History 112 - University of Washington



History 112 Robert Stacey

Winter, 2007 University of Washington

The Medieval World

This course is an introductory survey of European history during the middle ages, covering the period from roughly 250 C.E. (C.E. means “Common Era;” it is equivalent in the Christian dating system to A.D.) to 1650 C.E. It emphasizes three distinctive features of European civilization that developed during this period: (1) the gradual emergence of a distinction between religion and politics; (2) the development of a concept of limited government; (3) changing attitudes towards women and the changing positions women occupied in European society. The course is intended as an introduction both to the history of the middle ages in Europe and to the study of history in general. No previous knowledge of either is presumed.

Required Books:

The following books are required reading for this course, and are available in the University Bookstore for purchase. It is particularly important that you own, if you possibly can, copies of the Text; the Geary reader; and the Tierney book. A few copies of each required book will also be available on reserve in Odegaard Undergraduate Library, but in a large class like this one it will be difficult for you to count on being able to do all your assigned reading from OUGL reserve copies.

Coffin and Stacey, Western Civilizations, 15th edition, Vol. I (Text)

Patrick Geary, Readings in Medieval History, 3rd ed. (Geary)

Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050-1300 (Tierney, Crisis)

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, trans. B. Radice, revised by M. Clanchy

The Song of Roland, ed. Glynn Burgess

The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan, ed. R. Blumenfeld-Kosinski and

Kevin Brownlee

Class Website:

On the class website ( ) you will find a copy of the syllabus, texts of the first four lectures in the class (some other lecture texts will be posted later in the term, but I will not post texts of most lectures), and study materials for the midterm exam on January 12. Further materials, including the midterm essay, the paper assignment, and final exam questions, will be posted to the site later in the term. You will also find on the website a class message board, on which you are invited to post questions, observations, and issues pertaining to the subject matter of the class.

Learning Objectives:

In addition to acquiring an understanding of the historical development of western Europe during the middle ages, students will learn to:

1) Analyze primary sources for the historical evidence they can provide.

2) Construct arguments based upon historical evidence derived from both primary and secondary sources.

3) Evaluate competing historical arguments using primary source evidence.

4) Appreciate the distance between historical evidence and historians’ interpretations of that evidence.

Course Requirements:

1) LECTURES. You REALLY need to attend the lectures. For the most part, material covered in lectures is not covered in the textbook. In my lectures, I will presume you already know the textbook material assigned for that day. You need therefore to have completed the reading assigned for each day before the lecture. The lectures are also very tightly integrated. You will not understand later lectures if you miss too many of the earlier ones. You cannot expect to do well in this course if you only attend two or three lectures per week. You really must plan to be here every day, except when illness or emergency strikes.

2) DISCUSSION SECTIONS. These are a required and essential part of the course. They are not an optional extra. Sections are where you will discuss the primary source readings assigned for the week. Learning how to analyze such sources is an important objective of this course. Do not expect that sections will summarize the lectures for you; in this class, that is not their purpose. Sections will cover new material that is not covered in the lectures or in the textbook.

Your performance in section will count for 15% of your final grade: on a 4.0 scale, that is .6. That is a lot. It means that if you do 4.0 work on every assignment, but earn a 0.0 in section, your final grade in the class will only be a 3.4.

3) GRADES AND ASSIGNMENTS.

Grades will be calculated on the following basis: 10% for the in-class mid-term (IDs, map quiz, short answer, multiple choice), on Friday, Jan 12; 15% for the take-home essay (2-3 pages, on an assigned topic), due Monday, Jan 29 at lecture, with a mandatory rewrite due on Feb. 12; 30% for the second paper (6-8 pages, on a topic chosen from a list of suggested topics), due Monday, Feb 26 at lecture; 30% for the final exam (8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 12); 15% for work in discussion sections.

Late essays and papers will be penalized .2 per day, unless you have been granted an extension in advance. Weekends will count as 2 days. This penalty is designed to ensure that all students have precisely the same amount of time to complete assignments.

You must attempt and turn in all graded assignments in order to pass this class.

CLUE Sessions

On Monday and Wednesday evenings, from 6:30 until 8:00 pm, starting January 9, students enrolled in this class are invited to meet in Mary Gates Hall to study for this class. Come meet your classmates, and share the frustrations of trying to wrestle the middle ages into submission. These sessions are optional, but students in past years have found them quite helpful. Tim Wright, one of the TAs in this class, will be running the CLUE sessions this year. He will be available to answer your questions, help you with papers, discuss and/or debate the material, assist with study tips, and generally to offer the help you need to do well in this class.

For Help in Writing Essays and Papers

In addition to your Teaching Assistant, you can also turn for help to the Odegaard Library Writing and Research Center, located in OUGL, and to the History Writing Center, located in 210C Smith Hall (543-5692). OUGL accepts drop-ins, but appointments are recommended for both Centers.

Instructor Availability

My office is 218B Smith Hall: telephone number 543-9190 (voicemail attached); email bstacey@u.washington.edu. My regular office hours will be Wednesdays, 1:20-3:20. I am also available by appointment. E-mail is the best way to contact me; but you can also leave a message for me in the History office (315 Smith Hall; 543-5790). I do not check either my voice mail or my e-mail on weekends.

Teaching Assistants will announce their own office numbers and hours in section.

Sequence of Lectures

W 3 Jan Perspectives on the Medieval West

Reading: Tierney, Crisis, 1-5

Th 4 Roman Culture

Reading: Text, 178-98

F 5 DISCUSSION: Tacitus, Germania (Geary, 69-82)

Question: Tacitus had never been to Germany. How should this

fact affect your use of his book as a source for "Germanic" life?

M 8 The Achievements of Rome

Reading: Text, 198-209

T 9 Christianity and Classical Culture

Reading: Text, 209-17

W 10 Augustine's Theological Outlook

Reading: Text, 217-23, 226-31

Geary, 48-60 (Augustine, City of God);

Tierney, Crisis, 7-15

Th 11 The Fall of Rome? (Check these page numbers)

Reading: Text, 224-26, 231-38

Geary, 120-28 (Tomb of Childeric)

F 12 IN-CLASS MIDTERM EXAMINATION: GIVEN IN SECTIONS

Ids, Map Quiz, Short Answer, Multiple Choice

M 15 Jan MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY HOLIDAY – NO CLASS

T 16 Barbarians and Romans, 400-600

W 17 Kingship and the Church

Reading: Text, 268-73

Geary, 137-53, 162-67 (Clovis; Gregory of Tours; Balthild)

Th 18 The Rise of the Carolingians

Reading: Text, 273-79; Tierney, Crisis, 16-23

F 19 DISCUSSION: Geary, 282-96 (Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne)

Question: How does Einhard explain Charlemagne’s extraordinary

success as king of the Franks? What additional explanations for his success would a modern historian wish to offer, beyond those advanced by Einhard?

M 22 Jan Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance

T 23 The Collapse of Carolingian Europe

Reading: Text, 279-83

W 24 Byzantium and Islam

Reading: Text, pp. 247-68

Th 25 The Ottonian Empire and the Reform of the Church

Reading: Text, 331-36; Tierney, Crisis, 24-44

F 26 DISCUSSION: Tierney, Crisis, 7-52 (review pp.7-44; study pp. 45-52)

Question: Does Pope Gregory VII’s program of church reform, as

it had evolved by March 1075, deserve to be called revolutionary?

M 29 Jan MID-TERM ESSAY DUE (TAKE HOME ASSIGNMENT)

M 29 The Investiture Conflict, Part I

Reading: Text, 336-38; Tierney, Crisis, 45-73

T 30 The Investiture Conflict, Part II

Reading: Tierney, Crisis, 74-95

W 31 The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading

Reading: Text, 296-306

Geary, pp. 407-42 (Four Accounts of the First Crusade)

Th 1 Feb The Twelfth Century Renaissance: Humanism and Grammar

Reading: Text, 348-57

Geary, 336-49 (Anselm, Proslogion)

F 2 Feb DISCUSSION: The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, 3-89

(I also strongly recommend you read pp. lviii-lxxxiv)

M 5 Feb MID-TERM ESSAYS RETURNED

M 5 Feb The Twelfth Century Renaissance: Scholasticism, Law and Love

Reading: Text, pp. 338-39, 342-44, 357-60

T 6 The Twelfth Century Renaissance: Heretics and Jews

Reading: Text, 344-48

W 7 The Twelfth Century Renaissance: Gay People and Women

Th 8 The Invention of Feudalism

Reading: Text, 286-96, 306-319

Geary, 386-92 (Fulbert of Chartres; Hugh of Lusignan)

F 9 DISCUSSION: The Song of Roland, 29-156

(I also recommend you read the introduction, pp. 7-25)

M 12 Feb RE-WRITES ON MID-TERM ESSAYS DUE (REQUIRED)

M 12 Feudal Monarchies? France and England, 1066-1216

T 13 Empire and Papacy I: Frederick Barbarossa

Reading: Text, 319-23;

Geary, 636-45 (Otto of Freising);

Tierney, Crisis, 97-115

W 14 Empire and Papacy II: Frederick II

Reading: Text, 322-25; Tierney, Crisis, 139-149

Th 15 The Rise and Fall of the Papal Monarchy

Reading: Text, 339-42; Tierney, Crisis, 116-38

F 16 DISCUSSION: Philip the Fair and Pope Boniface VIII

Reading: Tierney, Crisis, pp. 172-210

M 19 Feb PRESIDENTS’ DAY HOLIDAY: NO CLASS

T 20 Nationalism, Monarchy, and the Church, 1150-1327

Reading: Tierney, Crisis, 150-71

W 21 Political Consent and the Emergence of Representative Institutions

Th 22 The Impact of the Plague on Later Medieval Europe

Reading: Text, 372-80, 402-6

F 23 DISCUSSION: The Hundred Years War

Reading: Geary, 716-41 (Froissart’s Chronicle)

MONDAY FEBRUARY 26: PAPER DUE IN CLASS, AT LECTURE (6-8 PAGES)

M 26 Conciliarism and Reform in the Late Medieval Church

Reading: Text, 380-87

T 27 Women and Society in Later Medieval Europe

Reading: Geary, 567-99 (Margery Kempe)

W 28 The Myth of the Renaissance

Reading: Text, 367, 435-63 (if you have time, I recommend you

read also pp. 411-32)

Th 29 The Patterns of Late Medieval Politics: Dynasticism, Regionalism,

and Nationalism

F 2 DISCUSSION: Christine de Pizan

Reading: The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan, xi-xvi, 15-

29, 41-45, 116-73, 184-201

M 5 Mar The Causes of the Protestant Reformation

Reading: Text, 469-90

T 6 The Consequences of the Reformation: Counter-Reformation and

Religious Wars

Reading: Text, 490-517

W 7 Continuity and Change in Early Modern Europe

Reading: Text, 518-28, 535-44

Th 8 Conclusion: The Medieval Origins of Western European Peculiarity

F 9 DISCUSSION: Review Session for Final Exam

FINAL EXAMINATION: Monday, March 12, 8:30-10:20 AM, HUB 112

Please Note: In order to comply with Federal Law, we will not put final exams out to be collected anonymously. Students who wish their final exam mailed to them must provide a stamped, self-addressed envelope to us at the final exam. Please make sure the postage is adequate. You may also collect your exam personally from your TA during spring quarter.

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