History B355 C377
Grad. H509 C388
Europe: Louis XIV to French Revolution:
Gifts to the Tsars: The Treasures of the Kremlin in Historical and Cultural Context.
Time: Wednesdays 5:45-8:25 p.m. Dr. Kevin C. Robbins
Place: Deboest Lecture Hall Associate Professor of History
Indianapolis Museum of Art Office Phone: 274-5819
Office Fax: 278-7800
E-Mail: krobbin1@iupui.edu
Office Hours: M/W 12:30-2:00 p.m.
(And by Appointment.) CA 504Q.
Course Objective: This edition of B355/H509 will investigate the social, political, and cultural history of early modern Europe (circa 1500-circa 1789) with special emphasis on the study of ritual, ceremony, the grand material culture of diplomacy, the formation of ruling royal courts, and associated state formation in an era of incessant warfare. This course will take continental Europe as its center of gravity with close attention given to France, the Habsburg Empire, north German principalities, the various Baltic states (kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, etc.), and Russia (Muscovy)--with the development of a culture of absolutist imperial rulership by the Russian Romanov dynasty a topic of special interest. Students will be consistently encouraged to view these various European territories, kingdoms, and empires as participants in a common, dynamic, contentious, and often violent system of inter-state rivalry, beautifully ritualized diplomacy, cultural conflict, and imitation. Students should strive to develop and maintain a comparative analytical perspective, seeking consistently to understand how increasingly elaborate inter-actions between these state entities in western, central, northern, and eastern Europe shaped the socio-political and socio-cultural history of early modern Europe as a whole--a history that remains powerfully influential in modern western rites of politics, civility, and display. Students should consider "the arts of power" to be a key and vital unifying theme of this course and seek throughout to appreciate how the kingdoms, empires, and dynasties under examination sought to enhance, manipulate, and modify such arts for their own hegemonic social, political, military, and cultural advantage.
Inter-disciplinary and multi-media analysis of the main course themes outlined above will be greatly facilitated by a special visiting exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art: "Gifts to the Tsars 1500-1700, Treasures from the Kremlin" running in the main galleries from September 23, 2001 to January 13, 2002. This special exhibition is a collaborative effort between the IMA and the State Historical-Cultural Museum of the Kremlin in Moscow. Most of the objects on display, including magnificent examples of gold and silverware, finely-crafted, be-jeweled weapons, aristocratic dress, and equestrian decorations have never been displayed outside of Russia before. The majority of these precious objects came to the Romanov tsars of Russia as diplomatic gifts from a variety of central and western European powers and from several southern European, Balkan, and Middle Eastern potentates. This rare assembly of such imperial gifts and favors emanating from all parts of the early modern European world will provide students with a rich array of material objects each embodying the diplomatic connections, ceremonial contacts, and rituals of state that helped to form the early modern European "arts of power." Once this exhibition opens in late September, students will be given privileged access to these objects and will be encouraged to incorporate some of them in their own research work and paper assignments relevant to course themes. Students in B355/H509 will also be encouraged to take advantage of and incorporate in their own class work special lectures and symposia in connection with the exhibition to be offered by the IMA, its curatorial staff, and visiting international guest lecturers. Schedules of these events will be distributed in class in advance. Special tours of the exhibition for B355/H509 students will be arranged. Students should also plan to take advantage of books and other resources highly relevant to the course/exhibition which will be placed on a study carrel in the IMA's own research library on the second floor of the main museum building. This rare combination of art objects and course readings will enable all students to explore in trans-disciplinary fashion the history and the historiography of the era: not simply what happened in past time, but also the interpretive and analytical techniques by which modern historians, cultural historians, art historians, and museum curators attempt to reconstruct past societies, their ceremonies, and their habits of behavior. This course as a whole should also work to provide a richer historical and cultural context in which to appreciate more fully the exemplary importance of the decorative art objects on display.
B355/H509 will meet once per week on Wednesday evenings. Meetings will de divided into introductory lectures by the instructor on key course problems or themes followed by general class discussion of all assigned readings. Class discussion of these readings will focus on the sources, methods of argument, interpretive strengths and weaknesses, and general conclusions of the authors read. In these discussions, the instructor will question students closely on all aspects of the readings. The reading list for this course is very demanding in terms of the beauty, length, and complexity of the texts assigned. Students should plan their work outside of class accordingly, leaving ample time to read, to reflect on, and to re-read the course text assignments.
Required Course Readings: Primary required readings for this course will be taken from recent masterworks in the fields of early modern European social, political, military, and cultural history. All texts, with the exception of the exhibition catalogue that students will be asked to purchase at the IMA shop when available in late September, are for sale at the IUPUI Bookstore, Cavanaugh Hall, Basement, History Section, B355 Shelves. Buy them all.
Course texts (in order of use) are:
Koenigsberger, H.G., Mosse, G.L, and Bowler, G.Q. Europe in the Sixteenth Century.
2nd Edition. Longman, London: 1989/2000.
Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1997.
Dukes, Paul. The Making of Russian Absolutism. 2nd Edition. Longman,
London: 1990.
Frost, Robert. The Great Northern Wars 1558-1721. Longman, London: 2000.
Shifman,
Barry and Walton, Guy (eds.). Gifts to the Tsars 1500-1700: Treasures
From the Kremlin. Abrams, New York: Forthcoming. (Exhibition
Catalogue.)
Burke, Peter. The Fabrication of Louis XIV. Yale University Press, New Haven and
London: 1992.
Wheatcroft, Andrew. The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire. Penguin Books, London:
1996.
General Course Requirements: 1) regular attendance at all class sessions, one unexcused absence will lower your final mark. Class rosters will be circulated at every class meeting--be certain that your name is on them; 2) completion on time of all assigned course readings; 3) informed participation in all class discussions (your instructor really wants to hear your opinions about what your are reading and seeing and your clearly expressed opinions in civil class discussion are absolutely essential to assure the educational quality of this course); 4) completion on time of one take-home final examination; 5) completion on time of one short essay (6 pages minimum) on a topic assigned by the instructor; and 6) completion on time of one final research paper (10 pages minimum exclusive of notes and bibliography) on a theme, problem, exhibition object or suite of objects either proposed by the instructor or developed by the student in close consultation with the instructor.
Students enrolled in H509 C388 for graduate credit will meet all of the general requirements above except point 6) on the final paper. Graduate students will prepare instead both a final annotated bibliography (20 sources minimum) on their own research topic and a final research paper on that topic of 20 pages minimum (exclusive of notes). Graduate students are especially encouraged to make use of objects in the exhibition, to develop an inter-disciplinary or trans-disciplinary research project, and, if practicable, to make scholarly use of any relevant foreign language skills they may possess for more extensive reading and research.
The instructor will be delighted to assist all students with the selection, organization, and enhancement of their research paper projects. He will be glad to provide frequent paper conferences with student writers throughout the term and will be pleased to read, correct, and comment on drafts of all student written assignments prior to their deadlines provided that such drafts reach him in a timely and coherent manner.
Course Grading: Short Essay 15% of Final Grade; Final Exam 20% of Final Grade; Main Research Paper 50% of Final Grade; Class Participation 15% of Final Grade. For Graduate Students: Short Essay 15%, Final 10%; Annotated Bibliography 20%; Research Paper 40%, Class Participation 15% of Final Mark.
COURSE OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
(Note: All Readings Below to Be Completed By the Date Given)
Wed. 8/22 Course Introduction. Distribution of Syllabus. Explanation of Course
Objectives and Logistics. First Remarks on History and Historiography.
The Objectives of Cultural History: Manners and Mentalities (Modes of
Acting and Habits of Thinking.)
Wed. 8/29 Lecture/Discussion: The Geo-Political and Geo-Cultural Dimensions of
Early Modern Europe: Peoples and States, Demographic and Socio-Political
Patterns in the Sixteenth Century.
Readings: Koenigsberger, et. al., Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Introduction and
Chapters 2-6, pp. 1-127. (N.B. Appendices in Koenigsberger--pp. 438ff--useful
for maps, chronologies of events, and genealogies of Europe's rulers.)
Wed. 9/5 Lecture/Discussion: Preliminary Study of Early Modern European Religious
Strife and Cultural Conflict: The Politics of Reformation and Counter-
Reformation.
Readings: Koenigsberger, et. al., Europe in Sixteenth Century, Chapts. 6, 7, and
9-12, pp. 127-181 and 207-330.
Wed. 9/12 Lecture/Discussion: Preliminary Study of Early Modern European Power
Politics and the Arts of Power. Forms of Political Organization and Forms
of Cultural Expression.
Readings: Koenigsberger, et. al., Europe in Sixteenth Century, Chapts. 13-15,
pp. 331-437.
Special Exhibition Gallery Tours to Be Scheduled.
Wed. 9/19 Lecture/Discussion: The Historical Analysis of European Rituals: The Culture
and Politics of Display.
Readings: Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Introduction, Parts I and II,
pp. 1-146. (N.B. Students should consult Muir's useful glossary--pp. 276ff--
for background definitions on key events/terms of analysis.)
First Essay Topics to Be
Distributed in Class.
Wed. 9/26 Lecture/Discussion: Ritual and Representation in Early Modern Europe and
Government as a Ritual Process. Meanings and Implications.
Readings: Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Part III, pp. 147-275.
Wed. 10/3 Lecture/Discussion: The Making of Russian Absolutism: Romanov Statecraft.
and the Elaboration of Dynastic Imperial Rule: The Artful Cultivation of
Absolutism.
Readings: Dukes: Making of Russian Absolutism, Chapts. 1-4, pp. 1-144.
Wed. 10/10 Lecture/Discussion: What Drives Early Modern European Diplomatic
Culture? Incessant Warfare and the High Stakes of Inter-State Rivalries in Central Europe.
Readings: Frost, The Northern Wars 1558-1721, Intro. and Chapts. 2-6,
pp. 1-155 (N.B. Excellent Text Appendices pp. 330ff.)
First Essays Due in Class.
Wed. 10/17 Lecture/Discussion: Russia's Military Triumphs, Absolutism, and the Military
Projection of Autocratic Power. Socio-Political Implications.
Readings: Frost, Northern Wars, Chapts 7-11, pp. 156-329.
Wed. 10/24 Lecture/Discussion: Gifts to the Tsars and the Cultural History of
Early Modern European Diplomatic Ceremony.
Readings: Gifts to the Tsars, Foreword and Essays 1-3, "Projection and
Celebration of Power," "Russian Foreign Relations and Diplomacy,"
and "Ambassadorial Ceremony at the Tsar's Court."
Wed. 10/31 Lecture/Discussion:
Gifts to the Tsars: Ambassadorial Presents and the
Arts of Power.
Readings: Gifts to the Tsars, Essays 4-7, "Envoys and Treasures,"
"Diplomatic and Ambassadorial Gifts," "European Decorative Arts
as Gifts," and "Ambassadorial Gifts."
Wed. 11/7 Comparative Studies in the Arts and Powers of Early Modern European
Absolutisms: The French Case.
Readings: Burke, The Fabrication of Louis XIV, Chapts. 1-7, pp. 1-106.
Graduate Annotated Bibliographies
Due in Class.
Wed. 11/14 French Royal Statecraft and the "Fabrication" of Governing Power.
Readings: Burke, Fabrication of Louis XIV, Chapts. 8-12, pp. 107-203.
Wed 11/21 NO CLASS THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY NO CLASS
Wed. 11/28 Comparative Studies in the Arts and Powers of Early Modern European
Absolutisms: The Habsburg Case.
Readings: Wheatcroft, The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire, Preface and Chapts.
1-4, pp. xxv-140.
Wed. 12/5 "Embodying Empire" and the Arts of Projecting Autocratic Power.
Readings: Wheatcroft, The Habsburgs, Chapts. 5-7, pp. 141-285.
Take-Home Final Examination
Distributed in Class.
All Final Research Papers Due From
All Students (No Exceptions).
Wednesday, December 12, Final Examinations to Be
Submitted (No Exceptions), IUPUI Main Campus, Cavanaugh Hall, Room 504M, to
Robbins' Mailbox by
10:00 a.m.