Louis XIV in a painting by Rigaud
Louis XIV in a painting by Rigaud
| Monday | 9:15-9:40 |
| Tuesday | 9:15-9:40 |
| Wednesday | Research |
| Thursday | 9:15-9:40 |
| Friday | 1:00-2:00 |
Table of contents:
History 30
Europe and the World in Transition
Spring 2001
Professor P. Behre Miskimin
Canisius 315
Office Hours: Tuesday, 11:00-11:30 a.m.; Thursday, Friday, 11:00 a.m.
-12:00 p.m.,
or by appointment. Phone: ext. 2212.
This course introduces students to the political, social, and cultural history of Western Europe, and the regions encountered by Western Europeans, from roughly 1500 until 1850. Within the context of three broad themes the state and its limits, the changing role of religion, and the patterns of everyday life major topics will be explored, including notions of authority, national identity, pluralism, and dissent. What are the most enduring aspects of western culture, and how and when were they formed? How do we define modernity with regard to western history? These questions and others will inform lectures, reading and discussion throughout the semester, as students consider such events as the Protestant Reformation, Europes discovery of the New World, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the American and French Revolutions, among others. Long-term issues affecting the period, such as literacy and the impact of printing, and the changing lives of women, will also be addressed. In all, students will explore European life and thought as a series of unfolding and recurrent debates and dilemmas, and they will be asked to produce their own analyses in the form of written assignments and oral discussion.
Readings:
Reading for the course will
be drawn from narrative texts, scholarly accounts and syntheses,
and primary sources or documents (and occasionally fiction) written by
European men and women of the period. In keeping with the them of the cluster
with English 10, emphasis will be on the views of individuals, and their
sense of their own places in their communities, as those communities confronted
change. The following works have been ordered by the bookstore and should
be purchased or shared.
Kagan, Ozment, Turner, The Western Heritage, 7th ed.
Wiesner, Ruff, Wheeler, Discovering the Western Past, volume
2.
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron.
Thomas More, Utopia.
H.B. Hill, ed., The Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu.
C.P.Gillman, Herland.
Other required readings are on reserve in the Nyselius Library under
the course number and the professors name.
Assignments:
Students are expected to
attend all lectures and discussions and to participate fully. There will
be a required class field trip and two evening events. Excused absences
will be allowed only for serious illness or family emergency, and only
with a note signed by an appropriate university official. A pattern
of repeated unexcused absences (more than 6) will result in lowering of
the grade.
In addition, students will
be expected to complete several written assignments. These will consist
of:
Grades:
Grades will be determined
as follows:
Class participation (including in-class essays)
..20%
Test
..20%
Paper
.30%
Exam
..30%
Make-ups:
Make-up assignments or tests
will not be given except in cases of emergency as excused by the Dean of
the College of Arts and Sciences or his or her representative.
Weekly schedule of topics
Week 1:
Introduction to the course: The irrelevance
of relevance.
Introduction continued, Europe before
1500: Politics, Geography, and
The Patterns of Daily Life.
Reading: Kagan, et. al., The Western Heritage, pp. 290-315.
Week 2:
Europe before 1500: The Church.
TBA
Discussion.
Reading: Boccaccio, The Decameron, Boccaccios
introduction;
First Day, stories 1-5;
Third Day, stories 1,3, and 8;
Eighth Day, story 5;
Ninth Day, story 2.
Week 3:
Renaissance myth, Renaissance
reality.
Trends in Art (Video Presentation).
Discussion.
Reading: Kagan, pp. 316-351.
The Renaissance Man and Woman (on reserve in library; from
Wiesner, Ruff, and Wheeler, Volume 1.)
Week 4:
The Impact of Discovery: Columbus and
the transformation of the
medieval cosmology.
1492 revisited: The expulsion
of the Jews from Spain.
No Class Friday.
Reading: Thomas More, Utopia,
Book II.
Week 5:
Discussion.
Luthers Reformation.
Other Reformations.
Reading: Kagan, pp. 352-387.
Wiesner, Chapter 1, The Spread of the Reformation.
Week 6:
Discussion.
First Overview: Epidemic
and illness, and their impact on daily life,
1300-1500.
IN-CLASS TEST, Friday,
February 23.
Week 7:
Spanish hegemony, Spanish
decline.
The Wars of Religion in
France.
Discussion.
Reading: Kagan, pp. 388-447.
Week 8:
England under the Stuarts and
the triumph of English constitutionalism.
Second Overview: Literacy
and Printing.
Discussion.
Reading: C.B. Hill, ed. The
Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu.
Week 9:
SPRING BREAK; NO CLASS THIS
WEEK.
Week 10:
The Age of Louis XIV in
France and Europe.
The 18th Century: Enlightenment
from Scientific Revolution.
Discussion.
Reading: Kagan, review pp.
416-447.
Wiesner, Staging Absolutism.
Week 11:
Guest Lecture: Russia Enters
Europe.
TBA.
Reading: Kagan, pp. 448-479.
Wiesner, The Mind of an Age.
Week 12:
The American Revolution
and its significance for Europe.
Third Overview: The Lives
of Women.
Discussion.
Reading: Kagan, pp. 480-549.
Week 13:
The French Revolution, Part
I.
PAPERS DUE, TUESDAY, APRIL
10, IN CLASS.
NO CLASS THURSDAY
OR FRIDAY, Easter Break.
Reading: Kagan, pp.
550-581.
Week 14:
The French Revolution, Part
II.
Film: Danton.
Film: Danton (continued).
Reading: Kagan, pp. 582-665.
Week 15:
The Industrial Revolution.
Conclusion: Toward the Modern
Age.
Discussion.
Reading: C.P. Gillman, Herland.
Note: Final Exam is on Friday, May 11, 9:00 a.m. (Section B); Saturday,
May 12, 9:00 a.m. (Section A).
| A pastoral scene by Nicholas Poussin, a painter of the late 17th century. Poussin shows figures from a biblical story, but the overall effect is one of secular harmony, and an idealized version of rural life. |  |
NEW FOLLIES FOR
THE FRENCH Rise of a neo-fascist candidate may signal things to come