DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
MODULE HANDBOOK
2015-16
APPROACHES TO EARLY MODERNITY:
1500-1750
Module Convenor: Prof Mark Knights
Context of Module:
This is the core module for the MA in Religious, Social and Cultural History. The module, taught in the Autumn term, may also be taken by students on the MA in History, the MA in Modern History, or any taught Masters students outside the History Department.
Module Aims:
This module aims to provide a broad and comparative introduction to the themes of the MARSCH degree. It is organized around the three core themes of Religion, Culture, and Society, with tutors introducing both broad approaches and insights from their own research. By the end of the module, students should have a sound knowledge of current trends in approach and topic, and be equipped to tackle the more specialised modules on offer in the second term.
You can choose to write a 5000-word essay about any of the topics that we cover. You can either use a title from the ones suggested or formulate one of your own in consultation with the module director or with the seminar tutor. Suggestions for reading are provided for each of the seminars, but again please ask if you want more advice.
You are expected to attend the Early Modern Seminar though you may also found much of interest in the Global History, Eighteenth Century and History of Medicine seminars – the programmes are on the departmental website, where you will also find a forum for research activity.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the module students should be able to:
§ display an advanced knowledge of the key themes in early modern European history (including Britain). Students will have a sound knowledge of the complex religious, social, political and cultural contexts that prevailed. Students will be able to articulate an advanced understanding of key themes, and to be aware of change over time and space.
§ show advanced knowledge and conceptual awareness of the different interpretations of key themes in early modern history, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of varying approaches and arriving at an independent judgement. Students should be able to show a sophisticated handling of concepts and arguments.
§ display an ability to interpret primary sources, showing initiative in researching their contexts and meanings. Students should be able to work autonomously to identify texts that are relevant to their essay topic, but within a guided framework.
§ refine their writing and debating skills
§ scope a dissertation topic, with the capacity for original work that will allow the student to pursue independent research
Syllabus:
The course is taught in weekly 2-hour seminars; Thursday 3.00-5.00 pm; Room H.3.03
Week 1: Introduction (Mark Knights)
Week 2 : Religion I: The Reformation(s) and Confessionalization (Naomi Pullin)
Week 3: Religion II: Popular Religion and ‘Disenchantment’ (Naomi Pullin)
Week 4: Culture I: (Beat Kumin and Claudia Stein)
Week 5: Culture I: (Beat Kumin and Claudia Stein)
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Society I: Social Order and Social Protest (Bernard Capp)
Week 8: Society II: Gender (Bernard Capp)
Week 9: Europe and the New World (Julia McClure)
Week 10: Module Workshop (Mark Knights)
Illustrative Bibliography:
M. Braddick, State Formation in Early Modern England c.1550-1700 (2000)
A. Brett and J. Tully (eds), Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought (2006)
P. Burke, Varieties of Cultural History (1997)
R. Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France (1987)
J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 (New Haven and London, 2006).
A. Grafton, New Worlds, Ancient Texts. The Power of Tradition and the
Shock of Discovery (1992).
K. von Greyerz, Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (1984)
R. Houston, Literacy in Early Modern Europe: Culture and Education 1500-1800 (1988)
B. Kumin (ed), The European World 1500-1800 (2009)
E. Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe (1997)
A. Pagden, European Encounters with the New World: from Renaissance to Romanticism (1993).
J. Ruff, Violence in Early Modern Europe (2001)
D. Sabean, Power in the Blood: Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany (1984)
R. Starn, ‘The Early Modern Muddle’, Journal of Early Modern History 6:3 (2002), 296-307 W. Te Brake, Shaping History: Ordinary People in European Politics 1500-1700 (1998)
G. Walker (ed), Writing Early Modern History (2005)
M. Wiesner-Hanks, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (2008, 3rd edition)
P. Withington, Society in Early Modern England: The Vernacular Origins of Some Powerful Ideas (Cambridge, 2010)
Assessment: 1 assessed essay of 5,000 words will be due on Tuesday 10 December 2013 (first week after the end of Term 1). In addition, an optional non-assessed, ‘practice’ essay of c. 2000 words (which you are encouraged to undertake) can be handed in to Mark Knights by Monday of Week 7 (11 Nov).
Useful Online Resources:
The library has a page listing early modern online sources: go to ‘Databases’ tab on the library catalogue main page and then select History from the list of databases listed by subject. Within History you will find an option to view early modern resources.
Some highlights:
Historical Texts: this offers access to 350,000 texts published, chiefly in Britain, from the late C15th to the C19th. https://historicaltexts.jisc.ac.uk/home
Early European Books: A similar, but less complete, resource for European books up to 1700 http://eeb.chadwyck.co.uk/home.do
Gallica: Documents from French archives http://gallica.bnf.fr/?lang=EN
America’s Historical Imprints: covers 1639 to 1800
British History Online
Medieval and early modern sources for British history. Particular strengths include parliamentary and local history
Connected Histories - British history sources 1500-1900 : Cross-searches a range of digital resources relating to British history in the period 1500 – 1900, including the British Museum Images, British History Online, British Newspapers 1600-1900, Parliamentary Papers, Bodleian Library’s collection of ephemera, Old Bailey online – and many more.
Electronic Enlightenment
edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th.
European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750
Index and comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750 containing more than 32,000 entries
Making of the Modern World
Making of the Modern World is a database of digital facsimiles of literature on economics and business published from the last half of the 15th century to the mid-19th century
State Papers Online 1509-1782
State Papers Online, 1509-1782 is a searchable archive of 16th, 17th and 18th-century State Papers Domestic, Foreign, Scotland, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council
WEEK 2: RELIGION I: THE REFORMATION(S) AND ‘DISENCHANTMENT’
Tutor: Naomi Pullin
Overview:
The sessions in Week 2 and 3 introduce some of the key themes of early modern religious history. We will assess the legacy of the European Reformations by exploring some of the fundamental shifts in attitudes towards magic, witchcraft and the supernatural, and religious conformity, toleration and dissent.
In Week 2, we will explore whether ‘disenchantment’ was a necessary consequence of the Reformations, and examine the circumstances in which prosecutions for witchcraft flourished during the sixteenth and seventeenth-centuries. ‘Disenchantment’ is a concept used by historians to explore a series of processes that affected the social and cultural outlook of the early modern period. It is used to refer to a decline of supernatural beliefs in both popular and religious culture that is often tied to the era of the Protestant and Catholic reformations.
Seminar and Essay Questions:
· Did the Reformation(s) lead to the ‘disenchantment of the world’?
· How far did the emergence of Protestantism intensify anxiety about witches?
· In what ways can the persecution of witches be viewed as the product of tensions and conflicts within local communities?
· What is the difference between religion and magic?
Reading (* set reading):
J. Bossy, Christianity in the West (1985)
E. Cameron, Enchanted Europe: Superstition, Reason and Religion, 1250-1750 (2010), parts 3 and 4
P. Collinson, The Reformation (2003)
W. Coster and A. Spicer (eds), Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe (2005)
E. Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (1992), esp. the introduction
D. MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700 (2003), chs. 13 and 14
P. Marshall, The Reformation: A Very Short Introduction (2009)
H. Parish and W. Naphy (eds), Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe (2002)
A. Pettegree, Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (2005)
R. Scribner ‘Cosmic Order and Daily Life: Sacred and Secular in Pre-Industrial German Society’, in Kaspar von Greyerz (ed.), Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800 (1984) [reprinted in his Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (1987)]
* ------‘The Reformation, Popular Magic and the “Disenchantment of the World”’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 23 (1993), pp. 475-94; reprinted in C. Scott Dixon (ed.), The German Reformation: the Essential Readings (1999), pp. 262-79.
------‘Reformation and Desacralisation: from Sacramental World to Moralised Universe’, in R. Po-Chia Hsia & R. Scribner (eds), Problems in the Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe (Wiesbaden, 1997)
K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), chs. 1-2
J. D. Tracy, Europe’s Reformations 1450-1650 (1999)
Gary Waite, Heresy, Magic, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (2003)
* A. Walsham, ‘The Reformation and the Disenchantment of the World Reassessed’, Historical Journal, 51 (2008).
M. Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (1930), ch. Iv, pp. 95-139.
Specifically on Witchcraft
Edward Bever, ‘Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community’, Journal of Social History, 35: 4 (2002): 955-988
Briggs, R., Witches and Neighbours: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (1997)
* S. Clark, 'Inversion, Misrule and the Meaning of Witchcraft', Past and Present (1980)
S. Clark, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (1997)
S. Clark, 'Protestant Demonology: Sin, Superstition, and Society (c.1520-c.1630)', in Bengt Ankarloo & Gustav Henningsen (eds), Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries (1990)
M Gaskill, ‘Witchcraft and Evidence in Early Modern England’, Past and Present, 198 (2008)
A. Gregory, 'Witchcraft, Politics and "Good Neighbourhood" in Early Seventeenth Century Rye', Past and Present (1999)
Larner, C. Witchcraft and Religion: The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), chs.3 and 4
B. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (latest edn)
G. Quaife, Godly Zeal and Furious Rage: The Witch in Early Modern Europe (1987)
L. Roper, ‘Witchcraft and Fantasy in Early Modern Germany’, History Workshop Journal 32 (1991), 19-43 and in her Oedipus and the Devil (1994).
Scarre, G. Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe (London, 1987)
J. Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in England 1550-1750 (1996)
Charles Zika, The Appearance of Witchcraft: Print and Visual Culture in Sixteenth-Century Europe (2007)
WEEK 3: RELIGION II: Religious Heterodoxy
Tutor: Naomi Pullin
Overview:
The rise of a multi-confessional society, progressing towards more religious tolerance has traditionally been viewed as a product of the European Reformations. Ordinary men and women openly questioned and debated the nature of salvation, which led to the emergence of new radical denominations and confessional identities. In this session, we will explore the boundaries between religious orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and tolerance and intolerance in the post-Reformation church. We will also examine the suffering of specific groups of religious minorities and question the extent to which deviance was a product of rather than a cause of persecution.
Seminar and Essay Questions:
· How inclusive was the post-Reformation Church?
· How much of a threat did religious separatism post to the post-Reformation church?
· Did early modern religious minorities do more to promote religious tolerance or intolerance?
· How far was religious deviance a consequence or cause of persecution?
Reading (* Set reading)
General
A. Hughes, Gangraena and the Struggle for the English Revolution (2004)
B. S. Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (1999)
K. von Greyerz, Religion and Culture in Early Modern Europe (2008), esp. chs. 1, 3, 4, & 5
* B. Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (2007), esp. introduction [available as a library e-resource]
M. Knights, The Devil in Disguise: Deception, Delusion, and Fanaticism in the Early English Enlightenment (2011),
J. F. MacGregor and B. Reay (eds), Radical Religion in the English Revolution (1984).
J. W. Martin, Religious Radicals in Tudor England (1989)
N. McDowell, The English Radical Imagination: Culture, Religion and Revolution 1630-1660 (2003) [available as a library e-resource]
O.P. Grell and B. Scribner (eds), Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation (1996)
* A. Walsham, Charitable Hatred: Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Modern England (2005), esp. introduction
P. Zagorin, Ways of Lying: Dissimulation, Persecution and Conformity in Early Modern Europe (1990)
Catholicism and anti-Catholicism
J Bossy, The English Catholic Community 1570-1850 (1985)
N. Carlin, ‘Toleration for Catholics in the Puritan Revolution’, in Ole Peter Grell and Bob Scribner (eds), Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation (1996), 216-230
Anne Dillon, The Construction of Martyrdom in the English Catholic Community 1535-1603 (2002)
C Haigh ‘From Monopoly to Minority: Catholicism in Early Modern England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 31 (1981), 129-47
G. Glickman, The English Catholic Community 1688-1745 (2009)
A. Milton, ‘A Qualified Intolerance: the Limits and Ambiguities of Early Stuart Anti-Catholicism’, in A. Marotti (ed.), Catholicism and Anti-Catholicism in Early Modern English Texts (1999)
M. Questier, 'Catholic Loyalism in Early Stuart England', English Historical Review, 123 (2008), 1132-1165
M Rowlands, ‘Recusant Women 1569-1640’, in Mary Prior, ed., Women in English Society 1500-1800 (1985), 112-135
A. Walsham, Church Papists: Catholicism, Conformity and Confessional Polemic (1993)
Puritans
J. Coffey, ‘Puritanism and Liberty Revisited: The Case for Toleration in the English Revolution’, Historical Journal, 41 (1998), 961-85
P. Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (1967).
D. Como, Blown by the Spirit: Puritanism and the Emergence of an Antinomian Underground in Pre-Civil War England (2004)