Office: Holton 328
Phone: (414) 229-5767
Messages: History Department, tel. (414) 229-4361
E-mail: carlin@uwm.edu
Home page: www.uwm.edu/~carlin
Office hours: Tuesdays, 11 AM - noon, and by appointment
This course will examine the history of Europe in the early middle ages, circa AD 500-1000.
There are two required textbooks:
Judith M. Bennett and C. Warren Hollister. Medieval Europe: A
Short
History. 10th edition.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
Riché, Pierre. Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne.
Trans. Jo Ann McNamara. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978; paperback edition, 1988.
Papers: There is one required, 5-page, research
paper
(described at end of syllabus). The paper is due in
class on Thursday, 9 Nov. 2006.
Exams: There will be two exams: an in-class midterm
(covering
material from weeks 1-6) on Thursday,
12 October 2006, and a final exam (covering material from weeks
7-15) on Tuesday, 19 December
2006 (7:30-9:30 AM). The final exam date and time are set by
the University and cannot be altered. No
alternative day or time for the final exam will be possible.
Grading and deadlines: Your final grade will be
based
on your research paper (25%); your midterm
exam (25%); your final exam (25%); and your attendance,
participation,
and work in your discussion
section (25%). The research paper is due and exams will be held
on
the dates specified above. Late
work will not be accepted, except in cases of major illness
or emergency (please contact me immediately
in such a case).
Attendance: Your regular attendance is
essential,
both at lectures and at discussion sections. Students
who do not attend class (including discussion sections) during the
first week of classes may
be dropped
administratively.
Disabilities: If you have a disability, it is
important
that you contact me early in the semester for 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 see the academic advising web page of Professor Lex
Renda,
at::
http://www.uwm.edu/~renlex/advising.html
TOPICS AND READINGS
5 Sept. Introduction to
course
7 Sept. Bennett and
Hollister, pp. 1-16 and Map 1 (p. xxii)
J. H. Robinson: "Why study history through primary sources?" (part of
an
essay published in 1904;
URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/robinson-sources.html
Sidonius Appollinaris: Two letters (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/sidonius1.html
Week 2 THE ORIGINS AND SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
12 Sept. Bennett and Hollister, pp. 16-29
Acts of the Apostles, 1:1-11:30 (use any edition of the New Testament, or use the URL below
The Nicene Creed, 325 (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/nicenecreed.html
Theodosius the Great, Law-code (excerpts): On religion (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/codex-theod1.html
Week 3 THE COLLAPSE OF ROMAN POWER IN THE
WEST; THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS
19 Sept. Bennett and Hollister, pp. 30-41
Tacitus, Germania (read the first of the two texts given
at
the URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus1.html
21 Sept. Bennett and
Hollister,
pp. 42-49 and Map 2 (p. xxiii)
Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks: The reign of Clovis
(URL
below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gregtours1.html
Theodoric the Ostrogoth (via his secretary, Cassiodorus): Letters (URL
below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/theodoric1.html
26 Sept. Bennett and Hollister, pp. 50-67
28 Sept. The Rule of St.
Benedict
(URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rul-benedict.html
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People:
Missionaries in England (URL below)
http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/bedeconv.html
Week 5 NEIGHBORS: BYZANTIUM AND
ISLAM
Procopius, On the Buildings: Hagia Sophia (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/procop-deaed1.html
The Qur'an: Extracts from Surahs 1 and 47,
on faith (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/koran-sel.html
Week 6 THE ISLAMIC WORLD; MIDTERM
EXAM
The Qur'an: Extracts from Surahs 4 and 2, on women,
Moses,
Jesus,
and righteousness (URL below)
http://www.uwm.edu/~carlin/docs.Qur-an.htm
The Hadith (extracts): On the 5 pillars of Islam; on trade (URL below)
http://www.uwm.edu/~carlin/docs.hadith.htm
Yakut: Baghdad under the Abbasids, c. AD 1000 (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1000baghdad.html
12 Oct. MIDTERM EXAM
Week 7 CAROLINGIAN EUROPE
17 Oct. Bennett and
Hollister,
pp. 97-111
Riché, pp. 41-6 (the palace), 90-8 (life at court)
Einhard, Life of Charlemagne: extracts from Book III (URL
below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/einhard1.html
19 Oct. Bennett and Hollister, pp. 111-118
Riché, pp. 3-23 (the Carolingian world)
Charlemagne: Capitulary De villis (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/carol-devillis.html
Inventory of Charlemagne’s estate at Asnapium [modern Annapes] (URL
below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/800Asnapium.html
Week 8 THE NEW INVASIONS: MUSLIMS, MAGYARS, AND VIKINGS
24 Oct. Bennett and Hollister, pp. 119-128
The Vikings attack the Franks, c. 843-912 (read all three
texts at the URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/843bertin.html
Viking ship-building and navigation (see both URLs below)
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/maldon/gokstad.html
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/norse_ships.htm
Viking ships (see both URLs below)
http://www.sjolander.com:5150/wiki/index.php/Image:Ston3888.jpg
(Viking runestone
depicting land and sea battles)
http://wind.cc.whecn.edu/~gnelson/scandinavia/vikingships.htm
(the Gokstad,
Oseberg and Tune ships)
The Cuerdale hoard, c. 902: the largest known Viking Age silver hoard (URL below) http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/hixclient.exe?_IXDB_=compass&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXSPFX_=graphical/gt/sel/&_IXtour=ENC9344&$+with+all_unique_id_index+is+$=OBJ534&submit-button=summary
26 Oct. Saga of
Grettir
the Strong, Chaps. 1-18 (URL below)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Grettir/gr1-18.html
Ibn Fadlan: Description of the Rus, 921 (URL below)
http://www.geocities.com/sessrumnirkindred/risala.html
Week 9 EUROPE SURVIVES THE SIEGE
31 Oct. Bennett and Hollister, pp. 128-139
Asser, Life of King Alfred (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/asser.html
The Peace of God proclaimed in the archdiocese of Bordeaux, 989 (URL
below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pc-of-god.html
2 Nov.
Bennett and Hollister, pp. 139-147 and Map 3 (p. xxiv)
"Hroswitha of Gandersheim,
935-1001" (a
short biographical essay on the German canoness
who was the first medieval
playwright; URL below)
http://staff.valpo.edu/kinnes/medieval/hroswitha.html
9 Nov. [RESEARCH
PAPER DUE IN CLASS] Film
Week 11 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL CHURCH
14 Nov. Riché, pp. 35-40 (monasteries), 84-89 (prelates), 109-10 (rural priests)
16 Nov.
Riché,
pp. 230-42 (liturgy, churches and their furnishings, penance,
liturgical
calendar),
269-72 (sanctuary and hospitality)
Week 12 LORDSHIP AND JUSTICE
21 Nov. Riché, pp. 67-71 (estate administration), 257-8 (the poor), 259-68 (royal justice and lay protectors)
The law of the Salian Franks (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html
Judgment by ordeal (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ordeals1.html
23 Nov. [THANKSGIVING
DAY]
Week 13 DAILY LIFE AND WORK
28 Nov. Riché, pp. 133-42 (farming), 142-51 (stock breeding, crafts), 152-8 (construction techniques)
30 Nov. Riché, pp. 47-56, 61-3 (demography, sex, and marriage), 159-77 (housing, clothing, hygiene, food)
Aelfric, Colloquy ("On Laborers"), c. 1000 (URL
below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1000workers.html
Week 14 FORMAL EDUCATION; POPULAR RELIGION; HARDSHIPS OF DAILY LIFE
5 Dec. Riché, pp. 74-76 (aristocratic training), 191-7 (clerical training), 203-29 (education and learning)
7 Dec.
Riché,
pp. 181-90 (paganism, magic, astrology, marvels), 197-202
(popular
religious instruction),
242-5 (prayer associations), 273-88 (relics and pilgrimage);
24-8
(landscape), 76-81 (war),
249-54 (hardships)
Week 15 REVIEW
12 Dec.
Review
RESEARCH PAPER FOR HISTORY 203
Choose one of the following topics:
You are a Frankish peasant (male or female)
of the time of Charlemagne. Describe your life and work over
the course of a single year. Topics to discuss could
include the location of your village, your status (free
peasant or serf or slave), the members of your
household,
your house and its furnishings, your diet and clothing,
the work you do in the house and/or on the
farm,
and the pleasures and difficulties of your life. You should also
make it clear why you are relating this
account.
Is it to tell an intended spouse what your life is like? To
describe
your life to your grandchildren? To explain
to your lord why you were caught poaching game or pilfering
something from his estate? Or what?
You are a Viking (male) of the ninth
century.
Describe your attack on an English village, town, or monastery.
You should locate and describe the village, town
or monastery, and say why it was chosen for attack. Other
topics to discuss could include the time of year
(and weather), leadership, numbers, transport, tactics, weapons,
and outcome. You should make it clear why you are
relating this account. Is it to glorify yourself or your war-
leader? To justify yourself for a raid
that went wrong? To criticize someone else? To provide a
factual
historical account of a stirring
adventure?
Or what?
You are a Benedictine monk or nun living in the
tenth
century. Describe what life is like in your abbey. You
should include its name and location, and describe
its physical arrangements, wealth or poverty, residents
(monks or nuns, novices, boarders, servants),
living
conditions, work, regulations, and routines. Discuss also
your abbey's power or weakness, and how that
affects the lives of the monks or nuns. You should make it
clear why you are writing this account.
Is it to please your abbot or abbess? To attract new
novices?
To
appeal for donations? As a preface to a
history
of your abbey? Or what?
In your youth you were a member of
Charlemagne’s
court. Now, in your old age, write a memoir of your
experiences there. Topics to discuss could include
your position at Charlemagne’s court, how long you spent
there, your recollections of the king and of
other members of his court, the politics of the day, the living
conditions at court, comparisons and contrasts
between the time when you are writing and Charlemagne’s day.
You should also make it clear why you are
writing this memoir. Is it to enhance your own reputation?
To
enhance or damage the reputation of others?
To record what you perceive as an important piece of history as
impartially as possible? To dispute
what other contemporary historians have written? Or what?
Your paper must be five, double-spaced, typescript pages long.
The point is to produce a piece of genuine historical research,
packed
with factual details, so no fantasy and no
time-travelers, please.
Your paper must be based on a minimum of two primary
("eyewitness")
sources and three scholarly secondary (later)
sources. Encyclopedias are permissible as sources of
general
background reading (and must be cited if used), but
cannot be used as any of the three required secondary sources.
At
least three of your five required sources must be
from printed books; two may be from the Internet. (Any
additional
sources that you use may be taken either from the
Internet or from printed books.)
Do not use non-scholarly sources, such as amateur Internet sites,
games,
or novels, as sources for this paper.
Only
sources that are fully documented with notes will be considered
scholarly; a bibliography alone is insufficient. (If you
cannot remember the difference between primary and secondary
sources, re-read the Internet reading from Week 1:
"Why study history from primary sources?") I have put links
to a small
selection of online primary sources on my
homepage at: http://www.uwm.edu/~carlin/primarysources.203.htm
Full documentation -- endnotes or footnotes, plus bibliography
--
is required. (Parenthetical citations are not acceptable.)
College-level
writing, using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation, also
is
required. For guidelines on paper-writing
and documentation, see handout, or consult any of the online
style and documentation guides listed on my home page, at:
http://www.uwm.edu/~carlin/#DOCUMENTATION%20GUIDES
The paper is due in class
on Thursday, 9 Nov. 2006. No
extensions
will be allowed on the paper except in the
case of major illness or emergency.
