Fall 2003

 

History B355 C417

Grad. H509 C429

 

Europe: Louis XIV to French Revolution:

The Revolutionary Dimensions of Early Modern Culture.

 

Time: Tue./Th. 1:00-2:15 p.m.                            Instructor:   Dr. Kevin C. Robbins

Place:  Cavanaugh Hall 219                                        Associate Professor of History

                                                                                    Office Phone: 274-5819         

                                                                                    Office Fax: 278-7800 

                                                                                    E-Mail: krobbin1@iupui.edu

                                                                                    Office Hours: T/Th. 11:00-1:00 p.m.

                                                                                    (And by Appointment.) CA 504Q.

 

Course Objective:  This edition of B355/H509 will investigate the economic, social, political, and cultural history of early modern Europe (circa 1500-circa 1789) with special emphasis on revolutionary innovations in human material life, behavior, and thought at this time.  Crucial aspects of this study will include: the demographic system of early modern Europe (human populations, population movements, and vital statistics), dramatic changes in the size, support, organization, and operations of European armed forces, and the changing place of women in early modern society with attendant alterations in gender roles.  Additional subjects of close study will be: the ways in which the acquisition and transmission of knowledge changed significantly at this time, global expansion in European marine exploration and commerce with remarkable effects on European art, science, and culture, the sweeping rise of consumer culture at this time altering European patterns of life and identities forever, and the diffusion of ever more accurate clocks and watches completely transforming Europeans' conception and measurement of time.  The class will conclude with the forces conspiring to produce the French Revolution, especially the development of clandestine, illegal, and popular genres of literature (like pornography) de-sacralizing monarchy and probing the true nature of the body politic.  This course will take continental Europe as its center of gravity with close attention given to England, France, Spain, the Habsburg Empire, and northern German states. 

Since Europe discovered and intensely interacted with the rest of the world in the early modern era, our readings and discussions will cover the increasingly global dimensions and tests of European civilization at this time.  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, technological competition, 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, warfare, science, technology,  consumerism, civility, and self-fashioning.  In essence, we are not just studying the past, we will be investigating a crucial epoch in time that still very powerfully shapes the way each of us chooses to live today.  We will attend the revolutionary making of the modern world, our  world.

            B355/H509 will meet twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  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.  Class discussions will be accompanied at appropriate points by multi-media illustrations including slides, music, and objects of material culture. In class 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.  Plan ahead, be prepared to do daily readings of the assigned texts throughout the entire semester, and come to class prepared to ask questions of the texts, of the instructor, and of your classmates. 

 

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 are for sale at the IUPUI Bookstore, Cavanaugh Hall, Basement, History Section, B355 Shelves.  Buy them all.  Note that new and used copies of all class texts can be purchased through online booksellers (like Amazon.com) normally at prices better than those offered at the campus bookstore.  These are masterworks informing readers not just about history, but also about historiography, that is, how histories get designed, organized, justified, and argued.

Required course texts (in order of use) are:

 

Kamen, Henry.  Early Modern European Society.  Routlege, London: 2000.

Parker, Geoffrey.  The Military Revolution. (2nd Ed.)  Cambridge Univ. Press,

            Cambridge: 1996.

Wiesner, Merry.  Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe.  Cambridge Univ.

            Press, Cambridge: 2000.

Burke, Peter.  A Social History of Knowledge.  Polity Press, Cambridge: 2000.

Smith, Pamela and Paula Findlen (eds.).  Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Society,

            And Art in Early Modern Europe.  Routlege, London: 2002.

Smith, Woodruff D.  Consumption and the Making of Respectability 1600-1800.

            Routledge, London: 2002.

Landes, David.  Revolution in Time (Revised Ed.).  Belknap/Harvard Univ. Press,

            Cambridge, MA., 2000.

Darnton, Robert. The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France.  Norton, New

            York: 1996.

 

 General Course Requirements:  1) regular attendance at all class sessions, two unexcused absences 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 two short essays (5 pages minimum) on a topic assigned by the instructor relevant to class readings; and 6) completion on time of one final research paper (15 pages minimum exclusive of notes and bibliography) on a theme, problem, material object or suite of objects either proposed by the instructor or developed by the student in close consultation with the instructor and relevant to main class topics.

            Students enrolled in H509 C429 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, brief  annotated bibliography (15 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 specific material objects (like printed books or technical treatises or maps of the era) and to develop an inter-disciplinary or trans-disciplinary research project.  If practicable, graduate students should make scholarly use of any relevant foreign language skills they may possess for more extensive reading and research in relevant subject areas. 

            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.

            All Students are required to maintain excellent class attendance, to arrive at class on time, and must always bring to class their copies of all assigned readings.  Cell-phones must be turned off.  No student is to use the classroom as a place to eat or sleep during class time.

 

Course Grading: Short Essays 20% of Final Grade; Final Exam 20% of Final Grade; Main Research Paper 50% of Final Grade; Class Participation 10% of Final Grade. For Graduate Students: Short Essays 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)

 

 Th.   8/21   Course Introduction.  Distribution of Syllabus.  Explanation of Course

                    Objectives and Logistics.  First Remarks on History and Historiography.

        The Objectives of Cultural History: Material Objects, Manners and

        Mentalities (Patterns in Material Life, Modes of Behavior, and Habits of

        Thinking.)

 

Tue.  8/26   Lecture/Discussion: Human Realities, Communities, Identities, and Horizons in

                    Early Modern Europe--Overview.

                    Readings:  Kamen, Early Modern European Society, Chapts. 1-3, pp. 1-69.

 

Th.   8/28    Lecture/Discussion: Early Modern Europe: Realities of Governance.

        Readings: Kamen, Early Modern European Society, Chapt. 4, pp. 70-96.

 

Tue.  9/2     Lecture/Discussion: Early Modern Social Structure, Social Solidarities,

                    Social Protest, and Gender--Overview.

                    Readings:  Kamen,  Early Modern European Society, Chapts. 5-7, pp. 97-176.       

                    All Graduate Student Research Topics Must Be Approved by This Date.

 

 

Th.   9/4     Lecture/Discussion: The Meanings of Social Discipline, Modernization, and

                   Individualism in Early Modern Europe--Overview.

                   Readings: Kamen, Early Modern European Society, Chapts. 8 and 9, pp. 177-233.

                   First Short Essay Topics to Be Distributed in Class.

 

Tue.  9/9    Lecture/Discussion:  War in A Violent and Deadly Age: Modernizing Conflicts

                   And Social Transformation (or: What's Important Is Not On the Battlefield).  

                   Readings: Parker, The Military Revolution, Acknowledgements, Introduction and

                   Chapts. 1-2, pp. xiii-xix, and 1-81.

 

Th.   9/11   Lecture/Discussion: A Genius for the Marine Projection of Firepower:

                    European Battleships and the Transformative Technology of Conquest.

                    Readings: Parker, Military Revolution, Chapt. 3, pp. 82-114.

                    

Tue.  9/16   Lecture/Discussion: The Global Implications of Europe's Early Modern

                    Military Innovations.

                    Readings:  Parker, Military Revolution, Chapts. 4-5, pp. 115-154.

        First Essays Due in Class (No Exceptions).

                

Th.   9/18    Lecture/Discussion: Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe.

                    New Verities, New Perspectives.

                    Readings: begin Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe,

                    Introduction and Chapt. 1, pp. 1-41.   

 

Tue.  9/23   Lecture/Discussion: Bodies in Motion: Female Life-Cycles and Labor.

                    Readings, Wiesner, Women and Gender, Chapts. 2-3, pp. 51-134.

 

Th.   9/25   Lecture/Discussion: Women Within the Spheres of Early Modern Learning

                   And Cultural Creation.

                   Readings: Wiesner, Women and Gender, Chapts. 4-5, pp. 143-202.

 

Tue.  9/30   Lecture/Discussion: Women's Spiritual Constructs and Crises.  Piety and

                    Persecution.

                    Readings: Wiesner, Women and Gender, Chapts, 6-7, pp. 213-254.

 

Th.  10/2    Lecture/Discussion: The Meanings of Gender and Power in Early Modern

                   Europe. Readings: Wiesner, Women and Gender, Chapt. 8, pp. 288-311.

                   Second Short Essay Topics to be Distributed in Class.

 

Tue. 10/7   Lecture/Discussion: The Changing Meanings and Modes of Knowledge

                   In Early Modern Europe.

                   Readings: Burke, A Social History of Knowledge, Chapts. 1-4, pp. 1-80.

 

Th.   10/9   Lecture/Discussion: The Vital Effort at Classifying and Organizing

                   Knowledge.  The Making and Stocking of Print.

                   Readings; Burke, Social History of Knowledge, Chapt. 5, pp. 81-115.

 

 

Tue. 10/14  Lecture/Discussion: Cultural Conflicts in the Control of Knowledge.

                    Censorship, Press Markets, Readership, and Energizing Dissent.

                    Readings: Burke, Social History of Knowledge, Chapts. 6-8, pp. 116-196.

 

Th.   10/16  Lecture/Discussion: Connections: Commerce, Society, and Art in

                    Early Modern Europe.

                    Readings: Smith and Findlen (eds.), Merchants and Marvels,  Introduction and,

                    Chapt. 2 ("Objects of Art/Objects of Nature."), pp. 1-25 and 63-82.   

             

Tue.  10/21  Lecture/Discussion: The Intellectual and Cultural Implications of Mapping the

                     World. 

                     Readings: Smith and Findlen, Merchants and Marvels, Chapts. 3, 10, and 14, pp.

                     83-108, 248-276,and 347-369

                     Second Short Essay Due in Class (No Exceptions).

 

Th.   10/23  Lecture/Discussion: Admiring and Acquiring the Tools of Science. 

                    Experiment and the Culture of Consumption.

                    Readings:  Smith and Findlen, Merchants and Marvels, Chapts. 12 and 15, pp.

                    297-323 and 370-398.

                  

Tue.  10/28  Lecture/Discussion: The Personal and the Political Implications of Early

                     Modern Consumer Culture.  The Economics of Identity.

                     Readings: Woodruff Smith, Consumption and the Making of Respectability,

                     Introduction and Chapts. 1-3, pp. 1-103.          

 

Th.   10/30   Lecture/Discussion: The Commodification of Virtue and the Material

                     Stratification of Society.  Making Things Speak for Selves.

                     Readings: Smith, Consumption, Chapt. 4, pp. 105-138.

 

Tue.  11/4    Lecture/Discussion: Material Boys and Material Girls in Early Modern Europe.

                     Consumerism Engendering Sexuality.

                     Readings: Smith, Consumption, Chapts. 5-6, pp. 139-188.

                     Undergraduate Final Research Topics Must Be Approved by This Date.

 

Th.   11/6     Lecture/Discussion: The Acquisition of Respectability by Early Modern

                     Modern Europeans.  Readings: Smith, Consumption, Chapt. 7, pp. 189-222.

                     Graduate Annotated Bibliographies Due in Class (No Exceptions).

 

Tue.  11/11  Lecture/Discussion: What Time Is It?  Early Modern Revolutions in Clock

                     Making and Watching. 

                     Readings:  Landes, Revolution in Time, Introduction and Chapts. 3-6, pp. 1-12

                     and 48-117.

                     

Th.   11/13  Lecture/Discussion: What Does It Really Mean "to Keep Time"?

                    Readings: Landes, Revolution in Time, Part II, Chapts. 7-8, pp. 118-154.      

 

 

 

Tue. 11/18  Lecture/Discussion: The Economies of Time and Their Meaning.

                    Reading: Landes, Revolution in Time, Chapts. 11-12 and 14-15, pp. 180-214 and

                    231-275.

 

Th.   11/20  Lecture/Discussion: Do Books Cause Revolutions?

                    Reading: begin Robert Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, Introduction and

                    Chapt. 1, pp. xvii-xxiii and 3-21.

 

Tue.  11/25 Lecture/Discussion: What is the History of the Book and What Books Got

                    Bought in Early Modern France?  Were These Texts Revolting?

                    Readings: Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, Chapts. 2-3, pp. 22-114.

 

Th.   11/27   NO CLASS THANKSGIVING NO CLASS

 

Tue.  12/2   Lecture/Discussion: From Political Slander to Political Sedition.  Books and

                    the Revolutionary Modification of Political Discourse.

                    Readings: Darnton, Chapts. 5, and 7-10, pp.  137-166 and 181-246.

        Take-Home Final Examination Distributed in Class.

                    All Final Research Papers Due From All Students (No Exceptions).

 

Th.   12/4    Course Summation and Conclusions.  What is Early Modern Europe?

 

 

Tuesday, December 9, Final Examinations to Be Submitted (No Exceptions), IUPUI Main Campus, Cavanaugh Hall, Room 504M, to Robbins' Mailbox by 10:00 a.m. or electronically to krobbin1@iupui.edu by the same hour.