Course Syllabus

 

 

meets T TH10-11 in Sever 202

+ one hour of required discussion section, Tues 3–4 in CGIS S-040, Wed 12–1 in Sever 211, Wed 2–3 in Sever 101

 

 

Ann Blair's Office hours:

Mon 2-4pm in CGIS S437, 1730 Cambridge St

SIGN UP HERE  (Links to an external site.)

 

TFs :  Nate Aschenbrenner, aschenbrenner@fas.harvard.edu

Office hours: Wed 3–5, Robinson Hall, L-15

Daria Kovaleva, dkovaleva@g.harvard.edu

Office hours:

Wed 10-11:50am in CGIS Café, CGIS North-Knafel

 

Course goals

Course policies

Book to buy:

Grafton&Bell, The West: A New History, vol. 2. at special preview price. Can only be purchased from the Harvard COOP --on site or through this link: http://tinyurl.com/W18-HIST-1155

 

Course Requirements

- participation  (20%)

-midterm (20%)

-3 short papers (10-15% each)

-final exam (25%)

(Fri May 11, 9am)

Sun King7marblemap.jpg 

 Syllabus updated Jan 17 pdf here


Week 1 (Jan 22): getting started

            T lecture 1: introduction

            Th lecture 2: Early modern Europe in global context

No sections this week

 

Week 2 (Jan 29): structures of every day life

Monday evening, 7-9pm, Sever 202: Movie screening of The Return of Martin Guerre. We will discuss this film in section this week; if you cannot attend this screening, please view the movie on your own before section (DVD is on reserve in Lamont and the movie is also available for viewing in Lamont’s Language Resource Ctr). For slides shown before the movie and optional background materials click here

            T lecture 3: rural life

Section 1—discussing Fedden/Gouberville and the movie

            Th lecture 4: urban life

Reading--click here to access the reading:

*Katharine Fedden ed., and tr., Sire de Gouberville, Journal, pp. 1–35, 70-79, 106–15, 150-60 [as excerpted--previous version of the syllabus had omitted 70-79 and 150-60 in error, but the pdf of excerpts is accurate].

Grafton and Bell, 332 (+ skim 330-335 for general background)

 

Week 3 (Feb 5): humanism and printing

            T lecture 5: Italian humanism

Section 2: discussing Petrarch and Machiavelli ; source review due before section (your choice of this week or next week)

            Th lecture 6: impacts of Renaissance humanism

            Special outing Friday 9am-12pm: visit to Houghton Library in groups of 15 (90 minutes each)—

for those who absolutely cannot attend segments from HarvardX course “The Book” will be assigned

Reading--click here to access the reading:

*Petrarch, Letters on Familiar Matters, IV, 1 (Mont Ventoux), XII, 2 (education of a prince), XIII, 7 (mania for writing), XVI, 4 (wavering

faith), XXI, 8 (heroic women), XXIII, 21 (to Caesar), XXIV, 3-4 (to Cicero), 7 (to Quintilian), 8 (to Virgil), 13 (to his Socrates—his friend

Ludwig van Kempen). Seniles 18.1: Letter to posterity, tr. James Harvey Robinson (1914).

*Machiavelli, Discourses, book I, preface, ch 1-2, 9-10, 17-20, 26, 32-35. And Letter to Francesco Vettori, 10 December 1513.

Grafton and Bell, 324-30, 337-39 (top of page), 349-51, 356-68 (though pp. 361-7 will on art will also be relevant to week 7)

 

Week 4 (Feb 12): religious Reformations

            T lecture 7: Protestantisms

Section 3: discussing Luther, Calvin and Sadoleto; source review due before section (if you did not write one last week)

            Th lecture 8: impacts of the Reformation

Reading:

*Luther, Address to the Christian nobility of the German nation, 1520

*John Calvin and Jacopo Sadoleto, A Reformation Debate, ed. John Olin [available entire for download on Hollis]

Grafton and Bell, pp. 370-90 and 394-96

 

Week 5 (Feb 19): cultural consequences of disruption

            T lecture 9: the witchcraze

Section 4: discussing the witchcraze

            Th lecture 10: wars of religion and political thought

Reading--click here to access the reading

*Jean Bodin, On the Demon-mania of witches (1586), tr. Randy Scott (1995), excerpts

*Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book III, ch. 11 “Of cripples”

*Short sources on witchcraft: Malleus maleficarum, Witch trials at Trier, Bonn, Bamberg

and Würzburg

Grafton and Bell, pp. 398-406

 

Week 6 (Feb 26): civil war in England

            T lecture 11: English civil war I

Section 5: discussing the causes of the English civil war

            Th lecture 12 : English civil war II + some midterm review

Reading--click to access the readings

*"The Petition of Right (1628) presented to Charles I by Parliament. presented by Mark Kishlansky, who models a "source review" analysis. Excerpted from Kishlansky, Sources of the West, vol. 1, pp. xiii-xxii.

*Grand Remonstrance of the English Parliament and response of Charles I; Nathaniel Crouch, Death of Charles I

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, excerpts from ch 13-15, 17-18

Grafton and Bell, 440-446, 464-66, 476-78

 

Week 7 (March 5): midterm interlude

            T : in-class midterm

Section 6: visit to map room

            Th: visit to Art Museum

Reading:

Grafton and Bell, 359, 361-67, 433-34, 441-42, 466-70, 494, art on 529-30.

 

Spring break (March 12-16)

 

Week 8 (March 19): political configurations

            T lecture 13 –absolutism in France (Louis XIII and XIV)

Section 7: discussing the letters of Charlotte von der Pfalz (some source reviews due)

            Th lecture 14: the new science (Bacon and Descartes)

Reading--click here to access the reading

Short translated text realting to Dr. Goeing’s lecture TBD

* The Correspondence of Madame Princess Palatine, ed and tr. Katharine Prescott Wormeley (1899), letters 1695-1715,

intro p. 1-16 + primary source pp. 39-81.

Grafton and Bell, 419-21, 430-36 (top of page), 446, 459–63

 

Week 9 (March 26) : scientific revolution

            T lecture 15: Free Imperial Cities and the Holy Roman Empire [guest lecturer: Dr Anja-Silvia Goeing]

Section 8: discussing Bacon and Descartes (some source reviews due)

            Th lecture 16: discovering new places

Reading or click here for access

*Francis Bacon, Novum organum excerpts (preface, dedication, distribution of the works)

*Descartes, Discourse on Method parts. 1–4.

Grafton and Bell, 345-49, 351-56, 411-19, 438

 

Week 10 (April 2): Expanding Horizons

            T lecture 17: global trade

Section 9: discussing Cabeza de Vaca, Evliya Çelebi, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

(some source reviews due)  

            Th lecture 18: the Ottoman Empire [guest lecturer: Daria Kovaleva]

Reading--click here to access the readings

*Cabeza de Vaca, excerpts

*Evliya Çelebi, An Ottoman Traveller , excerpts

*Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Complete Letters, ed. Robert Halsband, vol 1: 1708-1720, excerpts

Giancarlo Casale, Ottoman Age of Exploration, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. 3-12 196-203

Grafton and Bell, 466-70, 489-94 + on Ottomans: 335, 485 (siege of Vienna), 495 (coffeehouses)

 

Week 11 (April 9): Ancients and moderns

            T lecture 19: Imperial programs [guest lecturer: Nate Aschenbrenner]

Section 10: discussing Spinoza and Montesquieu (some source reviews due)

            Th lecture 20: Early Enlightenment

Reading--click here for access

*Benedict de Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise: preface and chs. 19 and 20, pp. 2-8, 150-62 

*Baron de Montesquieu, Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, 195–220

James Muldoon, Empire and Order: The Concept of Empire, 800–1800, 114–38

 Grafton and Bell, 495-502

 

Week 12 (April 16): Toward the French Revolution

            T lecture 21: 18th century Enlightenment

Section 11: discussing Voltaire, Diderot and "Rights of Man"

            Th lecture 22 : The French Revolution

Reading--click here to access the readings:

Voltaire, Letters on England:  7 (Socinians), 10 (trade), 13 (Locke), 15 (Descartes and Newton) https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1778voltaire-lettres.asp

*D’Alembert and Diderot, Encyclopédie, articles entitled: art [by Diderot], cannibals, men of letters [by Voltaire], press [by Jaucourt], priests [by d'Holbach]

*Declarations of the Rights of Man (1789), selections (linked above)

 

Week 13 (April 23): wrapping up

            T lecture 23—last lecture

Final section: view a historical movie of your choice (from this list or another with approval of the instructor)

Reading:

Rosenstone and Herlihy in The American Historical Review, 93:5 (December, 1988), 1173-1192.

 

Movie review due Wed May 2 at noon

 Review session confirmed for Wed May 2 4-5pm in Sever 202

 

Final exam: Friday May 11, 9am


 

 

  

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