Literature of European History I

Literature of European History I Dr. Sarah Covington Fall, 2014 Office: #5402 Tues. 6:30-8:30 p.m., Room 5212 Hours: 5:30-6:30 or by appt. Contact: sarah.covington@qc.cuny.edu 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 addition to surveying the different conceptual and methodological approaches to the development of history as a mode of knowledge across time, we will read works that best reflect these different approaches; we will then move on to study classic and recent texts that approach such essential topics in medieval and early modern history as political thought and the emergence of states and nations; religion and the crisis of the reformation and counterreformation;, revolutions in science and technology; and transformations in social life and gender relations. This will be an intensive yet supportive course with the goal not only of helping you study for the first-year comprehensive examination, but aid you in laying the critical foundations for future studies. 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 (20%). You will be expected to read intensively in this course and to contribute substantially to the weekly discussions; attendance is therefore essential. ly Response Papers and presentation (40%). Every week you must submit a two-page critical essay on the reading of your choice, answering the questions I provide you in the handout. You should focus on the major themes, questions, and

problems posed by the reading 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. Seminar Presentation. You will be asked to give a 10-15 minute presentation based on the reading(s) of the week, with special focus on the historiographical or theoretical approach, and providing a general overview and posing questions for the seminar. Final Paper (40 %). 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: 1. What are problems in approaching the study of pre-modern history? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches, and how are they illustrated in the books under review? 2. Based on three of the specialized fields that we ve studied, describe the approaches and manner in which those fields have been treated, and how study of them has changed over the years READING: Required: One book a week, chosen from the list provided each session. 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 (3 rd 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 (2 nd 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 One: 9/2 Introduction to the course; overview of historiography; themes in medieval and early modern history; studying for the exam. Part One: Historiographical Approaches and Methods Topic Required One of the Following Two: 9/9 Ancient and Medieval History Philip Stadler, Historical Thought in Ancient Greece (skim) Historical Thought in Ancient Rome (skim) Gabrielle Spiegel, Historical Thought in Medieval Europe (required) 1. Donald Kelley, The Faces of History: From Herodotus to Herder. New Haven, 1998, pp. 1-99. 2. Gerd Althoff, Johannes Fried, Patrick J. Geary, eds. Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography (Cambridge, 2002). 3. Christopher Given-Wilson, Chronicles: The Writing of History in Medieval England (London, 2007) 4. Nancy Partner, Writing Medieval History. London, 2005.

Three: 9/16 The Inheritance: From the Renaissance through the 19 th century Findlen, Paula. Historical Thought in the Renaissance. In A Companion to Western Historical Thought. 1. Burke, Peter. The Renaissance Sense of the Past. London, 1969. 2. Ferguson, Wallace K. The Renaissance in Historical Thought: Five Centuries of Interpretation. Boston, 1948. 3. Grafton, Anthony. What Was History? The Art of History in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, 2007. 4. Leopold van Ranke. The Theory and Practice of History (Routledge, 2011). Four: 9/23 No Class; Friday schedule Five: 9/30 Annales and the History of Mentalities Breisach, pp. 388-394; Recommended: Marc Bloch, Historical Analysis in The Historian s Craft (Manchester, 1992), pp. 138-189. 1. E. LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou 2. F. Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of 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. Six: 10/7 Marxist History, Economic History, and History from Below Walter Adamson, Marxism and Historical Thought 1. R.I. Hilton, Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movement and the English Rising of 1381 (2 nd ed., 2003) 2. Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down (London, 1984) 3. Carlo Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700 (London, 1993) 4. Robert DuPlessis, Transitions to

Capitalism in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge 1997). Seven 10/14 History of Science and Ideas Ken Adler, The History of Science, Or, an Oxymoronic Theory of Relativistic Objectivity Skinner, Quentin. "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas." Reprinted in James Tully, ed., Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and His Critics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 29-67. 1. Thomas Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3d ed. (Chicago, 1996) 2. Steven Shapin. The Scientific Revolution (Chicago, 1996) 3. David Lindberg and Robert S. Westman, eds. Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, 1990). 4. Cassirer, Ernst. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy (Philadelphia, 1963). Eight 10/21 Anthropology and Microhistory William Reddy, Anthropology and the History of Culture 1. C. Geertz, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected 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) Nine 10/28 Gender and Sexuality; the body J. Scott, Gender as a Useful Category for Analysis, AHR 91 1. Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley, 1987)

(1986), 1053-1075. Joan Scott, Did Women Have a Renaissance? 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. Margaret King. Women of the Renaissance (Chicago, 1991) Part Two: Specialized Areas: Medieval and Early Modern Ten 11/4 The Medieval Background 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) Eleven 11/11 Humanism and the Renaissance 1. Grafton, Anthony. Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of 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) Twelve 11/18 States and Nations 1. Steven A. Epstein, An Economic and Social History of Later 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) 5. Tzvetan, Todorov. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other (Norman, 1999). Thirteen: 11/25 The Reformation and Counter- Reformation 1. John Bossy, John. Christianity in the West, 1400-1700 (Oxford, 1985) 2. Duffy, Eamon. Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in 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) Fourteen: 12/2 Society; Gender 1. Peter Burke. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (revised; Ashgate, 1994) 2. R. Po-Chia Hsia. Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe 1550-1750 (London, 1989) 3. R.W. Scribner. Popular Culture and Popular Movement in Reformation Germany (London, 1987) 4. Merry Wiesner-Hanks. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (3 rd ed., 1993) Fifteen: 12/9 Print culture and Technology; Science and Medicine 1. Peter Dear. Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (Princeton, 2001) 2. Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe [abridged] (Cambridge, 1993) 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)

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. 2 nd 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. 2 nd 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.