HI 390

THE WORLD OF THE TAVERN

IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE

THIRD YEAR ADVANCED OPTION

Module tutor: Prof. Beat Kümin

Adriaen van Ostade, ‘Peasant Dance in Front of a Tavern’ (1652), Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Module Summary

This leaflet contains brief information on ‘The World of the Tavern in Early Modern Europe’. Full details on seminars and materials can be found on the module website:

1. Tutor and contact details

Prof. Beat Kümin, Office H 313. T: (5)24915; e:

2. Time and Place

Weekly meetings on Wednesdays 10-12 am in H 0.43(startingin week 1; but NOT in weeks 6 and 16). One field trip in the spring term (likely to be on the Saturday of week 18 – to be confirmed). A revision session will be offered at the start of the summer term.

3. Aims and objectives

As an‘advanced’ option, this module involves the study of a broad-ranging theme in a comparative and interdisciplinary context. It examines developments in a number of different European countries (mainly the German lands, France and England) and draws on insights from neighbouring disciplines such as art and legal history, anthropology, theology and sociology. Compared to second-year options, there is a greater emphasis on historiographical debates, active student input in seminar organization and engagement with primary sources (although not to the same extent as in special subjects). Students are expected to devise their own topics for long essays. All written work should engage with primary sources and / or historiography / neighbouring disciplines from a comparative perspective.

The module uses one of the most prominent social centres to illustrate key themes and processes in early modern Europe, such as patterns of sociability, the growth of regulation, communication networks, confessional identity, patterns of crime, gender roles and alcohol consumption. It approaches pre-modern social conditions through the analysis of an ubiquitous leisure activity and highlights tensions between religious doctrines, secular laws and popular culture.

After an introductory section on scholarly approaches, primary sources and contextual issues, seminar sessions explore the legal, socio-economic and cultural dimensions of commercial hospitality and the status of the people who worked in the trade. Themes will be explored through student presentations, book reviews and debates rather than lectures by the tutor. A concluding part widens the perspective to examine the relationship with local, national and ecclesiastical authorities as well as the potential for interdisciplinary approaches.

Evidence from a broad chronological and geographical range is used to encourage long-term comparative views of early modern history. It shall become clear that basic similarities characterised the trade in Central and North-Western Europe, in spite of marked differences in the constitutional and confessional frameworks.

4. Intended learning outcomes

By the end of the module students should be able to ....

… demonstrate enhanced study, writing and communication skills;

… identify key processes and debates in early modern history;

… understand the multifunctional role of early modern public houses;

… examine relevant issues in a range of European case studies;

… engage with works from neighbouring disciplines;

… display greater expertise in making individual and group presentations;

… write an informative book review;

… devise a long essay topic supported by an appropriate bibliography;

… critically evaluate a range of primary and / or secondary sources in comparative

perspective.

5. Teaching and learning methods

Weekly meetings usually take the form of seminars, occasionally with ashort tutor introduction. Participants are expected to prepare seminar reading in private study, to offer a number of (individual / group) presentations in class (facilitated by the Learning Grid in University House) and to take an active part in discussions. Handouts with additional materials, esp. (translated) extracts from sources will be available for most sessions. At least one field trip – to historic public houses in the region – also forms part of the programme. The two non-assessed assignments take the form of 2,000 word essays (but one can be a book review of 1,000 words) and there is an optional (2-hour) mock exam. Individual tutorials will give feedback on these assignments and seminar performance. A revision class is available at the start of the summer term. Long essays and – if applicable – dissertations allow for closer engagement with a particular aspect examined in the module (titles and materials should be agreed with the tutor as early as possible; there should be no significant overlap with exam questions / essay topics in any module).

6. Writing a Book Review

An informative book review should:

  • summarise the structure, method and main points of the work;
  • discuss how the author’s arguments fit into other writing on the subject;
  • comment on the range of sources used and how they contribute to the argument;
  • explain the strengths and weaknesses of the book from your point of view;
  • assess whether / how the work will advance relevant debates
  • acknowledge sources of information used in footnotes and a bibliography.

It may be helpful to look at other people’s reviews in scholarly journals (many of which are accessible online through the library website and/or ‘JStor’), e.g.:

  • Central European History; English Historical Review; German History; History; Journal of Early Modern History; Sixteenth Century Journal.

Many scholarly websites and discussion fora also give access to reviews and other relevant materials (see e.g. ‘The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs’ or ‘Reviews in History’).

The following is not a definitive list but merely suggestive of books you might like to review. If you have other ideas please discuss them with the module tutor:

Bennett, Judith, Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World (Oxford, 1996)

Brennan, Thomas, Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Princeton, 1988)

Clark, Peter, The English Alehouse: A Social History (London, 1983)

Earnshaw, Steven, The Pub in Literature: England’s Altered State (Manchester, 2000)

Martin, Lynn A., Alcohol, Sex and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Basingstoke, 2001)

Tlusty, B. Ann, Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany (Charlottesville, 2001)

7. Workload and assessment

Coursework includes 2mandatory non-assessed assignments, i.e. 2,000 word essays (or, as an alternative to assignment 2, a 1,000 word book review),and an optional two-question mock exam, due at the end of week 7 in the autumn term,week 3 in the spring and week 1 in the summer term respectively.

Assessment consists of a two-hour exam andone 4,500 word long essay (due by the departmental deadline specified on the undergraduate website) UNLESS you are writing a dissertation linked to this module in which case you take a three-hour exam.

NB: Students are very welcome to attach the dissertation unit to this module. If you register to do so, a first orientation meeting will be held in the autumn term.

The department encourages the use of foreign languages in all written work. French and German are particularly appropriate here, but Italian can also be accommodated (see the relevant website section for details of appropriate literature).

Public house architecture:

The Pertrichhof inn at Petershausen near Dachau (Bavaria), built c. 1700


Tavern fare: Joseph Plepp, ‘Still Life with Cherries and Cheese’ (1632)

[State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg]

8. Suggested titles for (non-)assessed essays

The following list provides a few suggestions. Students are encouraged to find their own topics, but should discuss titles and materials with the tutor.

Non-assessed short essays

  1. When (and why) did commercial hospitality emerge in Europe?
  2. Which was the most significant function of the early modern public house?
  3. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of recent early modern tavern historiography.
  4. What can travel reports [or: sermons / tax records] tell us about the history of early modern public houses?
  5. ‘Material evidence must be the starting-point for any study of early modern public houses’. Discuss.
  6. Public houses in early modern [?]. A case study.
  7. ‘Run for the poor by the poor’. Discuss the social and economic status of early modern publicans.
  8. How good was the catering in early modern public houses?
  9. Why were tavern brawls so common in early modern Europe?
  10. ‘The early modern public house was essentially a masculine environment’. Discuss.
  11. ‘Social elites stayed well clear of the early modern public house’. Do you agree?
  12. How can we characterize the relationship between publicans and pastors in early modern Europe?
  13. Were public houses a threat to early modern society?
  14. Did public houses become more or less important over the course of the early modern period?
  15. What can tavern historians learn from sociological [theological/legal/anthropological] approaches?
  16. Why should historians study early modern public houses?

Modellong essaytitles[but discuss your choice or alternatives with the tutor]

  1. A typology of sources for the study of early modern public houses.
  2. Who controlled early modern public houses?
  3. The iconography of the early modern public house [OR: early modern publicans].
  4. Were early modern publicans ‘essentially brokers’?
  5. Did early modern Europeans drink too much alcohol?
  6. Public houses and popular culture in early modern Europe.
  7. An economic profile of early modern public houses.
  8. Why is the concept of ‘honour’ so prominent in studies on early modern public houses?
  9. Sex and the early modern public house.
  10. Public houses [OR: Publicans] and crime in the ‘Old Bailey Proceedings’ [OR: Warwickshire county courts]
  11. Did the public house replace the parish church as the main social centre in early modern Europe?
  12. Is religious ‘confession’ a significant category for an analysis of early modern public houses?
  13. Public houses and state formation in early modern Europe.
  14. Public houses in early modern England, Germany and France: a comparative analysis.
  15. Taverns and crime in early modern Europe.
  16. Public houses in the works of John Taylor, the Water-Poet.
  17. Public houses and the ‘public sphere’ in early modern Europe.

10. Model exam paper[see also the university’s database of past exam papers]

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK Summer 0000

THE WORLD OF THE TAVERN IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE (HI 390)

(i) For candidates also writing a dissertation in this module:
Time allowed: 3 hours
Answer THREE questions.

(ii) For all other candidates:
Time allowed: 2 hours
Answer TWO questions.

Answers should NOT include any significant amount of material already presented in ANY assessed essays.

Read carefully the instructions on the answer book and make sure that the particulars required are entered on each answer book.

  1. How can historians most adequately define the social function of publicans in early modern Europe?
  2. ‘Qualitative aspects are likely to cause the biggest difficulties in a study of early modern public houses’. Do you agree?
  3. ‘The devil’s chapel’. How appropriate is this contemporary perception of the early modern public house?
  4. Why do early modern historians look to neighbouring disciplines for the study of public houses?
  5. ‘Consumer choice was not a characteristic of early modern public houses.’ Discuss.
  6. What was the attitude of early modern authorities towards public houses?
  7. To what extent was the early modern public house ‘open to the public’?
  8. ‘As a workplace, public houses simply mirrored prevailing early modern gender roles.’ Discuss.
  9. Would you emphasise similarities or differences between public houses in England and Central Europe in the early modern period?
  10. Was there a ‘golden age’ of the European public house?

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