, 2007. 37. Najerny, John M. (Ed), Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1300-1550. Oxford, 2005. 38. Nauert, Charles. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (1995 39. Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West 1500-1800. 2d ed. (1996) 40. O’Malley, John. Trent and All That: Renaming Catholicism in the Early Modern Era. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. 41. Partner, Nancy. Writing Medieval History. London, 2005. 42. Perry, Mary Elizabeth. Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville. Princeton, 1990. 43. van Ranke, Leopold.. The Theory and Practice of History (Routledge, 2011). 44. Scribner, R.W. Popular Culture and Popular Movement in Reformation Germany. London, 1987. 45. Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Revolution. Chicago, 1996. 46. Shapin, Steven, and Simon Schaffer. Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (1989). 47. Siraisi, Nancy G. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice (University of Chicago Press) 1990 48. Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England. Oxford,1997. 49. Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. Norman, 1999. 50. Wiesner, Merry. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (1993)

TIPS IN STUDYING FOR THE EXAMINATION:

1. Read systematically, carefully and take notes. You may begin by consulting bibliographies such as the Oxford Bibliographies Online. Also, begin with some more recent works, or rather their bibliographies and footnoted,, which will give you a recent sense of the field. What is the author’s approach and argument? How is s/he positioning himself or herself in the existing historiography? What sources is he or she relying upon? 2. Read book reviews and other works that critique or engage with the work. 3. Consult guides and dictionaries. 4. Compile your own bibliography/database. You will be referring to this throughout your graduate career, and be thankful when it comes time for the orals. 5. Start support groups with your peers to circulate abstracts and study. For this class, utilize blackboard. 6. See me on a fairly regular basis to discuss any questions you may have. 7. Create study sheets and notes in preparation for the exam.