EIU His 5400.02, Fall 2006, Newton Key
19:00-21:30 T, Coleman 2750
Syllabus as pdf (brief version), nk5400-3

Early Modern European Society, 1500-1800

This seminar explores four themes--witchcraft, popular culture, order and disorder, manufacturing--in early modern English, French, German, and Italian societies. We examine each theme with respect to both the practical and the mental world of early modern European men and women. Because the course focuses on rich interpretations made by recent social historians, students will be expected to acquire diverse techniques and methodologies that they can apply to these and other historical fields. The review of themes in the literature should help you prepare for the bibliography, writtens, and orals required for the M.A. in History. The section writing assignments will help you hone your critical or analytic writing. The directed research paper will allow you to apply to one set of primary sources this theoretical and methodological acumen you derive from the secondary works and seminar discussion.

Available from Textbook Services:

  • Darnton. Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York, 1985)
  • Ginzburg. Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries (New York, 1983)
  • Reay. Barry Reay, Popular Cultures in England, 1550-1750 (London, 1998)
  • Sharpe. J.A. Sharpe, Crime in Early Modern England, 1550-1750, 2nd ed. (London, 1999)
  • Thompson. E.P. Thompson, Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture (New York, 1991)

week 1

  • Aug. 22 Introduction
  

Witchcraft


DISCUSSION THEME: Why study witches? What does witchcraft tell us about early modern European society?

week 2

  • Aug. 29
    • Ginzburg (all)
from J. Ashton, The Devil in Britain and America (1896), 152.

week 3

  • Sept. 5
    • Robin Briggs, Witches & Neighbors: The Social andCultural Context of European Witchcraft (New York, 1996), intro. & chs. 1-3
    • Reay, ch. 4
  

week 4

  • Sept. 12
    • Briggs, chs. 7 & conclusion
    • Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York, 1972), chs. 17-18
    • Witchcraft Papers Due
  

Popular Culture


DISCUSSION THEME: What is the evidence for a growing identity of popular culture with plebeian culture and the withdrawal or separation of an élite culture?

week 5

Thomas Rowlandson, "Ballad Singer" (1789)

week 6

  • Sept. 26
    • Reay, chs. 5-7
    • Darnton, introduction & ch. 1
  

week 7

 

Order and Disorder


DISCUSSION THEME: Can we apply the concept of Herrschaft outside German rural communities?

week 8

  • Oct. 10
    • D. Sabean, Power in the Blood, intro., chs. 1-2 (pp. 1-93)
    • Darnton, ch. 2
William Hogarth, from Hudibras (Hudibras confronts the burning of the rumps and Sir John Presbyter)

week 9

  • Oct. 17
    • D. Sabean, Power in the Blood, ch. 4 & conclusion (pp. 113-42 & 199-213)
  

week 10

  • Oct. 24
    • Thompson, ch. 4
    • N. Key and R. Bucholz, Sources and Debates in English History, ch. 5
  

week 11

 

Manufacturing: the Social Basis of Industrialization

DISCUSSION THEME: Was there an "industrious revolution" in early modern England?

week 12

Coalbrookdale, North Works

week 13

clothworkers and tools

week 14

 

week 15

 

requirements, papers, and exams

office hours

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last modified on November 14, 2006