PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

History 211 ­ The Emergence of Europe, 400-1715

Fall 1998 - Professor M.S. Mahoney

THE COURSE

Books to be purchased: Jackson W. Spielvogel, Western Civilization, 3rd ed., Vol. I, Antiquity to 1715 (West Publishing Company)

Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Vol. I (Columbia University Press; denoted as ICCW below)

Merry E. Wiesner et al., Discovering the Western Past: A Look at the Evidence, 3rd. ed. (Houghton-Mifflin)

A packet of supplementary readings, available at Print-It

Lectures take place on Monday and Wednesday at 1:30 PM in McCosh 28. Late arrivals are distracting to your fellow students, so please be punctual.

Precepts will meet twice a week at times and places given on the lists posted here and outside the History Department Office, 129 Dickinson Hall. They form an integral part of the course, and regular attendance and participation are essential to its successful completion.

Essays will be due at 3:00 on the Monday of Weeks 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, and the first week of Reading Period. Papers should be placed in your preceptor's box in the History Department Office. Details of each assignment will appear on the course web page as it comes up.

There will be two Examinations, a Midterm and a Final.

LECTURES AND ASSIGNMENTS

Week I (21 September) The Beginnings

1. The Frontier
2. Christianization 		Spielvogel, Chap. 7
St. Augustine, The City of God, ICCW, 129­74

* * * * * * * FIRST ESSAY: What Can History Tell Us? * * * * * * *

Week II (28 September) Church and Empire

3. The vestiges of Empire: Charlemagne and his successors
4. The Church of Rome 		Spielvogel, Chap. 8 and Chap. 9, pp. 284-88 ("The Recovery and Reform of the Catholic Church")
Rule of St. Benedict ICCW, 176­89 (full text)
Church and State, ICCW, 265­301

Week III (5 October) Feudalism

5. Mill and Manor
6. Feudalism 		Spielvogel, Chap. 9
The Manor, ICCW, 341-348
Wiesner et al, Chap. 5
Magna carta, ICCW, 416­27
Packet: Joseph R. Strayer, Feudalism (selections)

* * * * * * * SECOND ESSAY: Reading a Historical Document * * * * * * *

Week IV (12 October) Other People

7. Islam: the Crusades
8. The Far East: The Mongol Missions 		Spielvogel, Chap. 10
The Crusades, ICCW, 385-399
Packet: Philip K. Hitti (trans.), An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usâmah ibn Munqidh and John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols (selections)

Week V (19 October) The World of Aristotle

9. The Gothic Cathedral
10. Scholasticism and the University 		Spielvogel, Chap. 11
Wiesner et al, Chaps. 8, 6
The Town, ICCW, 349-361, 376-378

Week VI (26 October) The Waning of the Middle Ages

11. Death and Disintegration
12. MIDTERM EXAMINATION 		Spielvogel, Chap. 12
Wiesner et al, Chap.10

MIDTERM BREAK (31 October - 8 November)

* * * * * * * THIRD ESSAY: Understanding Columbus Historically * * * * * * *

Week VII (9 November) New Worlds

13. Antiquity: the Renaissance
14. America: voyages of discovery 		Spielvogel, Chap. 13, Chap. 15 (pp.490-499)
Wiesner et al, Chap. 11
Petrarch, ICCW, 557-­64
Machiavelli, ICCW, 459-479
Columbus, ICCW, 515-­22
The New World (Sepulveda, de las Casas), ICCW, 523-­543

Week VIII (16 November) The Crisis of Authority

15. Reformation and Counter­reformation
16. The New World of the Heavens: Copernicus and Galileo		 Spielvogel, Chap. 14
Wiesner et al, Chap. 13
Luther, ICCW, 699-­730
Loyola, ICCW, 767-­69
Packet: Copernicus, Preface to On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Galileo, ICCW, 791-­98

* * * * * * * FOURTH ESSAY: The Basis of Authority * * * * * * *

Week IX (23 November) The Nation State

17. The Estate of the King and the State of the Realm
18. Scepticism and its cures 		Spielvogel, Chap. 15
King vs. Constitution, ICCW, 923-61

Week X (30 November) The Clockwork Universe

19. Machines and Metaphysics
20. "Fleas, lice, and themselves": The Microscopic Cosmos 		Spielvogel, Chap. 17
Bacon, ICCW, 779-85
Descartes, ICCW, 812-35
Robert Hooke, Micrographia, Dedication and Preface
Newton, ICCW, 836-52

Week XI (7 December) The Balance of Forces

21. Political Settlements
22. Commerce and industry 		Spielvogel, Chap. 16
Elaboration of the Sovereign State, ICCW, 867-95

* * * * * * * FIFTH ESSAY: The Nature of Law* * * * * * *

Week XII (14 December) Modern Europe

23. Paris, London and St. Petersburg
24. "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" 		Hobbes, Harrington, and Locke, ICCW, 961-1053
Packet: Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, 1776

Reading Period

* * * * * * * SIXTH ESSAY * * * * * * *

FINAL EXAMINATION
Saturday, 16 Jan., 7:30 PM [Place to be Announced]