HSTEU 302 17-18TH
CENTURY
Course Description This
course surveys European history in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, from the Thirty Years War to the French Revolution. Major currents
in intellectual history,
from the Scientific Revolution to Enlightenment, are examined in relation to political
and social developments.
Political theory and institutional structures associated with the rise of absolutism
on the continent and
constitutional monarchy in England provide a central focus. The course concludes
with the revolutionary
decade in France, the rise of Napoleon and European wide reaction against the
French Revolution.
Course requirements:
Response papers (10% of grade): PLEASE E-MAIL ME IF THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT CLEAR.
Since there are no sections in
the class, we will have scheduled discussions in lecture. Students
need to do the reading before the day a discussion is scheduled. Each student
should write 3 short
response papers (one page maximum) to be turned in the day of the discussion.
These can be handwritten
or typed (double spaced), and should raise questions about the reading or bring
up one or two significant
issues for discussion. I will post questions before the discussion; you can format your response paper around one or two of the issues raised in the discussion questions (please stay within one page maximum).
One response paper should be turned in before the midterm, one after
the midterm, and the other one
either before or after the midterm.
First paper 4-5 pages, FIRST PAPER DUE TUESDAY OCT 19 (20% of grade)
[1st paper topics below]
Midterm exam,
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 2 IN CLASS (20% of grade)
Second paper 5-7 pages due THURSDAY DECEMBER 2 (25% of grade)
Final exam Wednesday December 15th 4:30-6:30 PM (25% of grade)
Required
Our goal is to understand the evolution of theories about society and government
in their historical context.
This means asking where specific ideas came from, and what kinds of historical
circumstances led people
to question existing political arrangements and to imagine new ones . These multiple circumstances
included
economic, social and cultural forces as well as political ones; all these factors need to be integrated
into our
analysis. Lectures and textbook will provide the context for the readings to be discussed on the
days indicated below.
Secondary Sources:
Text: Palmer & Colton,
History of Modern World Vol. I to 1815 (10th ed.) . [P&C]
If you have an earlier edition, follow
chapter assignments or contact Professor O’Neil for specific
page numbers
Margaret Jacob, The Enlightenment: A Brief History
with Documents
Jack R. Censer & Lynn Hunt,
Primary Sources:
plus a few selections available in xerox &/or E-reserve
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
Descartes, Discourse on Method
Rousseau, Discourse on Origin of Inequality
Voltaire, Candide edited by Daniel Gordon
(other editions OK, but read Gordon's Introduction on
E-reserve)
WK I THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CRISIS
READING:
Selections from Hobbes’ Leviathan [available via link from web page]
Palmer (10th ed) Ch 3 (#12-15) pp. 107-135 background; (#16) 30 Years War,
pp. 135-141
Ch 4 (#19) England pp. 155-162; Ch 7 (#30) Hobbes &
Locke pp. 249-255
Th 9/30 Introduction:
17th Century Crises; Thirty Years War and its Aftermath
P&C, Ch 3 (#16), pp.
135-141
SLIDES: Mars and Venus: Images of War & Peace in 17th
C Painting
WEEKEND: Start on Locke,
Second Treatise of Government, Discussion Thursday October 7
Read selection from Hobbes Leviathan on e-reserve and link on web site
WK II REPRESENTATIVE
GOVERNMENT:
Jacob, Introduction, pp. 1-15
Selection from Hobbes Leviathan on e-reserve and link on web site
Censer & Hunt,
Locke, Second Treatise of Government,
any edition (approx. 135 pages)
Tu 10/5 English Civil War (1640-1660), Puritan Revolution
and P&C, Ch 4, (#19) pp. 155-62, Ch
6 (#30), pp. 249-252
Th 10/7 DISCUSSION: Hobbes Leviathan (10 pp. selection; see link on web site)
WEEK III
Censer & Hunt, English Bill of
Rights, 1689, pp. 35-7
Political Theory: Divine Right vs Constitutional Monarchy
DISCUSSION: Locke, Second Treatise
of Government
P&C, Ch 3 (#14) pp. 121-130, Ch 4
(#18) pp. 149-155
RATIONALISM, EMPIRICISM AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Descartes, Discourse on Method Jacob, The Enlightenment Introduction, pp. 27-33
[Omit Kant, What is Enlightenment?, in Jacob pp. 202-208 due to schedule change]
Th 10/14 The Scientific Revolution: Galileo to
Seventeenth Century Philosophy: Rationalism and Empiricism
DISCUSSION: Descartes, Discourse on Method
** FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS, TUESDAY OCT 19 **
WEEK IV LOUIS XIV AND THE EMPERORS
Ch 4 (#17) pp. 146-48,
(# 21-22) pp. 169-188;
Jacob, Introduction, pp. 15-22,
33-43, 94-137
T 10/19 French Monarchy
& Society under Louis XIII
P&C, Ch 3 (#15) pp.130-35, Ch4 (#17)
pp.146-48
France: Mazarin and The Fronde P&C Ch 4 (#21), pp.169-181
Th 10/21 Louis XIV: Absolutism at Versailles P&C, Ch 4 (#22) pp.181-188
Religion in the Age of Reason & Enlightenment
DISCUSSION: Jacob, Treatise of the Three Impostors,
pp. 94-114,
and Voltaire, Letters concerning
the English Nation, pp.114-137
WEEK V
Jacob, The Enlightenment, Introduction,
pp. 20-27, 43-46
Tu 10/26 Habsburgs
and the Austro-Hungarian Empire: P&C, Ch 5 (#23-4) pp. 189-203
P&C, Ch 5 (#26-27), pp. 211-224; Ch 8 (#37)
pp. 320-29
Th 10/28
Ch 8 (#36) pp. 311-320; Ch 7 (#34), pp. 282-
288,
Montesquieu: The Persian Letters and Spirit of the
Laws
DISCUSSION: Review for midterm (covers reading
through Week V)
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 2 MIDTERM
EXAM, IN CLASS
WEEK VI THE ENLIGHTENMENT ON NATURE AND SOCIETY
Voltaire, Candide: Intro by Daniel
Gordon, pp. 1-30, Text pp. 35-119
Jacob, Intro pp. 46-55, on Voltaire and Diderot,
Encyclopedia, 156-159
T 11/2 MIDTERM EXAM IN CLASS
Philosophes:
From Laws of Nature to Laws of Society P&C Ch 8 (#35), pp. 297-311
Diderot and the Encyclopedia: Jacob, pp. 156-159
Th 11/4 Voltaire: Theorist of Enlightened Absolutism and Critic of Religion:;
Leibniz & the
problem of evil (theodicy)
DISCUSSION: Candide, or Optimism; Pope, Essay
on Man (xerox)
WEEK VII ROUSSEAU AND ROMANTICISM
T 11/9 Natural Law and Enlightenment Ethics: from Sade to Kant
Rousseau: between Enlightenment and Romanticism
Th 11/11 VETERAN'S DAY HOLIDAY: NO CLASS
WEEK VIII ORIGINS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Censer & Hunt,
Ch 2, 50-62; Ch 4, 115-138
Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality; Social Contract selections
in Jacob, pp 178-201
T 11/16 Rousseau: from state of nature to social contract
DISCUSSION: Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality
Voltaire, Letter to Rousseau, link from web page
Rousseau, Social Contract selections in Jacob, pp 178-201
Th 11/18 18th Century
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette SLIDES: C&H, Doc 1.13, pp. 39-41
Fiscal Crisis and Estates General: P&C Ch 9, (#42), pp. 355-370
Censer & Hunt, Damiens Affair, Doc. 1.6,
pp. 28-35
WEEK IX THE
Censer & Hunt, Ch 1 Docs (#1.4-1.5), pp. 25-28;Ch
2, pp. 62-84; Ch 3-4 pp. 85-138
Tu 11/23 From Constitutional
Monarchy to War and Regicide: 1789-1792
DISCUSSION: Documents in Censer & Hunt, pp. 24-25, 42-47, 129-138, including
Declaration of Rights of Man & Citizen, and The Emancipation of Negroes
Th 11/25 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY: brought to you by English Puritans (from Week I)
WEEK X WAR, TERROR AND COUP D'ÉTAT
Tu 11/30 Robespierre, the
DISCUSSION: Freedom & terror: Censer & Hunt,
Ch 2, pp. 62-84;
Ch 3-4, 85-138; Ch 1 Babeuf & Enragés, Docs
(#1.4-1.5, 25-28;
Robespierre’s
Th 12/2 The Directory, 1795-1799 P&C, Ch 9 (#45) pp. 383-388
Rise of Napoleon
and Napoleonic
P&C, Ch 9 (#46) pp. 389-394; Ch 10 (#47-48) pp. 395-409
*** SECOND PAPER DUE THURSDAY DECEMBER 2 ***
WEEK XI NAPOLEONIC
Censer & Hunt, Ch 5, 139-161, 163-4,
166-169; Ch 6, 172-178, 186-189
T 12/7 Nationalism and the Opposition to Napoleon P&C, Ch 10 (#49-51),
pp. 409-431
DISCUSSION: Napoleon
Th 12/9 Congress of
Review for Final
** FINAL EXAM: WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 15, 4:30-6:30 in our regular classroom