Indiana University
History B351
Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages
Fall Semester 2006 Dr. Deborah M. Deliyannis
Place: Woodburn Hall 002 Office: Ballantine Hall 708
Time: TuTh 1-2:15 pm Office Hours: W 1:30-3:30 or by appt.
Section: 21525 Phone: 855-3431
website: http://www.indiana.edu/~dmdhist/ email: ddeliyan@indiana.edu
Description
This course is about Western Europe and the Mediterranean in the Early Middle Ages. Use of the terms "Early Middle Ages" and "early medieval" can vary widely, depending on who is using them, and what they are talking about. For the purposes of this class, we will consider the period to cover the years from c. 400 to c. 1050 A.D.
The Early Middle Ages (c. 400-1050 AD) was a time of dramatic cultural, political, and social change. In the year 400, the Roman empire was a political entity that embraced most of western Europe, as well as much of eastern Europe, the Levant, and North Africa. People belonged to a variety of different religious, cultural, and ethnic groups, but all coexisted under a common Roman administrative and social umbrella. In the year 1050, western Europe was divided into various different political units, but again shared similar sorts of economic and social institutions, and had a common religion centered on Rome. However, the eastern and southern Mediterranean areas had gone in very different directions. The civilization of 1050 was very different from that of 400; during these seven hundred years, Europe experienced invasion, conversion, and other upheavals that overturned the old Roman order and shaped entirely new systems. Europe in 1050 contained many of the political, cultural, religious, ethnic, and linguistic boundaries that we know today, and thus the Early Middle Ages can be regarded as the period in which the foundations of modern western society were put into place. We will be examining the different ways that Roman, Germanic, Christian, and Islamic traditions interacted to produce this new world.
Requirements
The following are the requirements for this course:
Attendance 5%
Four 5-7 page papers 40% (10% each)
Participation in debate 12%
Midterm exam 18%
Final exam 25%
Class meetings will consist of lecture and group activities. Readings from the textbooks are assigned in order to provide background and supplementary material to what happens in class; in addition, for some classes addition material is also assigned. It is very important that you do the reading BEFORE the class for which it is assigned. Discussion, group activities, debates, and other types of exercises will take place at various points in the semester, and you will need to be prepared for these.
Descriptions of the papers may be found at the end of this syllabus. Each paper must be turned in in class on the day that it is due; in that class meeting, we will discuss the book. After the beginning of class on which a paper is due, the paper will be considered late (i.e. if you don't attend class but just show up at the end). Late papers will be marked down one letter grade for every day that they are late.
On four days we will have a debate in which members from the class participate. You will be assigned to one team of 4-5 students for one debate. ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE MADE AT THE FOURTH CLASS MEETING. You will be graded individually on your participation, and each person will have ample opportunity to participate. A website has been created for each debate, with the debate topic, readings (or links to readings), images, and other materials. Further instructions for the debates can be found below.
The midterm and final exams will be a combination of short identifications and essays (they may also include a map section). They will be open-note tests; you may NOT however use books or photocopies. It behooves you, therefore, to attend class and take good notes; also to take good notes on readings and other materials. Because this form of test is often difficult for people who haven't taken one before, practice questions will be made available three weeks before the midterm. You may turn these in to see how you might have done, although they will not count toward your class grade.
Readings
Unfortunately, there is no good general textbook for only the early part of the Middle Ages. We will use the first half of the following as the textbook for the class:
Medieval Worlds: An Introduction to European History, 300-1492, by Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran Cruz and Richard Gerberding (Houghton-Mifflin, 2004).
There are also four full-length books assigned, which can be purchased in the bookstore:
Cassiodorus, Variae,
translated by S. J. B. Barnish.
Liverpool University Press, 1992.
The Lombard Laws, translated with an introduction by Katherine Fischer Drew. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973.
Charlemagne's Courtier: The Complete Einhard, translated by Paul Edward Dutton. Broadview Press, 1998.
Ottonian Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg, translated by David Warner. Manchester University Press, 2001.
Additional readings from various sources listed on the syllabus can be found on Oncourse, mostly as PDF files, or on the web, linked directly from the online syllabus:
http://www.indiana.edu/~dmdhist/b351f06.html
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Introduction
Aug. 29 Introduction
Medieval Worlds, pp. 1-15
The World of Late Antiquity
Aug. 31 Why was Constantine so important to the Early Middle Ages?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 18-28, 43-67
Sept. 5 Did Rome 'fall'?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 28-42, 68-76
Sept. 7 What happened in the eastern Mediterranean?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 91-116
The World of the Germanic Kingdoms
Sept. 12 What is a Goth?
Read Andrew Gillett, "Ethnogenesis: A Contested Model of Early Medieval Europe," History Compass 4/2 (2006): 241-260 (on Oncourse)
Sept. 14 One Germanic kingdom: Ostrogothic Italy
PAPER
1 DUE: Cassiodorus' Variae: read
pp. 1-183.
Note that at the end of the text there is a short but useful
glossary of
terms, indices, and maps.
Medieval Worlds, pp. 77-90
Sept. 19 How were the Germans settled in Europe?
Sept. 21 The
other extreme: what happened to
Roman Britain?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 165-176
Sept. 26 Archaeology and history: the case of Sutton Hoo
Read Bede, Ecclesiastical History, on Raedwald (on Oncourse)
Sept. 28 How did Germanic society function?
PAPER 2 DUE: The Lombard Laws: read pp. 39-238. Here also there is a glossary at the end of the book.
Oct. 3 Did the Irish save civilization?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 169-176
Oct. 5 What did it mean to be a pope in the early middle ages?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 118-138
Oct. 10 Arians and Orthodox in Spain
DEBATE 2: Conversion of Visigoths to Orthodoxy
Oct. 12 What made an early medieval saint?
Read Gregory of Tours, Life of Lupicinus and Romanus, Life of Monegund, and Life of Quintianus (on Oncourse)
Oct. 17 MIDTERM EXAM
The Carolingian World
Oct. 19 The year 750
Medieval Worlds, pp. 139-144
Oct. 24 What is an emperor?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 144-154
Read texts about Charlemagne's coronation (on Oncourse)
Oct. 26 What was new about the Carolingian renaissance?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 149-154
Oct. 31 What is life like in the ninth century?
PAPER 3 DUE: Charlemagne's Courtier: read pp. 15-184. Note that here you have not one kind of text, as in the previous examples, but several different kinds. There is a biography of Charlemagne, there are charters and documents, there is an account of relics and the miracles associated with them, and there are a variety of actual letters. Not all of these will provide information for your topic, so part of your paper should include discussion of which texts are most useful to you and which are less so.
Nov. 2 Why did the Carolingian empire fall apart?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 155-164
Nov. 7 Were the Vikings the "scourge of God"?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 185-210
Nov. 9 What made a king "great"?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 176-184
DEBATE 3: Alfred the Great vs. Charles the Great
The Feudal World
Nov. 14 Did feudalism begin with the Carolingians?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 212-218
Read the Life of Gerald of Aurillac (on Oncourse)
Nov. 16 What
is a serf?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 218-235
Review Einhard's letters in the Complete Einhard, looking for peasants
Nov. 21 What
is a Holy Roman Empire?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 250-256
PAPER 4 DUE: Chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg: read pp. 89-234, plus more of the text if you would like!
Nov. 23 NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING
Nov. 28 How did the rest of Europe convert to Christianity?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 236-245
Nov. 30 What is the proper relationship between church and state?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 257-259
DEBATE 4: Church and State: Charlemagne to Cluny
Dec. 5
Did
the year 1000 matter?
Medieval Worlds, pp. 259-260
Read Richard
Landes, "Apocalyptic Expectations around the Year 1000"
Dec. 7 Conclusions
FINAL EXAM: Thursday, Dec. 14, 5:00-7:00 pm in the usual classroom
Instructions
for Papers
Each of the books that we are reading for this class is of a different type: government letters, legal code, biography, miracle stories, and narrative history. I would like you to begin to understand how history can be written based on these various different types of source; therefore you will be writing on the same topic for each paper, and there will be an essay question on the final exam in which you are expected to summarize your results.
Some general comments on the papers:
¥ Papers should be typed/word processed, and should be of a length equivalent to 5-7 double-spaced pages, with settings of 1 inch margins (top, bottom, and sides) and twelve-point font.
¥ Don't be afraid of including your own opinions about what is in the book; the purpose of the exercise is to make you react to the book and what it is about.
¥ When you quote or paraphrase any part of any written text, either these books or any other published material, you must provide the appropriate reference, either in footnotes or endnotes. Failure to provide adequate references is considered plagiarism, which I am required to report to the Office of Student Ethics. If you have any question about your use of sources, it is better to be on the safe side and provide a reference. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism, see the section on academic misconduct at http://dsa.indiana.edu/Code/index1.html
Hints on writing a paper:
¥ Introduction. These are fairly short papers. It is essential for a good paper that you have a strong introduction that clearly explains what you are going to be discussing. That way, each paragraph makes sense in the context of the whole thing. Don't let it be a surprise to the reader! One effective way to do this is to have the concluding sentence of the first paragraph be: "In this paper I will . . . ." Don't be afraid of using such a sentence! That is not the only way to do it, but it works.
¥ Be sure to include dates in the introduction, both the date the text was written, and the date of the events described in the text (if they are different).
¥ Use of source. Be SURE to provide SPECIFIC QUOTES from the source, appropriately referenced, for every point you make. Don't just generalize about what it says; that is not the right way to go about proving your point.
¥ Don't waste time summarizing the plot or history of the text; or if you want to provide a summary, it should be no more than one paragraph long.
¥ If you are quoting a passage that is more than 3 lines long, it should be set as a block quote: indented and single-spaced.
Instructions
for papers
Choose one of the following two topics:
social classes in society: what different classes of people are mentioned? what roles do they play?
communities: cities, towns, villages, palaces, etc., what happens in them, what they looked like (i.e. their buildings), and what people thought about them
You will write on your chosen topic for all four papers; these topics have been chosen because there is plenty of information in all the sources for you to use (although you may have to dig for it!).
For each paper, write an essay in which you discuss your topic. What kind of information does this text provide? Are you able to form a good picture of the subject in question from this source? Do any things that you read surprise you?
You should consider, if appropriate, what biases or problems there might be with the text, so that the picture it presents might not be complete or accurate. For example, do you come away with a good overall picture of your topic, or only of one facet of it? Be sure to include specific quotes from the text to explain each of your points.
When I say that you should be quoting from the text, I mean the part of the text that was written in the Middle Ages. Of course you may read the introduction to each text, and the notes; in fact, I encourage you to do so, as it will give you a better sense of the text. But the parts you should really concentrate on are the texts themselves.
DEBATES - GENERAL
INSTRUCTIONS
Note that there is no term-paper for this class. The debate is an opportunity for you to examine one issue in more depth than simply reading a book and reacting to it. I expect that for your debate you will be well-prepared, knowledgable about the historical background and the issue itself, and able to argue a case. You are not required to do huge amounts of research, but you should at a minimum be very familiar with everything provided on the debate webpage. Pay particular attention to the primary sources, on which you should base your argument.
The debate will take the place of lecture on a given topic for that day; thus, debaters will be responsible for providing background material on their subjects (from the textbook, for example) as well as arguing their side. Background material assignments are made on the debate webpage. At a minimum you should present the relevant material from the textbook, in such a way that it forms a useful introduction to the debate. You may certainly use additional materials if you like.
The background material is intended to give everyone in the class the necessary background to understand what the debate is about. It covers what the primary sources are that you are using, what the background to the issues is, and what the main outline of the issue was. As such, you should be prepared to speak for about 4-5 minutes for EACH item of background. You should certainly include names and dates. If you are in doubt as to whether you are clear enough, practice on a roommate and ask if he/she understands! You might find it helpful to have this material written out and just read it (that is perfectly fine), if you are nervous speaking from notes, or if you think you might forget some of it. Or you can speak from notes if you feel more comfortable doing so.
EVERYONE IN THE CLASS SHOULD LOOK AT THE DEBATE MATERIALS AND READ THE ASSIGNMENT IN THE TEXTBOOK for that day; this material will not otherwise be covered in lecture, but you will be expected to know it for the tests.
Each debate assignment will consist of seven or eight parts. You must prepare all the parts, as you do not know which part(s) you will be called upon to present. In addition to the presentation and argumentation stages of the debate, there will also be counter-argument for which you should be prepared to speak on the spot. You will be graded INDIVIDUALLY on how well you do on the part that you were called on to present, AND how you do in counter-arguments and conclusions. I will NOT be grading you on your debating skills, so if you have never debated before, that is not a problem.
Note that in order to create a solid argument for your side, you will have to figure out what the opposing side's arguments might be so that you can plan what your counter-argument will be. You will be expected to present a solid and detailed argument for your side, using background and other information.
People often ask what the difference between the presentation of the proposition and the arguments is. The presentation of the proposition should include a statement of what the proposition is, an explanation of what is involved, and a brief summary of the overall theme of how it is going to be argued. Do not go into detail about the individual arguments at this time; that will be done when the arguments are presented.
The structure of each debate will be the following:
I. Presentation of the background material
A. Team 1
B. Team 2
II. Presentation of the proposition
A, Team 1
B. Team 2
III. Main arguments: three for each side, in detail, including quotes from primary sources
A. Team 1
B. Team 2
IV. Counter-arguments
A. Team 1
B. Team 2
V. Summaries: summarize your arguments, rebut the arguments of the main team, state why your argument is preferable
VI. Vote by the class