Rachel Fulton
Department of History
The University of Chicago
Autumn 2005
HISTORY OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION I
ŇThe Americans have no
pastÉ. They buy the pasts of other
people and sell the imagesÓ (from Jean-Luc GodardŐs Eloge de lŐAmour)
--Opinion of French elites cited by Nicholas
Fraser, ŇLe Divorce: Do Europe and America have irreconcilable differences?Ó (HarperŐs, September 2002, p. 60)
ŇEuropean history is of profound importance to Americans. We may at times appear more mindful of
EuropeŐs material indebtedness to us than of our spiritual indebtedness to
Europe; we may in our pharisaic moods express our thanks that we are not even
as these sinners of another hemisphere; but such moments cannot set us loose
from the worldŐs history. Whether
we look at Europe genetically as the course of our civilization, or pragmatically
as a large part of the world in which we live, we cannot ignore the vital
connections between Europe and America, their histories ultimately but one.Ó
--Charles Homer Haskins, Presidential address to
the American Historical Association on December 27, 1922 (American Historical Review 28 [January
1923]: 215)
ŇIt
is the general condition of the world that the diversity of forms, ideas, and
principles struggle toward a certain unity, an ideal, perhaps never attained,
but toward which the human species moves by liberty and work. European civilization is thus the true
image of the world: like the course of things in this world, it is neither
narrow, nor exclusive, nor stationary.
For the first time, I believe, the character of particularity has
disappeared from civilization; for the first time it has become as diverse, as
rich, as laborious as the theater of the universe. If it is permitted to say this, European civilization has
entered into the eternal verity, into the plan of Providence; it moves along GodŐs
ways. Therein lies the rational
principle of its superiority.Ó
--Franois Pierre Guillaume Guizot, Histoire gnrale
de la civilization en Europe depuis la chute de lŐempire romain jusquŐ la
Rvolution franaise, 3rd ed. (Paris: Didier, 1840), p. 42 (trans. K.J.
Weintraub, Visions
of Culture [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966], pp. 89-90)
BOOKS AVAILABLE
FOR PURCHASE AT THE SEMINARY CO-OP BOOKSTORE
RB1980: The Rule
of St. Benedict in English, ed. Timothy Horner (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical
Press, 1982) [ISBN 0814612725]
Beowulf, trans. Burton
Raffel (Harmondsworth: Signet Classics, 1999) [ISBN 0451527402]
The Song of
Roland, trans. Dorothy Sayers (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978) [ISBN
0140440755]
Wolfram von
Eschenbach, Parzival,
trans. A.T. Hatto (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980) [ISBN 0140443614]
Dante Alighieri, The Divine
Comedy: Paradise, trans. Mark Musa (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980) [ISBN
0140444432]
Niccol
Machiavelli, The
Prince, trans. David Wootton (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1995) [ISBN
0872203166]
Martin Luther, On Christian Liberty,
trans. W.A. Lambert and Harold J. Grimm (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1957) [ISBN 0800636074]
Ren Descartes, Discourse on
Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, trans. Donald Cress
(Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999) [ISBN 0872204200]
BOOKS ON RESERVE
IN REGENSTEIN LIBRARY
Readings in
Medieval History, ed. Patrick Geary, 2nd ed.
(Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1997) [D113.R422 1998] = Geary
Readings in Western Civilization 4:
Medieval Europe, eds. Julius Kirshner and Karl F.
Morrison (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986) [CB245. U640 1986 vol. 4]
=RWC 4
Readings in
Western Civilization 5: The Renaissance, eds. Eric
Cochrane and Julius Kirshner (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986)
[CB245.U640 1986 vol. 5] = RWC 5
Readings in
Western Civilization 6: Early Modern Europe, eds. Eric
Cochrane, Charles M. Gray and Mark A. Kishlansky (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1986) [CB245.U640 1986 vol. 6] = RWC 6
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Careful study of
the assigned readings. As one of
the main purposes of this course is to enable you to read different kinds of
texts from different historical periods and to develop your confidence in
approaching unfamiliar texts in the future, it is very important that you read
each of the assigned selections as carefully as possible before coming to class
each day. As you read, keep
in mind not only our larger questions about the nature and development of
European civilization, but also what makes the particular text you are reading
distinct. It will help if you ask
yourself the following questions: what does the author tell us about why he or
she was writing? Why was the
authorŐs subject so important that he or she considered it worth writing about? What does the authorŐs interest in the subject tell us about
the historical circumstances in which he or she was writing?
2. Participation in
class discussion and comments on the texts discussed (30% of your final
grade). To help you prepare for
the discussions and to give me some indication of how you are reading, you will
be required over the course of the quarter to post to the Chalk discussion
board eight
comments (about 300 words each) by 8am on the day we discuss the text. NO EXCEPTIONS, so be sure to keep track
of your postings over the course of the quarter. (Hint: itŐs best just to plan to do one a week.) These comments should address
questions that occurred to you in the course of your reading (e.g. about the
problems you had understanding the text, about things that surprised you in the
text, about issues or particulars about which you would like to know more
having read the text), as well as answers to the general questions posed above
concerning the authorŐs purpose and interest. I will also at times suggest further questions specific to
particular assignments depending on how our discussion is going.
3. Two textual
analyses (5-6 pages, each 20% of your final grade). These will each consist of a formal analysis of one of the
texts (or sets of texts) that we will have already read and discussed in
class. The first will be due October 20. The second will be due November 22.
4. Final exam (30%
of your final grade).
READING AND
DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENTS
September 27 Cultures and creeds
September 29 A little rule for beginners
Rule of St.
Benedict (ed. Horner) [BX3004.E5 1982]
October 4 Monsters of God
Beowulf (trans. Raffel)
October 6 Fighting for God I
The Song of
Roland (trans. Sayers), stanzas 1-92, 112-15, 127-37, 142-51, 171-81,
226-39, 258-62, 266-68, 277-91 [PQ1521.E5S3]
October 11 Reading in the Book of Experience I
Bernard of
Clairvaux, Sermons
on the Song of Songs I, trans. Kilian Walsh, Cistercian Fathers Series 4
(Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1971), sermons 1-4, 20 (pp.
1-24, 147-55) [BS1485.B5
1971]
October 13 Fighting for God II
Wolfram von
Eschenbach, Parzival
(trans. Hatto), chapters 3-6, 9, 15-16 (pp. 68-175, 222-55, 366-411)
October 18 Defining Christendom I
Canons of the
Fourth Lateran Council (Geary, pp. 421-46)
[Eyewitness Account
of the Fourth Lateran Council (RWC 4, pp. 369-76)]
October 20 Keeping count I
Enquts of King Louis IX
(Geary, pp. 672-82)
The Manor of Alwaton (1279) (RWC 4, pp.
82-84)
October 25 Contemplating the Rose
Dante Alighieri, Paradiso
(trans. Musa), cantos 1-4, 11-12, 16, 19, 22-24, 28, 31-33
October 27 Defining Christendom II
Marsilius of
Padua, Discourses,
chaps. 3 and 13 (Geary, pp. 520-40)
November 1 Keeping count II
Diary of Gregorio
Dati (Geary, pp. 787-801)
Alessandra
Macinghi negli Strozzi, ŇLetters to Filippo degli StrozziÓ (RWC 5, pp. 104-17)
November 3 Keeping count III
Niccol
Machiavelli, The
Prince (trans. Wootton)
November 8 Defining Christendom III
Martin Luther, On Christian
Liberty (trans. Lambert, pp. 6-40) [BR332.D554 1967]
November 10 Defining Christendom IV
Council of Trent
(RWC 5, pp. 386-409)
Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual
Exercises and Selected Works, ed. George Ganss et al. (New York: Paulist
Press, 1991), Introductory Explanations and First Week (pp. 121-45) [BX4700.L7A250
1991]
November 15 Defining Christendom V
Bartolom de Las Casas, In Defense of the Indians, trans. and
ed. Stafford Poole (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1992), Preliminaries,
Chaps. 1-5, 7-8, 10, 34-37 (pp. 7-53, 63-79, 85-92, 221-43) [F1411.C4250 1992]
Michel de
Montaigne, On
Cannibals (RWC 5, pp. 285-96)
November 17 Keeping count IV
Jean Bodin, Six Books of a
Commonweale (RWC 6, pp. 222-67)
November 22 Reading in the Book of Experience II
Ren Descartes, Discourse on
Method (trans. Cress) [B1848.E5 C73 1998b]
November 24 THANKSGIVING
HOLIDAY
November 29 Keeping count V
Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, Selected
Letters, ed. Isobel Grundy (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1997), Letters 12-16,
19, 48-51, 56-60, 102-3, 107-9, 111, 155, 170-71, 178-79, 193, 206, 213,
217-18, 239-42, 251, 261-62, 307-15 [PR3604.Z5A4 1997]