European Social History, 1650-1850
http://www.history.neu.edu/fac/burds/hst3305.htm
HST3305
The History of Dr. Faustus:
Original Chapbook first published in Germany
in 1587 by Johann Spies
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Instructor
Professor Jeffrey Burds
Office: 221 Meserve Hall
Telephone: 373-2079
JBURDS@LYNX.DAC.NEU.EDU
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Course Description
This is a survey historiography course designed to help History graduate students develop a research/teaching subfield in European Social History, 1650-1850. The goal is to work as a collective to inform fellow students about the special problems, sources, and themes in European social history. As such, we place greater emphasis on the reading and discussion component, and lesser emphasis on historical writing.
The course has two parts. In the first seven weeks, we will read and discuss shared readings focusing on the history of European Popular culture, 1650-1850. Throughout the course, we will develop a set of interpretative and methodological concerns about the study of popular culture. Principal and sub-themes will include: definitions of popular culture; literacy and reading, popular stories and folk tales; popular religion, sainthood, the Reformation and religious change; witchcraft and vampires; the moral economy of the crowd; crime and criminality; the state and popular culture; power and domination; oral history and oral traditions; ritual and resistance.
In the last three-four weeks, students will make formal presentations that inform the collective of the literature of a selected subfield in European Social History, chosen and developed in private meetings with the instructor. Virtually any subfield where there is a solid base (at least five books or the equivalent) of historiographical literature is appropriate, ranging from peasant protest to the history of incarceration, from sexual deviancy and child abuse to violent crime, from sainthood to witchcraft, crowd psychology to studies of hysteria.
Requirements
Every student will run at least one class during the first seven weeks. The seminar leader or leaders are expected to (1) master the assigned readings for their week; (2) get a good grounding in relevant review literature, mastering the historiographical discussion (use, praise, critique) of the assigned readings; and (3) stepping back from the assigned reading and providing members of the class with an introductory summary (20-30 minutes) of the key literature and salient issues for the themes addressed that week. The seminar leader will be charged with running the class for that week, and is expected to meet with the course instructor to discuss planned tactics no later than the preceding Monday of the discussion week.
In addition, in the last three weeks, every student will make a long presentation summarizing the literature and main issues in a chosen subfield of European Social History. The standard for this presentation is the discussion of five monographs, or the equivalent. Here again, just as in the seminar discussion, the presentation will contain not only a good summary of the readings, but more importantly, a broadsweeping mastery of the chosen subfield: why is this literature important; on what sources is it based; what are the strengths and weaknesses, general presumptions, etc.
The written component of the
course may be fulfilled in any of three ways: (1) five or more short
summary reviews (3 pages) of each monograph selected in the subfield [or, a
series of articles may substitute for a monograph); (2) a 12-15 page
historiographic essay which parallels the presentation; or (3) the
historiographic discussion component of a larger work (like a master’s thesis,
dissertation, etc.) All written work should conform to the History Style Guide, and checked closely
for spelling and grammatical errors. All written work should be submitted
electronically for inclusion in a master on-line database which this course
will build over the years: European Social History, 1650-1900.
Grade Evaluation
Students will be graded on the basis of the following considerations:
• Active and considered class participation is encouraged: 30 percent
• An interesting, well-informed organization of class discussion during the first seven weeks: 20 percent
• An informative, thought-provoking presentation of subfield reading: 20 percent
• Written work: 30 percent
Class responsibilities and presentations schedules will be set in Week I. Presentations schedules and themes will be set by Week 3.
Students are also encouraged to submit electronic or hard copies of published review literature on selected subthemes or course readings.
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Books
Discounted copies of books can be found for purchase on line at the American Book Exchange, or at numerous local stores or libraries. Students may substitute assigned readings with advance approval of the instructor.
Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1984).
Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witch’s Sabbath (New York: Penguin Books, 1991).
E. Le Roy Ladurie, Carnival
in Romans (Braziller, 1979).
David Sabean, Power
in the Blood (Cambridge University Press, 1984).
Useful Links
Connect to the National Archives
Connect to the
British Public Record Office [Press for Catalogue Search]
The standard syllabus
for this course.
Background
P. Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (New York: Harper & Row, 1984).
Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975).
G. Huppert, After the Black Death: A Social History of
Early Modern Europe (Indiana
University Press).
Keith
Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic
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Week 1 Introduction
(January 9)
Introduction. Set class responsibilities.
FILM: The Return of Martin Guerre
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Week 2 The Historian, the Film-maker and Popular
Culture (January 16)
Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984).
R. Finlay, "The Refashioning of Martin Guerre," American Historical Review 93 (1988): 553-571.
N. Z. Davis, "On the Lame," American Historical Review 93 (1988): 572-603.
Hardcopy of the issue is available in the History
Seminar Room, and also on line.
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Week 3 Approaching Popular
Culture (January 23)
Set presentations schedules and themes.
David Sabean, Power
in the Blood (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
Clifford Geertz, "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture," in Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973), pp. 3-30.
Related Reading
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (Johns Hopkins).
James Scott, Domination
and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press)
Perez Zagorin, Ways of Lying:
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Week 4 The European
Witchcraft Phenomenon (January 30)
Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witch’s Sabbath (New York: Penguin Books, 1991).
Selections from Witchcraft Trial Transcripts
Related Reading
Paul Barber, Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988).
B. P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (Longman: 1987).
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Week 5 Between Oral and Written Cultures (February 6)
Free week. No class.
I have to be in Ann Arbor for a paper, so we will do a double class in Week 6.
Readings
P. Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, chs. 4-5.
N. Z. Davis, "Proverbial Wisdom and Popular Errors," in Society and Culture in Early Modern France, pp. 227-267.
R. Darnton, "Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose," The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York, 1985): 9-72.
"History of Fortunatus," from J. Ashton, Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century
Selections from the Little Red Riding Hood tradition: popular, Perrault, Grimms
"Prefaces to the First and Second Editions of (Grimms') Nursery and Household Tales," in M. Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Princeton, 1977): 203-222.
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Week 6 Religious Violence
(February 13)
E. Le Roy Ladurie, "The Paths of Scripture," in The Peasants of Languedoc (University of Illinois Press, 1974), pp. 149-171.
N. Z. Davis, "City Women and Religious Change," and "The Rites of Violence," in Society and Culture in Early Modern France, pp. 65-96, 152-188.
P. Benedict, "The Catholic Response to Protestantism: Church Activity and Popular Piety in Rouen, 1560-1600," in James Obelkevich, Editor. Religion and the People, 800-1700 (University of North Carolina Press, 1979), pp. 168-190.
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Week 7 Ritual and Revolt (February 20)
E. Le Roy Ladurie, Carnival in Romans
Related Readings
Eric Hobsbawm, "Introduction: Inventing Traditions," and
"Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe, 1870-1914," in Eric Hobsbawm and
Terence Ranger, editors, The Invention of
Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 1-14, 263-307.
Richard Stites, "Festivals of the People," "The Republic of Equals," and "Man the Machine," in Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 79-100, 124-164.
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Week 8 Presentations Week
I (February 27)
First draft
of written work due by Tuesday’s class.
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Week 9 Presentations Week
II (March 6)
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Week 10 Presentations Week
III (March 13)
All revised written work is due by 15 March at
5 p.m.
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