September 21, 1301: Letter from Alexander de Bailioel [of Cavers] to King Edward [I].

He has heard from the king’s letters that Sir John de Soulys has gone towards Galloway with a great company of Scots. The writer had and still has his spies among them, and will inform the keepers of the march as soon as he hears the Scots are coming. The king has told him that if he provided spies they should remain under his control, and he will do his best for the king. The king must not take it amiss that the writer has not given him news more quickly, for he would hate to send the king anything other than certain news. As to what the king has told him concerning Sir Walter de Borudoun, who is staying at Chastel Terres [Carstairs], the writer will be ready whenever Sir Walter commands him. The writer and his fellow keepers of the march are threatened by a possible Scottish raid to destroy the writer’s lands and to seize and defend the forest, so that they have arranged to gather next Sunday [24 Sept.] at a place on the march to inspect their forces. Asks for the king’s orders, as to one who is ready to obey.

[Letter dated at:] Cavers [Roxburghshire]

[Language:] French

[The National Archives:] SC 1/15/2

[Source: Taken verbatim from De Re Militari website,  https://deremilitari.org/2016/10/warfare-between-england-and-scotland-1299-1301-according-to-documents-from-the-english-government/ (accessed 22 August 2021).]

HIST 204
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES

Tuesday:

Diversity and Dynamism in Late Medieval Culture, c. 1300-1500,

and The New Technologies

 

Music:

“Tarantella alia clausula” (2:45 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtsIrhnI4ok&feature=relmfu

“Dolce amoroso foco” (2:13 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnyaTCwnmm0&feature=related

15th-century music (see first two of five videos):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPKhBkLgFLk&list=PL19E954FBC26A7E5F

Videos:

The Print Workshop in the 15th Century (Cambridge University Library; 5:02 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ARRcED3Ro

 

Arts and letters:

Some Black Death artistic genres emphasized the inevitability and horrors of death, such as cadaver or “transi” tombs

Expansion of universities and schools, including schools that offered training in business subjects

Rise of vernacular literature, by authors including:

• Dante Alighieri (Divine Comedy: Italian)
• Giovanni Boccaccio (Decameron: Italian)
• William Langland (Piers Plowman: English)
• Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales: English)
• Christine de Pizan (Letter to the God of Love; Treasury of the City of Ladies: French)
• François Villon (poems about life among the poor in Paris: French)

Rise of humanist education, based on classical languages, literature, and arts, and led by Italian scholar Francesco Petrarch

Revival of realistic portraiture and of classicizing art and architecture

Philosophy:

Rise of humanism, celebrating human potential (e.g., in Pico della Mirandola‘s essay, On the Dignity of Man)

• Faith unfettered by logic
• Scientific inquiry unfettered by faith

The new technologies:

Paper:	Spread to Europe in 10th cent. from China via Islamic world; paper production, using linen rags, began in Christian Europe in 13th cent.
Horizontal loom:	First appeared in Europe in 11th cent.; mechanized in 12th cent. (probably from Chinese model)
Windmills:	Vertical or “post” windmills were a European invention; they are first mentioned c. 1185 in England
Magnetic compass:	Invented in China (first mentioned in 1st cent. AD); reached Europe in 12th cent.
Spectacles:	Invented in Florence in 1285 or a few years later. These were convex lenses, of help only to the far-sighted. Concave lenses of use to the near-sighted were developed in the 16th century. (Click here to see imprint of spectacles in a medieval book.)
Gunpowder weapons:	Gunpowder was invented in China; cannon were first used in Europe in the 1320s, and underwent rapid development thereafter. (Click to see replica of a small bronze Swedish cannon, 1326, (wt: 9.07 kg; length: 300 mm); a wrought-iron German bombarde with stone cannon balls, 1377; and the Scottish bombarde “Mons Meg,” early 15th cent.)
Printing press:	Press with movable type was invented in Germany in the 1450s. By 1500, more than 40,000 different titles had been published by more than 1,000 printers, for a total of 8-10 million copies.

 

HIST 101
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES

Week 4: Tuesday

The Ancient Greeks: From Arrival to Glory, 2000-479 BCE

 

Videos:

Michael Wood, “In Search of the Trojan War” (BBC, 1985):

Episode 1/6: The Age of Heroes (56:31 min.; start at 15:50 for Troy; at 32:00 for Mycenae; 44:00 for Tiryns; 47:00 for Troy again):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkbUQKyie_w

Episode 2/6: The Legend under Siege (56:51 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc8I2IuVxEw

Episode 3/6: The Singer of Tales (55:15 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64QPz2t5T3A

Episode 4/6: The Women of Troy (59:36 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lHDUvKPsM

Episode 5/6: The Empire of the Hittites (59:53 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyKIlRqRb58

Episode 6/6: The Fall of Troy (58:24 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBk9j9Slb1Y

 

Readings:

Cultures, pp. 89-108 (The first Greeks; Archaic Greece; colonists, hoplites, and citizenship; masculinity; poetry; Sparta)

c.  2000-1500 BCE     Minoan civilization flourishes on the island of Crete and on the nearby island of Santorini. The Minoan language had a written script (“Linear A“), which was scratched onto clay tablets, but has not yet been deciphered. Archaeological finds show that the Minoans had a rich culture based on farming, fishing, and on trade with the Near East and Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, and Greece. Minoan Crete was ruled from five or six palaces, all near the sea, of which the biggest was at Knossos. These palaces were not fortified, implying that there was no internal warfare, and that the Minoans trusted their fleet to defend them against foreign attack. The palaces and great houses were lavishly decorated with frescoes depicting daily life, court life, ritual activities, and the scenes of nature and the sea.

c. 1450-1200 BCE     Decline and fall of Minoan civilization, probably beginning with an earthquake, followed by invasion by the Mycenaean Greeks

c.1600-1200 BCE     First known Greek-speaking culture: the Mycenaeans, whose script (known as Linear B, used primarily for supply lists for royal armies) has been discovered to be an early form of Greek.  There were multiple palaces in Mycenaean Greece, presumably representing multiple kings, including at Mycenae, Pylos, Tiryns, Thebes, and Athens. The mountainous topography of mainland Greece led to the development of multiple small kingdoms (later, city-states) rather than a unified kingdom. The Mycenaeans, unlike the Minoans, were militaristic; their royal palaces were fortified, and their art includes images of armor, hunting and warfare (Mycenaean dagger excavated by Heinrich Schliemann at Tiryns), but also images of the natural world (perhaps influenced by Minoan art). No Mycenaean temples or prayers have been found, but private houses had domestic shrines.  Around 1250 BCE Mycenaean palaces were re-fortified.

The Trojan War and its aftermath that were the subjects of Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey (written c. 750 BCE), may reflect Mycenaean attempts to seize part of Asia Minor, but the poems are not a surviving oral history from Mycenaean times. More likely they reflect  conditions during the Dark Age that followed.

c. 1200-750 BCE    Dark Age in Greece perhaps beginning with destruction by the Sea Peoples, was part of the widespread late Bronze Age collapse all around the eastern Mediterranean c. 1200 BCE. During the Dark Age, Greece lost c. 90% of its population, and writing (Linear B) disappeared. Most of the surviving population moved from the upland plateaus to the coastal towns.

c. 750-500 BCE    Archaic Period: rise of the Greek city-states (poleis), including the establishment of networks of small colonies, each tied to an individual polis, first in the Aegean, then in the Black Sea, and eventually more broadly in the Mediterranean.  The rise of Greek sea power and the spread of  Greek colonies overseas was made possible by the disruption of Phoenician maritime dominance in the eastern Mediterranean, caused by the Assyrian destruction of the kingdom of Israel c. 722 BCE, followed by the Neo-Babylonian conquest of the kingdom of Judah c. 587 BCE. The poleis needed standing militias to defend themselves, requiring all free men aged 18-60 to be liable for military call-up. The Greeks perfected fighting by infantry soldiers (hoplites), armed with breastplate, helmet, sword, shield, and spear, in trained units, called phalanxes. The need for men to stay in good physical shape and to train for war led to the rise of pan-Hellenic athletic competitions, such as the Olympic games, and a cult of masculinity that valorized the male body and male homosexuality. In Greece’s militaristic society, girls and women were considered of far less value than men. They were given little education  and were kept secluded at home. (One celebrated female poet, however, Sappho of Lesbos, wrote of female homosexual love and of Aphrodite, goddess of love.)

The most militaristic polis of all was Sparta, although it sought no colonies, and focused on war in order to control its large number of state-owned slaves (helots), who did all the manual work of the Spartans. Babies considered defective were ordered to be left to die in the mountains; boys and girls began physical training at age 7; at age 12 the girls were given a basic education and the boys were sent to military barracks and trained to fight. The boys were required to steal food to teach them self-reliance, and underwent brutal discipline and training. At age 20 they entered the army for a service period of 10 years, after which they were awarded full citizenship.

 

Thursday:

 

Videos:

British Museum, Curator’s Corner: Killing time with Ajax and Achilles (painted on Greek vases) (10:39 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTJoDdQGI6s

Michael Wood: Art of the Western World – The Classical Ideal (1989, 55:38 min.; start at 3:34):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgWno9NMGks

Readings:

Cultures, pp.108-117 (Miletus and the birth of philosophy; Athens and democracy; the Persian Wars)

Sources, pp. 47-62 (Hesiod, Works and Days; Homer, The Iliad; Herodotus, The Persian Wars and Histories; Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War)

Miletus, founded in the Mycenaean period, after the Dark Age revived to become a commercial and cultural hub with numerous colonies, especially around the Black Sea. Miletus produced a very distinctive style of pottery  (see also here), and a high-quality coinage displaying a lion, and it was the birthplace of Western philosophy – home of the 6th-cent. philosophers Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, who investigated whether there was a rational pattern, or set of universal truths, to the natural world, that humans can learn. They also asked  what was the origin of all things (water? ether? air?), and sought to understand the process(es) by which the physical world changes. They pioneered the concept of submitting ideas to critical inspection by others.

Athens took its name from Athena, goddess of wisdom. Its Acropolis (city high-point) was first settled c. 3000 BCE, and it was a major Mycenaean city. After the Dark Age, between c. 700 and 650 BCE the aristocracy of Athens conquered the surrounding territory (Attica), which led to conflict between the now-expanded number of ordinary Athenians and the wealthy elites. In 594 BCE the city council appointed the aristocrat Solon to resolve this: he made all adult male citizens members of the Assembly (which elected officials), loosened the qualifications for holding office; allowed foreign merchants and craftsmen who settled in Athens with their families to become citizens; and cancelled the debts of poor farmers who had fallen into debt-slavery. Solon’s efforts failed, and the tyrant Pisitratos seized power c. 560 BCE, and held power for 3 periods until his death in 527 BCE, trying to resolve the city’s problems (including unfair distribution of offices, high taxes, and backlog of court cases); he also had archival copes made of the Iliad and Odyssey. His two sons (Hippias and Hipparchus) succeeded him, but in 510 BCE Hipparchus was murdered (a pair of statues commemorating the Tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogeiton, was set up in the Agora [marketplace]), and Hippias was expelled. After a couple of tumultuous years, Cleisthenes, who had been exiled by a rival for helping to force out Hippias, was recalled by the Athenians and re-organized the city’s government as the first western democracy. Citizens (free men of some means, comprising only 5%-10% of the city’s population) were organized by neighborhood (deme) and met in a general assembly (ekklesia). The assembly considered legislation, judged trials, and set policies. Day-to-day governance and yearly magistrate selection were handled by a council (boule) chosen by lot and serving for a single day. Army commanders (strategoi) were elected for one year, but could then be re-elected.

 

494-479 BCE     The Persian Wars

Persia controlled the Ionian coast (the west coast of Anatolia), and the Ionian cities, including Miletus, formed a league to break away from Persian overlordship. Sparta (which had no overseas colonies) refused to send an army overseas to help the Ionians, but  in 499 BCE Athens did, and sacked the Persian city of Sardis. In 490 BCE the Persian emperor Darius sent a large Persian army to attack Athens. The ensuing battle of Marathon (26 miles N. of Athens) was a huge victory for Athens (thanks to the tactical leadership of Miltiades), and the Persian army withdrew. Between 490 and 480 BCE the Athenians, expecting the Persians to return in force, built a fleet of 200  triremes (warships with 3 tiers of oars and bronze-sheathed prows). In 480 BCE Darius’s son Xerxes launched a massive attack on Greece by land. The Greek city-states, including Sparta, banded together to resist them. At the coastal pass of Thermopylae, a tiny Spartan rearguard under their king Leonidas held back the entire Persian army for 3 days before they were overcome and killed, but allied Greek victories at Salamis (480: naval battle) and Plataea (479: land battle) forced the Persians to withdraw once more.

Hesiod, Works and Days (c. 735-700 BCE): Describes the “golden age” of humans who were made of gold and lived like gods; then the “silver age” of lesser humans, who flouted the gods’ wishes, and so were exterminated; then the third race of men, made of bronze, who lived like savages. Then came a race of demi-gods, who fought like heroes, including at Troy. Finally came the present (5th) race of men, who live lives of toil and misery in an age of iron.

Homer, The Iliad (c. 750 BCE):  Clash between Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and Achilles, the Greek hero, over possession of a girl taken as booty during the Trojan War. Achilles sulks in his tent and refuses to fight, until his friend Patroclus is killed by the Trojan prince, Hector. Then Achilles (who was invulnerable to wounds except on his heel) went out to fight Hector, killed him, and dragged Hector’s body around the walls of Troy behind his chariot, by the heels, to dishonor him.

Herodotus of Hallicarnassus (484-423 BCE), The Persian Wars and Histories: In The Persian Wars, Herodotos identifies the custom of abducting high-status women as a major cause of warfare between the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Persians. He says that the Greeks considered it wrong to abduct a woman, but believed that only women who did not resist were abducted. In Histories, he describes the kinds of evidence he uses, including linguistic evidence, religious rituals and images, and interviewing religious authorities (such as the priestesses at Dodona),

Thucydides of Athens (460-400 BCE), The Peloponnesian War:  Thucydides recognized immediately the historical significance of the war as the ultimate face-off between Athens and Sparta, and he wrote about it while it was occurring. He also did extensive research through oral interviews and documentary records to analyze what happened and why. Although he invented dramatic scenes and dialogue to depict what he considered to be the genuine points of view of his subjects, he did not (unlike Herodotos) depict events as the result of intervention by the gods. In his introduction, Thucydides also examines evidence for the early history of the Greeks – for example, he sees early Greek history as one in which tribes were constantly migrating, there were no alliances before the Trojan War, and violence was endemic, requiring men of the past to carry arms as a matter of course in everyday life. In his depiction of Pericles’ funeral oration for the war dead, he first describes how the Athenians buried their fallen soldiers, with a common coffin for the dead of each tribe, an empty bier for those whose bodies were not found, the burial of the coffins in the public cemetery in the suburbs, and then a public eulogy. In the eulogy, he has Pericles describe the basic principals by which the Athenians live, beginning with their democratic form of government, which is designed to serve the interests of the many, not the few. He sees Athens as a model for all Greece to follow, and sees honor as the chief prize of life.

https://sites.uwm.edu/carlin/2020/12/29/hist-101-western-civilization-to-1500-spring-2021/

HIST 101
Lecture outlines

 

HISTORY 101: WESTERN CIVILIZATION TO 1500

Professor Martha Carlin

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Spring 2021
Copyright 2021, all rights reserved

 

Messages: History Department, tel. (414) 229-4361
E-mail: carlin@uwm.edu
Home page: people.uwm.edu/carlin/
Virtual office hours (via email): Tuesdays 11 AM – 12 noon, and by appointment

Grader: Elizabeth Jackson
E-mail: jacks659@uwm.edu
Virtual office hours (via email): Tuesdays 1-2 PM and Thursdays 2-3 PM, and by appointment

 

Course description: This course surveys the extraordinary arc of early Western civilization over 4,500 years, from about 3000 BCE to 1500 CE. We will trace such landmarks as the birth of governments, massive building projects, and writing in the ancient Near East and Egypt, the soaring intellectual and cultural achievements of the classical world, and the dramatic political, religious, technological, and artistic developments of the European Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. We will also look in depth at some individual careers and events that had long-term effects on Western history. To do all this, we will read a textbook written by a modern scholar who has distilled generations of scholarly work in constructing an overview of the ancient, classical, and medieval past. We will also read a sourcebook containing a wide range of original texts written by people of those cultures who described their own world as they saw it. In addition, we will examine non-textual sources, including examples of the art, architecture, and material cultures of ancient, classical, and medieval Western civilization.

Course objectives: This course should provide you with a good overview of Western Civilization between 3000 BCE and 1500 CE and enable you to understand the significance of broad and long-term historical patterns, and also of some outstanding individual careers and events. It should also enable you to develop important skills in:

*     reading and evaluating sources carefully and critically

*    analyzing a wide variety of types of evidence

*     using such evidence to reconstruct and interpret the past

*     combining careful reading and analysis with thoughtful writing to produce clear, original, and persuasive arguments

There are two required textbooks, both available through UWM’s Virtual Bookstore at https://uwm.ecampus.com/shop-by-course:

Clifford A. Backman, Cultures of the West: A History, vol. 1: To 1750 (3rd edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2020)

Clifford A. Backman and Christine Axen, editors, Sources for Cultures of the West, vol. 1: To 1750 (3rd edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2020)

There may also be required online readings (listed below under Topics and Readings).

Email and Internet access: You will require an email account and access to the Internet for this class. All UWM students receive a free UWM email account, and the History Department regularly contacts students via their assigned UWM email addresses. If you routinely use another email service provider (e.g., Gmail or Yahoo!) instead of your assigned UWM email, please go immediately into your UWM email account and put a “forward” command on it, to forward all incoming email messages to the account that you routinely use. This is your responsibility; the History Department reflectors use UWM e-addresses only. (To put a forward command on your UWM email account: enter your Office 365 account and click on “?” to open the Help app. Type “forward mail” and then follow the directions to forward email to your desired account.)

Papers: There are seven required mini-papers (described at the end of this syllabus), each worth 10% of your final grade. You are welcome to write more than seven of these mini-papers, in which case your seven best paper grades will be used for your final grade (10% each, for 70% of final grade).

Exams: There will be no midterm exam or final exam, but there will be in-class quizzes, which will count towards the class participation portion of your final grade.

Attendance and participation: This class is a “live” (synchronous) lecture class, and your regular “live” attendance and participation are essential. Students who fail to attend class or to contact me during the first week of classes may be dropped administratively. The participation portion of your grade will be based on in-class work, such as quizzes or other activities. Together, your attendance and participation are worth 30% of your final grade.

Grading and deadlines: Your final grade will be based on your seven (or seven best) mini-papers (10% each, for 70% of final grade), and your attendance and participation in class (30%). The mini-papers are due on the dates specified at the end of the syllabus. Late work will not be accepted, except in cases of major illness or emergency (it is your responsibility to contact me immediately in such a case).

Online protocols:

We will use Collaborate Ultra as our online class platform; you will access it from the course Canvas page. (Collaborate Ultra works best with Chrome as the browser.) All classes will be “live” (synchronous). Our course Grader, Elizabeth Jackson, will be assisting me during class in taking attendance, fielding questions, etc.

Protocols for attending our online class:

• During class, please be in a quiet room, with all other devices silenced.
• Between 9:30 and 9:45 AM, enter the course Canvas page
• Click on Collaborate Ultra in the left sidebar
• Select the session (such as, “Week 1 – Thursday lecture”) and click on “Join Session” (each session will be open by 9:15 AM)
• Follow the prompts to complete your audio and video checks
• Click on the lavender tab (lower right) to open the Chat sidebar
• Class will begin at 9:45 AM, and end at 11:00 AM (some classes may finish early). Attendance will be taken at multiple points during each class so, to get credit for attending and participating, please do not log in late or leave early.
• To ask a question during class, EITHER type the question in the chat box and press “Return,” OR click on the “Raised Hand” icon and wait for Elizabeth or me to call on you. When we call on you, please UNMUTE your microphone to speak, and then MUTE it again ASAP.
• If possible, please have your VIDEO ON during class so that we can all see one another, as in a face-to-face class.

Disabilities: If you have a disability, it is essential that you contact me early in the semester to discuss any help or accommodation you may need.

Academic Advising in History: All L&S students have to declare and complete an academic major to graduate. If you have earned in excess of 45 credits and have not yet declared a major, you are encouraged to do so. If you are interested in declaring a major or minor in History, or require academic advising in History, please visit the Department of History’s undergraduate program web page, at: http://uwm.edu/history/undergraduate/.

Academic integrity at UWM: UWM and I expect each student to be honest in academic performance. Failure to do so may result in discipline under rules published by the Board of Regents (UWS 14). The penalties for academic misconduct such as cheating or plagiarism can include a grade of “F” for the course and expulsion from the University. For UWM’s policies on academic integrity, see https://uwm.edu/academicaffairs/facultystaff/policies/academic-misconduct/

UWM policies on course-related matters: See the website of the Secretary of the University, at: https://uwm.edu/secu/wp-content/uploads/sites/122/2016/12/Syllabus-Links.pdf

 

Topics and Readings

(Each day’s assigned readings are to be done before class. In-class quizzes will be based on both the lectures and the assigned readings.)

 

Week 1:          Introduction; Water and Soil, Stone and Metal: The First Civilizations, c. 10,000-3000 BCE

26 Jan.             Introduction to course

28 Jan.             Cultures, pp. xxviii-xxxiv (Note on Dates; Prologue), 3-20 (The First Civilizations)

Sources, pp. xiii-xiv (How to Read a Primary Source), 1-4 (Shamash Hymn, Poem of the Righteous Sufferer)

 

Week 2:          Mesopotamia and Egypt, c. 3000-1200 BCE

2 Feb.              Cultures, pp. 20-44 (Sumer to Old Babylon; Egypt)

4 Feb.              Cultures, pp. 44-53 (The Indo-European Irruption; The Age of Iron Begins)

Sources, pp. 5-27 (Tale of Sinuhe, Epic of Gilgamesh, Laws of Hammurabi, Loyalist Teaching, Book of the Dead, Hymn to the Aton)

Week 2 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 3:          The Monotheists: Jews and Persians, 1200-550 BCE

9 Feb.              Cultures, pp. 55-78 (The Jews)

11 Feb.            Cultures, pp. 78-87 The Persians)

Sources, pp. 28-46 (Genesis 1-8; Exodus 7, 11-12, 14; Jeremiah, 7-8; I Kings 6-8; Jonah; Cyrus Cylinder)

Week 3 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 4:          The Ancient Greeks: From Arrival to Glory, 2000-479 BCE

16 Feb.            Cultures, pp. 89-108 (The first Greeks; Archaic Greece; colonists, hoplites, and citizenship; masculinity; poetry; Sparta)

18 Feb.            Cultures, pp.108-117 (Miletus and the birth of philosophy; Athens and democracy; the Persian Wars)

                        Sources, pp. 47-62 (Hesiod, Works and Days; Homer, The Iliad; Herodotus, The Persian Wars and Histories; Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War)

Week 4 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 5:          The Classical and Hellenistic Age, 479-30 BCE

23 Feb.            Cultures, pp. 119-145 (Athens; the polis; women, children, and slaves; drama; the Peloponnesian War; historical inquiry; medicine; philosophy)

25 Feb.            Cultures, pp. 146-163 (Alexander the Great’s conquests; the Hellenistic world; revolt and religion in Judaea)

                        Sources, pp. 63-77 (Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound; Plato, Symposium; Aristotle, “The Elements of Tragedy;” Diogenes Laërtius, Life of Zeno of Citium; Book of Ezra)

Week 5 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 6:          Romans and Republicans, 753-27 BCE

2 March          Cultures, pp. 163-187 (Italy and the rise of Rome; from monarchy to republic; the republic of virtue; size matters)

4 March          Cultures, pp. 187-193 (Can the republic be saved?)

                        Sources, pp. 78-95 (Livy, “The Battle of Cannae;” The land law of Tiberius Gracchus; Virgil, The Aeneid; “In praise of Turia”)

Week 6 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 7:          Rome’s Empire, 27 BCE – 305 CE

9 March          Cultures, pp. 195-210 (Rome’s golden age: the Augustan era; the sea; Roman lives and values)

11 March        Cultures, pp. 210-221 (The height of the “Pax Romana”)

                        Sources, pp. 96-105 (Epictetus, Enchiridion; Tacitus, Histories; Suetonius, lives of Caligula and Claudius; Marcus Aurelius, Meditations; 3rd cent. imperial-succession crisis)

Week 7 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 8:          The Rise of Christianity in a Roman World, 40 BCE – 300 CE

16 March        Cultures, pp. 223-243 (The vitality of Roman religion; the Jesus mystery; a crisis in tradition; ministry and movement; what happened to his disciples?)

18 March        Cultures, pp. 243-253 (Christianities everywhere; Romans in pursuit; philosophical foundations: Stoicism and Neoplatonism)

Sources, pp. 106-118 (Josephus, The Jewish War; Pliny the Younger, Letters; Celsus, “Against the Christians,” and Origen, “Against Celsus;” the Nicene Creed; Minucius Felix, refutations of charge that Christians are cannibals; the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas; St. Augustine of Hippo, on the Gospel of John)

Week 8 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

21-28 March SPRING BREAK (no classes)

 

Week 9:          Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 300-750

30 March        Cultures, pp. 259-280 (Imperial decline; a Christian emperor and a Christian church; the Byzantine Empire; barbarian kings and warlords; divided estates and kingdoms)

1 April            Cultures, pp. 280-289 (Germanic law; Christian paganism; Christian monasticism)

                        Sources, pp.119-137 (Procopius, The Secret History; Gildas, On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain; Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks; Pope Gregory the Great, Life of St. Benedict; Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People; Dhuoda, Handbook for William)

Week 9 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 10:        The Expansive Realm of Islam, to 900 CE

6 April            Cultures, pp. 291-311 (The Arabian background; the Qur’an and history; from preacher to conqueror; the Islamic empire; Sunnis and Shi’a)

8 April            Cultures, pp. 311-321 (Islam and the classical traditions; women and Islam)

                        Sources, pp. 138-163 (the Qur’an; Ibn Ishaq, Life of Muhammad; al-Ghazali, The Deliverer from Error; One Thousand and One Nights; Maimonides, Letter to Yemen; Usamah ibn Munqidh, Memoirs; Ibn Rushd, On the Harmony of Religious Law and Philosophy; Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed)

Week 10 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 11:        Carolingian Europe; The Splintering of the Caliphate, 750 – c. 1000 CE

13 April          Cultures, pp. 323-331 (Two palace coups: Abbasid and Carolingian; the Carolingian ascent; Charlemagne; imperial coronation)

15 April          Cultures, pp. 331-338 (Carolingian collapse; the splintering of the Caliphate; the reinvention of Western Europe and manorialism)

                        Sources, pp. 163-165 (Einhard, Life of Charlemagne)

Week 11 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 12:        The Reinvention of Western Europe and the Islamic World, c. 1000-1258 CE

20 April          Cultures, pp. 338-353 (Mediterranean cities; the reinvention of the Church; the reinvention of the Islamic world; the call for Crusades; the Crusades; Turkish power and Byzantine decline)

22 April          Cultures, pp. 353-361 (Judaism reformed, renewed, and reviled; the emergence of the Slavs)

                        Sources, pp. 165-189 (Pope Gregory VII, Letters; Guibert de Nogent, Gesta Dei (God’s Deeds: the 1st Crusade); Peter Abelard, Sic et Non (Yes and No); Otto of Freising, The Two Cities; the “Song of Roland;” Trotula of Salerno, Handbook on the Maladies of Women; Ibn Fadlan, Risala)

Week 12 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 13:        Late Medieval European Culture, 1258-1453

27 April          Cultures, pp. 363-372 (Late medieval Europe; scholasticism; mysticism)

29 April          Cultures, pp. 372-383 (The guild system; the mendicant orders; early representative government; the weakening of the papacy; noble privilege and popular rebellion; the Hundred Years’ War)

                        Sources, pp. 190-194 (Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy)

Week 13 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 14:        Worlds Brought Down, 1258-1453 

4 May             Cultures, pp. 383-394 (The plague; the Mongol takeover; in the wake of the Mongols)

6 May             Cultures, pp. 394-405 (Persia under the Il-Khans; a new center for Islam; the Ottoman Turks)

                        Sources, pp. 194-202 (Boccaccio, “The Great Plague;” Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love; Froissart, “On Flagellants;” Jakob Twinger, Chronicle)

Week 14 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

 

Week 15:        Renaissances; Review

11 May           Cultures, pp. 407-421 (Rebirth or culmination?; the political and economic matrix; the Renaissance achievement)

Sources, pp. 203-211 (Petrarca, “Letter to posterity;” Ariosto, “Orlando Furioso;” Machiavelli, “Discourses on Livy”)

13 May           Review: Attendance is OPTIONAL

Elizabeth and I will hold an open session in Collaborate Ultra during our usual class time for anyone who wishes to talk about anything to do with History 101, or about history in general. Feel free to drop in – we’d love to see you!

Week 15 mini-paper due in Canvas by 4:59 PM

  

Mini-Papers for History 101

PAPER REQUIREMENTS:

Each paper must be 1-2 double-spaced pages long, in a 12-pt font. (The minimum length is one full page of text.) It must be submitted as a Word document (.doc or .docx) via the course Canvas page.

Your paper must be based entirely on that week’s assigned readings and my online lectures and lecture outlines. No other sources are allowed, including Wikipedia. The point of the papers is to challenge you to read the assigned readings carefully, and to attend and take part in the lectures thoughtfully, and to hone your analytical and writing skills.

Your papers must address the assigned topic, and be written to a college-level standard, with good grammar, spelling, punctuation, and phrasing. Fill your papers with solid factual content, not “padding,” and avoid vague or unclear writing. Put everything in your own words; do not include any quotations at all.

Your papers must be entirely your own work. You may not copy or adapt them from someone else’s work, and you may not collaborate on them with anyone else.

At the end of your paper, list every source that you have used, including, when possible, the specific page numbers. (Do not simply list the full range of pages in that week’s reading assignments – list only the pages from which you actually took ideas or information.) If you have used material from my lectures or lecture outlines, say so, and give the dates (e.g., “Carlin, Week 4, Thursday lecture outline”). If your text fills two pages, your list of sources may go on p. 3.

You must submit a minimum of seven mini-papers. You are welcome to submit more than seven; if you do, your seven best paper grades will be used for your final grade. Your seven (or seven best) mini-papers are worth 70% of your final grade (10% each).

All papers are due in Canvas on THURSDAYS by 4:59 PM. Late papers (including paper topics from an earlier week) will not be accepted.

PAPER TOPICS (choose at least seven):

WEEK 2: Drawing on materials from this week’s lectures and assigned readings in both textbooks, identify three major ways in which the cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt were similar, and three major ways in which they were different. Don’t forget to list your sources at the end (see Paper Requirements, above).

WEEK 3:  In Chapter 1 of Cultures of the West, Clifford Backman says (pp. 8-9) that most early Western societies were led by kings, whose main function was to serve as military commanders, and priests, whose main function was to appease the gods and protect society from them; sometimes these two functions were merged in one ruler. Drawing on this week’s lectures and assigned readings, discuss whether the societies of the Jews and the Persians followed this pattern, or whether they did not. Don’t forget to list your sources at the end (see Paper Requirements, above).

WEEK 4:  Sparta and Athens were the dominant city-states of the Greek mainland. Imagine that you are a Spartan who has just returned home after visiting Athens for the first time. Describe your impressions of Athens and compare it with Sparta. Identify ways in which the two were similar, and also ways in which they were different. Consider not only the physical appearance of the two cities, but also their respective priorities, cultures, and systems of government. Fill your paper with concrete factual information drawn from this week’s lectures and assigned readings, not with vague generalizations.

WEEK 5:  Drawing from this week’s lectures and assigned readings, identify six things in the extract from Plato’s Symposium (in Sources, pp. 65-71) that typify Athenian culture during its golden age between the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War.

WEEK 6: Under Roman law, free Roman women had the same legal status as children, and were entirely subject to their father or husband (or other senior male relative). Drawing on this week’s lectures and the readings in both books, give four reasons why these laws did not result in all free Roman women living their lives helpless and downtrodden.

WEEK 7:  The Roman empire had a strongly urban culture. Imagine that you are a young provincial from a country estate who has been taken by an aunt and uncle on a visit to Rome. Write a letter home to your family describing what you have seen and done there. Pack your letter full of concrete factual details from the lectures and readings, not vague generalizations.

WEEK 8:  In the three centuries following the crucifixion of Jesus, communities of Christians arose all around the Roman world despite periods of harsh persecution by the Roman authorities. Drawing from this week’s lectures and assigned readings, identify two major reasons why most Jews rejected Christianity, two major reasons why most Romans rejected Christianity, and three major reasons why Christianity nevertheless became  widespread in this period.

WEEK 9:    After Theodosius I divided the Roman Empire between his two sons in 395, the Eastern and Western empires went their separate ways. The Eastern (Byzantine) empire survived for a thousand years. The Western empire, much weaker and poorer than the East, crumbled and soon collapsed. However, the following centuries saw the rise of a new, powerful, Western European culture, based on the fusion of Roman culture, Germanic culture, and Western (Latin) Christianity. From this week’s readings and lectures, identify two major elements each from Roman culture, Germanic culture, and Latin Christianity that shaped the culture of medieval Europe.

WEEK10:  Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share some beliefs and scriptures. In the medieval period, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholars drew on the intellectual and scientific legacy of the Greeks and Romans. Using this week’s lectures and the assigned readings in BOTH textbooks, identify three beliefs that are shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; three that are distinct to Islam and are not shared by Judaism and Christianity; and two elements of Aristotelian philosophy that were investigated both by the Muslim scholar ibn Rushd (known in the medieval West as Averroes) and by his Jewish contemporary Moses Maimonides.

WEEK 11:  The Abbasid and Carolingian empires both emerged in the 700s and soon fractured. Drawing on this week’s lectures and on the assigned readings in both textbooks, identify four major ways in which each empire, despite its political splintering, shaped its respective culture (European or Islamic) in the centuries that followed.

WEEK 12:  The Crusades are the most widely-known example of religious warfare in the Middle Ages, but there were many sharp religious conflicts, both violent and non-violent, in the medieval period. Drawing on this week’s lectures and on the assigned readings in both textbooks, identify four OTHER examples of major religious conflict between c.1000 and c.1250 CE, and the main cause(s) of each conflict. (The conflicts may be within a single faith, or between different faiths.)

WEEK 13:  European political developments in the period 1250-1450 included the emergence of nationalism, the use of law as a coercive tool by both secular rulers and the Church, the demand by working-class people for greater freedom and access to power, and a rise in the search for spiritual enlightenment individually (such as through mysticism or other personal religious practice), rather than only through the sacraments and instruction of priests. Drawing on this week’s lectures and on the assigned readings in both textbooks, identify one way in which each of these broad developments is reflected in the life and death of Joan of Arc.

WEEK 14:  Between 1347 and 1350, “the pestilence” (now identified as bubonic plague) killed between one-third and one-half of the population of Europe, and the population did not begin to rise again until after 1500. Drawing on this week’s lectures and on the assigned readings in both textbooks, identify two major ways in which late medieval Europe was shaped by the plague, and two major ways in which it was not shaped by the plague. Support your arguments with concrete information, not vague generalities.

WEEK 15:  Did the Renaissance’s celebration of classicism and humanism and its development of modern statecraft really represent a sharp break from medieval culture, or did it instead represent a culmination of medieval culture? Choose ONE of these interpretations, and give FOUR major reasons that support it. Support your arguments with concrete information drawn from this week’s lecture and from the assigned readings in both textbooks. Avoid vague generalities.

HIST 840
SYLLABUS
WEEKLY DISCUSSION MATERIALS
COURSE MATERIALS

SECLUDING WALLS; SEX AND MORTALITY

Videos:

“Walled World” (article from The Guardian with animated images, 19 November 2013):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2013/nov/walls#intro

BBC: Lost Cities of South America, episode 4, Kingdom of the Desert (54:00 min.; see 0:00-6:00, 43:30-52:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSkMkPLBJ6s

Chimu 101: National Geographic (2:21 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xOs56dZu_E

Life in an Enclosed Convent (4:51 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkLt4iJ0KRU

The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall (6:25 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9fQPzZ1-hg

Worsley, Lucy. “History of the Home” (British domestic life, medieval-present day):
“3. The Bedroom” (59:01 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK6mwqw0FqQ

 

Images:

Heaven: A Gated Community
https://www.dicksonsgifts.com/popup.aspx?src=https://www.dicksonsgifts.com/images/Variant/large/MAGHB-1029.jpg

 

 

Readings:

Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 7 (“Gated Communities”), pp. 116-140

Bryson, At Home, Chapter 15 (“The Bedroom”), pp. 454-485

HIST 840
SYLLABUS
WEEKLY DISCUSSION MATERIALS
COURSE MATERIALS

COMMUNAL HOUSES

Videos:

Donnelly, Michael. Description of grandparents’ tenement in Glasgow [c. 1920s-1930s?] (4:05 min.)  https://gridclub.com/scotland/history/the_age_of_revolutions/page69/index.html

“Miss Toward’s Tenement House.” Description of a Glasgow tenement occupied by Miss Agnes Toward from 1911 until 1965, and preserved today as a museum. https://www.scotiana.com/miss-towards-tenement-house-2/ , with a 3-minute YouTube video at end (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LISZXCsRm_0&feature=youtu.be).

“The House on Trubnaya” (Russian, silent film, 1928: watch 2:00-5:00 min. for morning chores in the apartment house)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scf9f9W4oNs

My aunty’s one-room flat in Mumbai, where she has lived for 55 years (2012). 10:56 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kj8L0kdSFg

 

Readings:

Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 6 (“Apartment Living”), pp. 93-113

Bryson, At Home, Chapters 13 (“The Plum Room”) and 14 (“The Stairs”), pp. 406-453

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother, pp. 108-119 [https://huntersocfamilies.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/ruth-schwartz-cowan-more-work-for-mother.pdf]

New York City Tenement Museum tour, with Annie Polland. 14:17 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bymB7tip1KM [include this video in your discussion questions]

 

HIST 203
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES

Week 10: Tuesday

Videos:

Aachen, 1200 years after Charlemagne (5:28 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFMhBCscH04

Life in 1000 AD Britain (documentary, 47:59 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGUVcMYC6oY

Plowing a field with oxen — Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, 2009 (1:24 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuytRXRfyeI

How to make hay with a scythe (9:45 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs8qiucZZx0&feature=related

How to mow with a scythe (Wilson, Wisconsin, 2009; 3:36 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzdjOkLQw1s

Reaping wheat with a sickle (2011; 6:16 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXey-x3eCxc

Threshing with flails (0:21 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmyKYPE3vo

Laxton: Surviving village of open-field farming (U. of Nottingham, 7:35 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zc57uJ-fPY

The Laxton Map (Bodleian Library, 5:01 min.):
https://youtu.be/aiaVvwrvJtA

Laxton documentary, 1975 (12:18 min.; watch 0:00-0:40; 3:00-4:18):
https://www.macearchive.org/films/laxton

 

Reconstruction of a Carolingian settlement at Koudekerk  (Netherlands)

 

Countryside terms:

Serf (or villein)

Labor services

Slave

Free peasant

Village (Click for a photo of Midlem, a village in the Scottish Borders)

Manor (and another image)

Manse

 

Urban terms:

Town (click for a sketch plan of Norwich c. 1066)

Artisan (or craftsman/craftswoman)

Tradesman or tradeswoman

Merchant

Market (and another, from 1403)

Fair

 

Town and countryside terms:

Parish (click for an aerial photo of the destroyed parish church of Ashby, Norfolk, seen in crop marks)

Parish priest

Tithe (or decima)

 

Money:

£1 (libra, livre, lira, pound) = 20 s. (solidus, sou or sol, soldo, shilling) = 240 d. (denarius, denier, denaro, penny) (Click here to see a denier of Charlemagne, minted at Milan 793 x 812; and silver coin struck by hand)
12d. = 1s.
20s. = £1
240d. = 20s. = £1

 

Thursday:

DAILY WORK

 

Farming terms:

Field (click for a photo of the fields of the deserted medieval village of Little Oxendon, Northamptonshire)

Fallow (click for stylized plan of a manor, with arable fields, fallow, and pasture)

Meadow

Pasture

Demesne (or reserve)

2-field and 3-field crop rotation

• Cereals (“corn” in British English = “grain” in American English): wheat, rye, oats, barley
• Legumes: peas, beans, lentils

• Winter: wheat, rye
• Spring: oat, barley, peas, beans, lentils

Pastoral farming: cattle, sheep, goats

• Plow
• Harrow
• Scythe   (another example)
• Sickle (another example)
• Flail
• Shears

• Plow (see also this plowman from the Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820)
• Harrow
• Sow
• Prune (from Fécamp psalter, c. 1180)
• Mow
• Reap
• Thresh and winnow
• Mill (watermill, English, c. 1220-30)

Carolingian craft work included:

• Pottery excavated in a kiln
• Silver chalice from a princely tomb at Kolin
• Painted plaster and window glass from the royal palace at Paderborn
• Gold spurs and belt fittings from a magnate’s grave in Croatia
• Ivory comb showing Samson and the lion (Louvre)
• Jeweled brooch from Dorestad
• Weaving on a warp-weighted (vertical) loom

 

Seasonal labors included:

Winter months (from Carolingian “labors of the months,” c. 818, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek; Codex 387, fol. 90):

livestock slaughter, and meat-preservation
candle- and soap-making
wood-cutting
combing, spinning and weaving wool and flax (compare the Viking loom with the classical Greek loom)
making and mending tools and clothing
tending livestock and poultry

Spring months:

plowing, fertilizing, harrowing and sowing spring crops (barley, oats, peas, beans, lentils, flax)
(photo of sowing and harrowing flax seed in 2006 at the Weald and Downland Museum in Singleton, Sussex)
weeding and tending field crops
pruning and staking grapevines
caring for newborn animals
butter- and cheese-making
planting gardens
tending livestock and poultry

Summer months:

haymaking
shearing sheep; washing and sorting wool
picking fruits and berries
gardening
weeding and tending field crops
butter- and cheese-making
tending livestock and poultry

Autumn months:

harvesting field crops
picking fruits, nuts, and berries
threshing and milling grain
harvesting flax in ancient Egypt and in Ireland in 1948  (pulling it up by the roots to preserve ends)
retting flax  in a gently-moving stream or river
drying and dressing flax  in Dorset
scutching flax (breaking to remove woody center; click here for view of modern re-enactor scutching flax)
hackling flax (combing to separate fine linen fibers from coarse tow fibers)
harvesting grapes and wine-making
butter- and cheese-making 
plowing, fertilizing, harrowing, and sowing winter crops (wheat, rye)
gardening
drying herbs and vegetables
wood-cutting
tending livestock and poultry

HIST 203
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES

Week 9: Tuesday

EUROPE SURVIVES THE SIEGE: THE 9TH AND 10TH CENTURIES

Videos:

The Story of Beowulf, by Michael Wood (59:13 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C0sFXU0SLo

The Story of English: episode 2, The Mother Tongue (Robert MacNeil, Part 1, 9:18 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UG6vHXArlk&index=1&list=PLCF16776907155D79 (with remaining segments of this episode)

The Lord’s Prayer in Old English (West Saxon dialect, 0:49 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW3cWDtJOR4

The Lord’s Prayer in Old English (Mercian dialect, 0:28 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYQoEcygK3Y

The Lord’s Prayer in Old English (Northumbrian dialect, 0:26 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6p2xi4Gu0g&feature=related

Anglo-Saxon poem “Deor” accompanied by lyre (6:56 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ZvjTHpb1A&index=3&list=PL9N3V29cwwGUn14QcaBNvxy2YLb1kPTyL

 

ENGLAND: A period of unification

by late 8th C. 4 major kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex
9th-11th C. Wessex dominant
793 Viking attacks begin; Lindisfarne sacked
865-870 Viking army invades and conquers Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia
871-899 Alfred the Great of Wessex.

Alfred’s achievements include:
law code
fyrd (local militia system)
burhs
fleet
Danelaw
palace school
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
translations of important books into Anglo-Saxon (Old English)
Asser’s Life of Alfred
(Click here to see the “Alfred Jewel” )

899-978 Alfred’s successors reconquer and rule all of England
978-1016 Æthelred II “Unræd” (“the Unready” or “the Redeless” = “the Ill-Advised”) renewed Viking attacks (including Battle of Maldon, 991) forced him to pay annual tribute (“Danegeld”) to the Vikings
1002 St. Brice’s Day massacre
1013-14 Æthelred expelled by Swegn of Denmark; flees to Normandy
1017-1035 Swegn’s son Cnut (or Canute), king of Denmark, Norway, and England; marries Emma of Normandy, widow of Æthelred II

FRANCE: A period of fragmentation

9th C. Viking raids
c. 890-955 Magyar raids
911 Rollo given Normandy
10th C. Disintegration of monarchy; rise of vassalage or “feudalism;” castle-building
987 Last Carolingian king (Louis V “the Sluggard”) dies; Hugh Capet, count of Paris, is elected king
late 10th C. “Peace of God” proclaimed

Terms:

Fief (or fee; Latin feudum)
Lord
Liege lord
Vassal
Homage
Fealty
Manor
Peasant
Serf (or villein)
Knight (click here for a photo of an early stirrup)
Motte-and-bailey castle
Castellan

 

Thursday:

Videos:

BBC documentary: The Viking Sagas (59 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taVsvYWp1UU&list=RDXOEAkRsOoFs&index=2

 

GERMANY: Fragmentation and unification

Early 900s	Germany (East Francia) dominated by 5 duchies: Saxony, Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, and Lorraine. Last Carolingian king, Louis the Child, dies in 911, and Conrad I, Duke of Franconia is elected. At his death in 919 the crown passes to his brother, Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony (919-936), whose descendants rule Germany (and, from 962, N. Italy) until 1002.
936-973	Otto I (“the Great”) of Saxony (son of Henry the Fowler) has 3 main goals: defend Italy against the Magyars (he annihilates their army at Lechfeld in 955) crush rival dukes and recover royal lands and powers seized by them extend German royal control into crumbled Lotharingia (Lorraine, or the “Middle Kingdom”) (click here for a map of the empire at Otto’s death) He also: Leads army into Italy and marries widow of Italian king, taking title of “King of Italy” (951) Asserts own right to invest new bishops and abbots with ring and staff (“lay investiture”) Assists pope vs. Lombards and is crowned emperor by pope in Rome (962) Opens important new silver mine (970s) Marries his son Otto II to Theophano, a Byzantine princess, thereby securing S. Italy for his heirs Initiates an “Ottonian Renaissance” of learning and culture, based in monasteries such as Gandersheim, where the canoness Hrotswitha or Hrotsvit (or Hroswitha), canoness of Gandersheim (c. 935-1003), writes the first plays since Classical times
973-1002	Otto II (973-983) and Otto III (983-1002): both die in their 20s

ITALY: Rise of city-states

late 800s	Collapse of Carolingian control over N. Italy
early 900s	Counts and dukes control countryside, but bishops control cities (click here for a 9th-cent. fresco from the Oratory of San Benedetto, Malles Venosta, perhaps showing a benefactor of the church)
951	Beginning of German rule, under Otto I (see map), but Ottonians never establish administrative structure in Italy, relying instead on unstable loyalties of nobles and bishops and popes
late 900s	Rise of Italian mercantile cities: Genoa, Pisa, and Venice (northern sea-traders) Amalfi, Naples, and Salerno (southern sea-traders) Milan, Florence, and Bologna (northern inland cities) Map of Italy, c. 1000

 

HIST 203
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES

THE BYZANTINE WORLD

Video:
Extra History: Byzantine Empire – Justinian and Theodora, Part 1 (8:09 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_2E0RxVHH4&list=PLEb6sGT7oD8HLpPQ0N4UTmTtPlpXfJias

Ben Hur (1959): chariot race (4:17 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frE9rXnaHpE

Music:

Old Roman chant: Terra Tremuit (offertorium from the Easter Sunday service, 10:02 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdka1WN1c8c&feature=related

Byzantine chant: “Θεαρχίω νεύματι” (“With a sign by the authority of God,” service of the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin, 10:22 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dgmQd5zVPk&feature=relmfu

324-330	Byzantium re-founded as Constantinople by Constantine
4th C.-7th C.	Donatism (criminal priests cannot perform valid sacraments) flourishes in N. Africa
395	Final division of Roman Empire into Eastern and Western Empires
5th C.-7th C.	Monophysitism (Jesus’s human and divine natures are fused) flourishes, especially in Egypt and Syria
451	Council of Chalcedon: 1st coronation of an emperor by patriarch of Constantinople, who claims equal status with the bishop of Rome (=pope); Monophysitism rejected
476	Odovacer deposes last Western Emperor
527-565	Justinian (and wife Theodora, d. 548): Major achievements include: Conquest of N. Africa, S. Spain, and Italy (map) Construction of churches of San Vitale (Ravenna) and Hagia Sophia (Constantinople) Interior of Hagia Sophia Justinian with his retinue (San Vitale) Theodora with her retinue (San Vitale) Codification of Roman law in massive Corpus Juris Civilis; major precepts include: “the will of the prince has the force of law” Major failures include: Rebellion and burning of Constantinople in Nika Riots, 532 Exhaustion of treasury and army in wars of conquest, 530s-550s Failure of “Perpetual Peace” treaty with Persia, 540 Massive mortality from plague, 541-3 Rise of Avar state on Danube, 561 Important sources include: Procopius, The Wars, The Buildings, and The Secret History Charioteer factions (Red, White, Blue, Green) Charioteer of the Red Team (factio rossata) with his quadriga (Rome, 3rd cent.) Chariot crash Byzantine silk fragment showing charioteer (from Charlemagne’s tomb)
568	Lombards invade N. Italy (Byzantines retain Ravenna and S. Italy)
late 500s	Visigoths reconquer S. Spain
after 602	Byzantine N. frontier falls to Avars and Slavs; E. frontier to Persians
626	Avar and Persian siege of Constantinople
636-642	Islamic conquest of Egypt, Syro-Palestine, and Persia (map)
by mid 7th C.	Greek supersedes Latin in Empire
674-8	Muslim siege of Constantinople (first use by the Byzantines of Greek fire, perhaps a mixture of sulfur, quicklime, and petroleum)
690s	Muslim conquest of N. Africa
717-718	Muslim siege of Constantinople
726-843	Iconoclasm constroversy (destruction of religious images as idolotrous) Icon of Virgin and Child (c. 550-600, from St Catherine’s monastery, Mount Sinai, Egypt)
751	Lombards take Ravenna
mid 700s	Rough equilibrium reached between 3 great Western powers: Byzantines, Franks, and Muslims (map)
867-1056	Macedonian dynasty: Byzantine “golden age,” including: reconquest of Balkans and conversion of Slavs by Byzantine missionaries (including St. Cyril, d. 869, and St. Methodius, d. 884, alleged inventors of the Slavonic “Cyrillic” alphabet) destruction of the Bulgar army, and alliance with Prince Vladimir I of Kiev by Basil II “the Bulgar-Slayer”(976-1025)
1071	Defeat by Seljuk Turks at Manzikert (N. of Lake Van); loss of Asia Minor
1453	Fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Turks

 

Thursday:

THE RISE OF ISLAM AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Islamic call to prayer (3:33 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe8qRj12OhY

SOME IMPORTANT TERMS:

Islam

Muslim

Allah

Qur’-an (or Koran)

Hadith

Mecca

Kaaba

Hijra (or Hegira)

Medina

• believing that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammed is his messenger (or prophet)
• praying 5 times daily
• giving charity to the needy
• fasting during the month of Ramadan
• making a pilgrimage to Mecca

HIST 840
SYLLABUS
WEEKLY DISCUSSION MATERIALS
SOME HISTORIC MENUS

 

Week 12: Popular Culture and National Identity

Readings:

Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 252-279 (Chap. 18: “A Gastronomic Grand Tour: 2”)

Claudia Roden, “Jewish Food in the Middle East,” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994), pp. 153-158.

Anne Allison, “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 296-314.

Musya Glants, “Food as Art: Painting in Late Soviet Russia,” in Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds., Food in Russian History and Culture(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 215-237.

Facsimiles:

Amelia Simmons, American Cookery (1796)

Images:

An early London coffee house (1705)

Le Procope, Paris, founded 1686 (scroll to foot of page)

Russian art, 19th century:
Pavel Fedotov, Poor Aristocrat’s Breakfast (1849)
Vasili Perov, Tea-Drinking in Mytishchi, Near Moscow (1862)

Soviet art, 1918-1989:
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin: The Herring and Morning Still-Life (both 1918, both in Russian State Museum, St. Petersburg)
Sergei Gerasimov, Feast at the Collective Farm (1937)
Piotr Konshalovsky, Aleksei Tolstoi (1940-1)
Arkady Plastov, Harvest (1945) and Tractor Driver’s Supper (1951)
Vladimir Stozharov, Still-Life with Bread (1959)
Vyacheslev Kalinin, Portrait of Leonid Talochkin (1973)

Post-Soviet Russian art:
Natalia Nesterova, Ordering Lunch (1993)

Videos:

Japanese Food Culture: BENTO (3:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qkSh5ylLDQ&feature=related
How to make bento (6:31):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_hbPLsZvvo
How to make bento: Panda rice balls (2:37 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1WJ5wfVncg
How to make a Halloween bento (3:52 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFlu7vcnttg