Unit information: Introduction to Early Modern History in 2010/11

Unit name	Introduction to Early Modern History
Unit code	HIST13012
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Austin
Open unit status	Open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This outline is designed to introduce first-year students to some key movements and concepts in early-modern European history. This was a period of fundamental change, when the shape and structure of the major European states and the lives of their peoples were radically transformed. In the fifteenth century the majority of western Europeans were Catholic Christians who were ruled by a personal monarchy and inhabited rural areas increasingly destabilised by demographic crises. By the end of the sixteenth century, the western Church had suffered the most traumatic revolution in its history and western European monarchies had become increasingly constrained by representative assemblies responding to the needs of a growing urban and comparatively more literate population.

Aims:

• an introductory grounding in early modern history

• an awareness of the main issue at stake in undertaking historical analysis in the period

• an opportunity for students to discuss various issues in early modern history and to work on texts in a small-group context.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• an understanding of some of the main issues in early modern history

• an awareness of how early modern historians approach the analysis of their period

• ability to set individual issues within their longer term historical context

• ability to select pertinent evidence in order to illustrate/demonstrate more general historical points.

Teaching Information

2x1hr lectures pw over 10 weeks plus alternating fortnightly 1hr seminars.

Assessment Information

1 x 2000 word essay (formative), 1 x 2 hour exam (100%).

Reading and References

• Jerry Brotton, The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2006)

• Euan Cameron, The Sixteenth Century (Oxford, 2006)

• Patrick Collinson, The Reformation (London, 2005)

• N. D. Cook, Born to Die: Disease and the New World Conquest (Cambridge, 1998)

• John Elliott, Imperial Spain (London, 1970)

• John Guy, Tudor England (Oxford, 1988)