Department of History

MA Early Modern History

Preliminary Reading

The works below relate to the themes and approaches of the Early Modern MA in a variety of ways. Many are classics in the field. None should be read uncritically. The list includes writings by members of the team to give you a taste of our historical enthusiasms. Please read as much as you can before the end of September.

Part 1 These are works we think are important, many have been extremely influential and need to be part of your intellectual armoury. They represent diverse approaches to the field. Also included here is one item by each member of the team.

 Francisco Bethencourt, The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478-1834 (2009)  Tim Blanning, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe, 1660-1789 (2002)  John Bossy, Christianity in the West 1400-1700 (1985)  Roger Chartier, The Order of Books (1994)  Michel de Certeau, The Writing of History (1988)  Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (1997) or Vanities of the Eye: Vision in Early Modern European Culture (2007)  Linda Colley, Captives: Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850 (2002)  D.J. Crankshaw, ‘Community, City and Nation, 1540–1714’ in D. Keene, A. Burns and A. Saint (eds), St Paul’s: The Cathedral Church of London 604–2004 (2004), pp. 45–70  Andrew Cunningham and Ole Grell, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse (2000)  Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre (1985)  Hannah Dawson, Life Lessons from Hobbes (2013)  Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (1975)  Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village (2001)  J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (2006)  Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms (1980)  Anne Goldgar, Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age (2007)  Laura Gowing, Common Bodies: Women, Touch and Power in Seventeenth Century England (2003)  Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: a Curious History (1997)  Toby Green, Inquisition: The Reign of Fear (2007)  Susan James, Passion and Action: The Emotions in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (1997)  Ludmilla Jordanova, Defining Features: Scientific and Medical Portraits 1660-2000 (2000)  Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (1990)

Department of History

 Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe’s House Divided, 1490-1700 (2003) Ian McBride, Eighteenth-century Ireland: The Isle of Slaves (2009)  Niall O’Flaherty, ‘William Paley’s Moral Philosophy and the Challenge of Hume: An Enlightenment Debate?’, Modern Intellectual History, 7, 1 (April 2010).  Anna Maerker, Model Experts: Wax Anatomies and Enlightenment inFlorence and Vienna, 1775-1815 (2011)  Roy Porter, Enlightenment: Britain and the Making of the Modern World (2000)  Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet (2016)  Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe (1994)  Ulinka Rublack, Reformation Europe (2005)  Ulinka Rublack, The Crimes of Women in Early Modern Germany (2000)  David Sabean, Power in the Blood: Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany (1984)  Robert Scribner, For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation (1994, revised edition, first published, 1980).  Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth (1994)  Quentin Skinner, Liberty before Liberalism (1998)  Pamela Smith, The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution (2004)  Adam Sutcliffe, Judaism and Enlightenment (2003)  Francesca Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period (2009)  Jan de Vries, European Urbanization 1500-1800 (1984)  Garthine Walker, ed., Writing Early Modern History (2005)  Lucy Wooding, Rethinking Catholicism in Reformation England (2000)

Part 2 This short list contains books that will give you an overview of the period and can be used for refreshing your sense of bigger pictures.

 Robert Bucholz and Newton Key, Early Modern England 1485-1714 (2009)  Euan Cameron, ed., Early Modern Europe: an Oxford History (1999)  James Collins and Karen Taylor, eds, Early Modern Europe: Issues and Interpretations (2006)  Beat Kümin, The European World 1500-1800: An Introduction to Early Modern History (2009)  Alec Ryrie, Protestants: The Radicals who Made the Modern World (2017)  Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (2006)  Jenny Wormald (ed.) The Seventeenth Century (2008)

Part 3 The following works are about the discipline of history in general. They should help you focus on the kinds of critical tools that are essential for more advanced study in the subject, and that you will be expected be use in the core seminars.

Department of History

 Stefan Berger, et al eds, Writing History: Theory and Practice (2003)  Jeremy Black and Donald MacRaild, Studying History (2nd edition, 2000)  David Cannadine (ed.), What is History Now? (2002)  Mary Fulbrook, Historical Theory (2002)  Ludmilla Jordanova, History in Practice (2nd edition, 2006)  Ulinka Rublack, ed., A Concise Companion to History, 2011  John Tosh, The Pursuit of History (many editions, e.g. 5th, 2010)