History
131
Early
Modern
Fall
Term, 2004-2005
Reed
Browning
All students should purchase:
Donald
Kagan, Steven Ozment, and Frank Turner, The Western Heritage, vol.
B.
(throughout
the syllabus this work will be called the text. )
Benvenuto
Cellini, Autobiography
Equiano,
Olaudah, An Interesting Narrative ...
[Elizabeth
von der Pfalz,] A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King
Franklin,
Benjamin, Autobiography
Glủckel
von Hameln, Memoirs of Glủckel
Walter,
Jakob, Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, Confessions
Turabian,
Kate, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
(This
book is your guide to format choices, citation procedures, and conventions of
usage.)
1. The Renaissance - Text: 290-351
August 30 The
Emergence of the State
September
1 The New Humanism
September
3 The Reconnaissance
2. The Reformation - Text: 352-86
September
6 The Protestant Eruption
September
8
September 10 Discussion
- Cellini, Autobiography, 1-17, 24-40, 45-80, 90-110, 138-56, 169-230,
251-74, 289-305, 327-51, 391-402 [led by me]
3. The Era of European Crisis - Text:
389-415
September
13 The Thirty Years’ War
September
15 Spanish Recessional
September
17 The World of Cervantes, Montaigne,
and Shakespeare
4. The Forging of
September
20 The Cardinalate
September
22 The Era of Louis XIV
September 24 Discussion
- A Woman’s Life at the Court of the Sun King,, 1-18, 32-44, 54-68,
71-93, 106-30,
137-49, 184-200, 209-19, 234-50, 262-77 [led by
Team 1]
5. The Creative Engagement: Part I -
Text: 449-78
September
27 From Palestrina to Bach
September
29 From Handel to Beethoven
October
1 The Edge of Objectivity
(also
due on this day is an OUTLINE for your research essay)
6. The Fabric of Life - Text: 514-28
October 4 Life
and Death: Demography, Kinship and Work
October 6 Discussion:
Gl_ckel’s Memoirs [led by Team 2]
October 8
HOUR EXAMINATION
7. The Forging of
October 11 OCTOBER
BREAK
October
13 The English Revolutions
October 15 The
Consolidation of
8.
October 18 Sinew
of Empire: The Slave Trade
October
20 Discussion - Equiano,
Interesting Narrative [led by Team 3]
October
22 [abbreviated class: citation
procedure]
9. The Fulcrum of Power Shifts Eastward
- Text: 495-510
October 25 The
Rise of
October
27 The Emergence of
October
29 The Odyssey of
10. Transformations of the Eighteenth Century
- Text: 482-86, 528-47
November
1 The Warfare Society of the
Eighteenth Century
November 3 The
Beginnings of Industrialization
November 5 Discussion
-
11. The Enlightenment - Text: 572-79,
589-621
November 8 The
Central Issues of the Enlightenment
November
10 The Anglo-American World Divides
November 12 Shakespeare
to Goethe: Literature and the Making of Human Nature
12. The Creative Engagement: Part II -
Text: 689-701
November 15 From
Giotto to Tintoretto
November 17 From
El Greco to Goya
November
19 Discussion - Rousseau, Confessions
[led by several teams]
13. The
November
29 The Origins of the French
Revolution
December
1 Efforts to Actualize Equality
December
3 **COURSE EVALUATION DAY (attendance will be taken)**
13. The French Empire - Text: 667-89
December 6 Napoleon
Remakes
December 8 The
Empires Strike Back (or: The Emperor Strikes Out)
December 10 Discussion:
Walter, Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier [led by Team 5]
December 13 Review
Session
=========================================
Comments:
1. My regular office hours
will be from 9:00 to 10:50 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If those are not convenient, we can schedule
a meeting for some other time. My office
is Seitz 9. My home phone is 427-3155; my office extension is 5642.
2. Your grade will be based
on three reaction papers, your contribution to discussions, one hour
examination, one research essay, and one final examination in this
course. Please note that you should
submit an outline for your research essay on October 1. The hour examination is scheduled for October
8, and the research essay is due on December 6.
You may choose which three of the seven books you write reaction papers
on, but the papers must be submitted at class on the day of the discussion of
the book. I will not accept late
reaction papers. The reaction papers (in
aggregate) count for 15% of the course grade (5% each), discussion counts for
15%, the hour examination counts for 20%, the research essay for 20%, and the
final examination for 30%.
3. Starting with the second
discussion day (September 24), responsibility for guiding the discussion and
instructing the class about the discussion will lie with teams of students that
I select. Every student will be a member
of a team. Teams should prepare for
their leadership responsibilities ahead of time. For more information, see point 7 below.
4. Plagiarism is the use and
representation of someone else's work as one's own. It is the most serious offense that can be
committed in an academic community. We
are obliged to acknowledge our debts to the labors of others, and recourse to
notes (footnotes or endnotes) is the most typical way of fulfilling that
obligation. Kate Turabian's A Manual
for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations gives wonderful
advice on building notes and bibliographies. The Student Handbook contains a
full discussion of plagiarism. Please
read it. I will be glad to discuss any
issues about plagiarism with any student.
5. If you have a physical,
psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your ability to
carry out assigned course work, I would urge that you contact the Office of
Disability Services at 5453. The
Coordinator of Disability Services, Erin Salva (salvae@kenyon.edu),
will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are
appropriate. All information and
documentation of disability is confidential.
6. I encourage the use of
foreign languages in student research work.
I realize that few students will be proficient at reading Dutch, French,
German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, or Swedish, and so I'll be
pleased to make significant adjustments in expectations if anyone wants to try
to do some of the reading for the research essay in a language other than
English. Please speak to me about the
possibility if the prospect seems enticing.
7. Because I’m handling the
autobiographical readings differently this year, I want to say a bit more about
my plan. These seven readings are all
first-person explorations of life in early modern
For our first discussion
(Cellini) I will follow a traditional pattern and lead the examination myself. For five of the remaining discussions
(Elizabeth, Glückel, Equiano, Franklin, and Walter) I’ll assign the task of
guiding our conversations to teams of students, with each team working out its
own procedures for its hour. In the case
of Rousseau – a long work – we’ll do something yet again different: I’ll divide
the class into several teams, with the different teams responsible for
presentations on different sections of the book.
I’m requiring each student to
write essays on three of the seven books. (You have free choice on the three
books you write on, but you may not write on the book your team is preparing to
lead discussion on.) In each instance
I’d like the essay to be no longer than three pages and address a particular
question. Here is the list of questions
you should respond to:
Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography - In what ways
does Cellini’s life embody elements of the Renaissance spirit?
Elizabeth von der Pfalz, A Life at the Court of the
Sun King - For historians using first-person writings, what are the
important differences between autobiographies and collections of letters?
Glückel
von Hameln, Memoirs - What audience did Glückel have in mind for this
work?
Olaudah Equiano ,Interesting Narrative - Should
this work be regarded preeminently as an account of a man who secures his
freedom or as the celebration of a man who found true religion?
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography - In what ways
is
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions - How
successful is Rousseau in fulfilling his goal of being completely honest about
himself?
Jakob
Walter, Diary - To what extent is this a work that can be trusted for
accuracy?
Remember: a good historical
essay makes each sentence count, advances a coherent argument, and supports
that argument with evidence.