Module details
HR111-4-FY: SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS IN EUROPE 1500-1750
Year: 2013/14
Department: History
Essex credit: 30
ECTS credit: 15
Available to Study Abroad / Exchange Students: Yes
| Staff |
| Supervisor: |
Dr Amanda Flather |
| Teaching Staff: |
Dr Amanda Flather |
| Contact details: |
Belinda Waterman, Student Administrator, Department of History, 01206 872313 |
| Module is taught during the following terms |
| Autumn |  | Spring | | Summer | |
Module Description
This module focuses on the early modern period, a span of around 250 years often regarded by historians as a time of change and a watershed between the medieval and modern worlds. This module aims to familiarise students with this important period of history by looking at early modern Europe in economic, social, cultural and political contexts. For example, topics covered include; magic and witchcraft; popular and noble rebellion; women and gender; crime and disorder; warfare; the cultural, social and political impact of religious change; and the formation of the early modern state. The module focuses on the determinants of change in all of these areas and on the constraints imposed upon processes of change in early modern Europe. In so doing it will consider the patterns of continuity and change which shaped this period and reflect on the extent to which the Europe we live in today has been conditioned by this period. It will also consider some of the controversies in which historians of the period have engaged as they seek to understand a society that was to be rocked to its foundations by the French Revolution.
This module aims to:
1. Enable students to engage critically with secondary reading on a variety of early modern topics and historiographical debates.
2. Enable students, by means of a thematic approach to the subject, to build up a multi-layered picture of early modern Europe and to make their own links between developments in the various themes focused upon.
3. Enable students to make comparisons of the impact of change between different geographic areas and different social groups.
Learning & Teaching Methods
One hour lecture and one hour seminar per week.
Assessment
50 per cent Coursework Mark, 50 per cent Exam Mark
Exam Duration and Period
3:00 hour exam during Summer Examination period.
Other information
Compulsory for:
BA History
BA Social and Cultural History
Bibliography
- Cameron E. (ed.), Early Modern Europe: an Oxford History (Oxford, 1999).
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Kamen, H., Early Modern European Society (London, 2000).
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Merriman, J. A., History of Modern Europe. Vol. I: From the Renaissance to the Reformation (New York, 1996).
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Pettegree, A., Europe in the Sixteenth Century (Oxford, 2002).
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Koenigsberger, H. G. et al., Europe in the Sixteenth Century (2nd ed, Harlow, 2000).
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Munck, T., Seventeenth Century Europe: State, Conflict and the Social Order in Europe, 1598-1700 (London, 1990).
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Bergin, J. (ed.), The Seventeenth Century 1598-1715 (Oxford, 2000).
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Collins J. B., and Taylor, K. L., Early Modern Europe. Issues and Interpretations (Oxford, 2005).
Further information
Should you have any queries about the Module Directory pages, please contact the Course Record Team, Systems Administration Office, Academic Section; email: crt (non Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk)