History 3151W: British History to the 17Th Century

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History 3151W: British History to the 17th Century

Fall 2011

Tuesday/Thursday, 9:45-11:00

Anderson Hall 230

Course description

Pre-modern Britain contributed much to the English-speaking world: language, law, representative institutions, folktales, family and household structures, and much more. But these cultural developments were not uncontested in their own time. The "Britain" of later centuries, whose empire made such an impact on the entire world, grew out of a complex mixture of cultures: Celtic, Roman, Christian, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman. In tracing the British Isles from prehistoric times until the mid-seventeenth century, this class focuses on cultural interactions and the development of complex identities as they changed over time.

The course contributes to your liberal education through encouraging you to think critically about societies and cultures different from your own and to analyze texts and construct your own arguments. Through recognizing that the society from which we get many of our institutions is nevertheless different in many ways from our own, you will learn to reflect on the antecedents and the unique characteristics of the political, economic, and cultural situations in which you find yourself today and will find yourself throughout your life. Through critical reading and analysis of texts you will gain practice in thinking through issues for yourself, a skill that will be important in whatever life path you choose.

Historical Perspectives

This course meets the Historical Perspectives core LE requirement. This means, first, that it examines past experiences and cultural change in specific contexts. Two themes recur through the lectures in this course: identities (tribal, linguistic, religious, national) and how they shifted over time, and the interplay between gradual and revolutionary change. History is made up both of deep structural continuities and radical ruptures, but the radical ruptures may not be in the places we think. Second, Historical Perspectives courses pay attention to questions of methodology and how historical knowledge is produced. Each lecture begins with an interpretive question, and will discuss the kinds of evidence that exists and how historians have used it to build interpretations and answer the questions. Finally, Historical Perspectives courses involve students in analyzing primary sources. The majority of the reading in this class is primary sources, and you will spend most of the time in your two weekly sections discussing them. At least one of your papers, and essay questions on both exams, will be based on primary sources. In lectures, discussions and student writing, this course will repeatedly ask (and require you to ask) how we know what we know.

Global Perspectives

This course helps students understand how the past has come to shape contemporary Britain and much of the English-speaking world. This course covers the period when documents that became important to modern Britain and Scotland and also to the constitutional development of the United States—Magna Carta, the Declaration of Arbroath—were written. It discusses the English and Scottish Reformations and the impact they had on colonization in the New World and elsewhere as people tried to spread their beliefs and build ideal societies. Because this course covers the first two centuries of English colonization movements, first in Ireland and then in South Asia, the Caribbean and North America, placing them in the context of English imperialism in Ireland since the twelfth century, it allows you to understand the formative stages of Western imperialism. The questions we will ask and answer in this course—including whether culture, language, and religion are fundamental aspects of one society’s difference from another, or whether they are merely incidental to the demands of economic, political and military expansion—are relevant to the modern world, and the in both lecture and discussion parallels to contemporary situations will be discussed.

Instructor:

Professor Ruth Karras, , 612-625-8578. E-mail is the best way to contact me.

Office hours:

1222 Heller Hall, Wednesday, 2:00-4:00, and by appointment.

Teaching Assistants:

Sections 2 and 3: Gabriel Hill

Sections 4 and 5: Steven Gray

You will receive a separate syllabus from your TA with contact information, section policies, and assignments.

The section meetings will include work on writing, including in-class informal writing and instruction in the various stages of formal writing for the writing assignment described below. They will also focus on discussion of the primary sources, in a variety of formats including discussion by the whole section, division into groups of four or five students each focusing on specific questions and reporting out, work in pairs, and role play. It is essential that you have done the reading in order to participate in this class discussion, which counts for 10% of your grade.

Requirements:

This is both an upper-level history class and a writing-intensive class. It therefore requires the whole range of historical skills, including the evaluation of historical evidence and of scholarly arguments, but focuses particularly on historical writing.

The main writing assignment for this course is a Wikipedia-type article of about 2500-3000 words on a topic of your choice. It must be a topic that either does not appear on Wikipedia currently, appears as a stub requiring expansion, or has a current article that is problematic. You do not need to submit your finished paper to Wikipedia, but students who produce good work will be encouraged to do so.

There will be a midterm and a final exam. You must take the exams on the scheduled date unless you have a conflict with another regularly scheduled final exam or you have three exams on the same calendar day. In accordance with university policy, you must notify the instructor by the second week of class if one of these conditions applies. You will not be permitted to reschedule the exams because of personal issues (work or travel schedule, etc). Make-ups will be given only in case of exam conflict or documented medical emergency.

Additional writing may be required by your TA (for example, informal writing which counts as part of your participation grade, or additional steps in the process of paper-writing, which count as part of the grade for that paper).

We will use ChimeIn in class. Participation is required and will be part of your class participation grade. This requires you to bring to class a laptop, smartphone, or any phone capable of text messaging. When you use these phones the ringer must be set to silent!

Grading:

Topic/bibliography, 5%; outline and draft section, 10%; paper, 15%; rewrite, 20%; midterm, 15%; final, 25%; class participation, 10%.

All written work is due at the beginning of lecture on the relevant date. Any item turned in late (including after lecture) will have the grade reduced by 1/3 of a letter grade for each 24 hours it is late. Extensions and make-up exams will be given only in the case of documented illness or emergency. The length of any deadline extension is at the sole discretion of the TA. Some examples of things that do not constitute emergencies include: car trouble, computer trouble, having to work, going to a family gathering. If you are concerned about one of these things happening, feel free to turn the work in early.

Your work is considered handed in when your TA receives it in readable form. It is your responsibility to make sure that s/he gets it. If you give it to a friend to turn in and the friend doesn’t do it, your paper is late. If your TA agrees to accept papers electronically but you mis-type the address so that s/he does not get it by the deadline, your paper is late. If the TA is unable to open the file, the paper is not counted as received until s/he receives one that s/he can open.

Attendance at section is required. Three unexcused absences will result in a grade of F in the class. Excused absences are for documented illness or emergency, University-recognized religious holidays, and participation in University-sponsored activities. The T.A. may require make-up work in order for an absence to be excused.

The University has requested that instructors not require a doctor’s note for students who miss class because of flu. If you believe you have flu, stay home. This can be counted as an excused absence or documented illness only if you contact your T.A. before the missed class or paper deadline. If you are concerned that it’s not a convenient time for your TA to receive a call, you can leave a voicemail at Professor Karras’s office number.

Reading:

Instead of a textbook we will be using a historical novel, London by Edward Rutherfurd. You should also purchase Shannon McSheffrey, ed., Love and Marriage in Medieval London. There is also a course pack of readings available from the Bookstore (those readings are marked on the syllabus with (CP). All other readings are available on line; go to the electronic version of the syllabus on Moodle to find the links.

The readings are listed below by week. You should have done the reading in Rutherfurd each week before the Tuesday lecture and the other readings before your section meeting.

Policies:

Behavior in class must not inconvenience or distract other students. This means: no eating foods that have a strong aroma or make loud crunchy noises; no texting or computer use other than what is required to participate in the class. (Since I can’t see what every one is doing, if someone is doing something that distracts you, please ask him/her politely to stop, or let me or one of the TAs know.) Please remove hats with brims during class: it is easier for me to learn who you are if I can see your entire face.

Your U of M e-mail address is the University’s official way of communicating with you. Any important notifications (including changes to this syllabus) will be sent to that address. It is your responsibility to check it at least once a week.

This class observes all University of Minnesota and College of Liberal Arts policies, including but not limited to the following:

Equal Access: All persons shall have equal access to U of M programs, facilities and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.

Sexual Harassment: University of Minnesota Board of Regents policy prohibits sexual harassment, including unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and/or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, when submission to such conduct is explicitly or implicitly a condition of academic advancement, used as the basis of academic decisions, or has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive academic environment.

Disability Services: Any student with a documented disability condition (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, systemic, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations should contact the instructor and Disability Services at the beginning of the semester. It is the student’s responsibility to contact Disability Services to discuss individual needs for accommodations and for advising about contact with faculty, and to follow up with faculty. Disability Services 180 McNamaraCenter, (612) 626-1333, ,

Student Academic Integrity and Scholastic Dishonesty

Academic integrity is essential to a positive teaching and learning environment. All students enrolled in University courses are expected to complete coursework responsibilities with fairness and honesty. Failure to do so by seeking unfair advantage over others or misrepresenting someone else’s work as your own, can result in disciplinary action. The University Student Conduct Code defines scholastic dishonesty as “plagiarizing; cheating on assignments or examinations; engaging in unauthorized collaboration on academic work; taking, acquiring, or using test materials without faculty permission; submitting false or incomplete records of academic achievement; acting alone or in cooperation with another to falsify records or to obtain dishonestly grades, honors, awards, or professional endorsement; altering forging , or misusing a University academic record; or fabricating or falsifying data, research procedures, or data analysis.” It also includes inventing or falsifying research or other findings with the intent to deceive, submitting the same or substantially similar papers for more than one course without consent of all instructors concerned, depriving another of necessary course materials, and sabotaging another's work.

Within this course, a student responsible for scholastic dishonesty can be assigned a penalty up to and including an "F" or "N" for the course. If you have any questions regarding the expectations for a specific assignment or exam, ask.

Plagiarism means presenting someone else's work as your own, intentionally or unintentionally. Copying text from any source, including the Web, without putting quotation marks around it and citing the source, or close paraphrasing without citing the source, is plagiarism. The minimum penalty in this class for any instance of plagiarism, intentional or unintentional, is a grade of “F” for the assignment. All academic dishonesty will be reported to the Office for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity, and may incur penalties up to and including a grade of “F” or “N” in the class. If you have questions about the expectations for a specific assignment, or are concerned about committing plagiarism unintentionally, please ask the instructor or TA.

Schedule of Lectures and Readings:

Note: Where no page or section numbers are given, the entire item is assigned. Your TA may choose to assign different portions of the readings. If so you will be notified by e-mail.

Sep 6-9: Prehistoric Culture and Roman Britain

Rutherfurd, “The River” and “Londinium”

Handout: Caesar, Cassius Dio, Tacitus, Josephus, Aelius Spartianus, Vindolanda Tablets

Sep 12-16:Celtic and Roman Christianity; Anglo-Saxon culture

Rutherfurd, “The Rood”

Life of St. Bridget (CP)

Penitential of Theodore (CP)

“Anglo-SaxonDooms” (Laws)

Sep 19-23:Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Normans

Rutherfurd, “The Conqueror”

Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book I chapters 15 and 25, Book II chapter 13, Book III chapter 25, Book IV chapter 24.

Sep 26-30: Royal Power and English Expansion

Rutherfurd, “The Tower”

Dialogue of theExchequer, all of Introduction and Part I; Part V, Chancellor, Marshal, Maker of Tallies, Calculator, Scribe of the Treasurer; Part VI, Silverer and Melter; Part VII, Testing of Silver; Part X, Murder; Part XV, Seals; Part XVI, Domesday Book; Part XVII, Units of Measure

Oct 3-7The Church; Rural Life

Rutherfurd, “The Saint, ” “The Mayor”

Documents on Thomas Becket:

Roger of Hoveden, Chronicle, 1163 through 1165 (including letters); 1169 through 1171, (omitting letters); 1172 through 1174).

William of Newburgh, selections

Gervase ofCanterbury, selections (more here)

EdwardGrim

Oct 10-14:Law and Parliament; Family Life

Rutherfurd, “The Whorehouse”

McSheffrey, Love and Marriage in Late Medieval London

Paston Letters, 18-22, 33-41, 44-45, 135-136, 148-155. (CP)

Oct 12 Paper Topic Due

Oct 17-21:Towns

Rutherfurd, “London Bridge”

H.T. Riley, Memorials of London and London Life, pp. 3-17, 33-37, 77-91, 149-151, 156-165, 229-231, 253-58, 267-70 (CP)

Oct 24-28:Trade

R.B. Dobson, The Peasants’ Revolt, chapters 19-22, 25-29

MIDTERM EXAM OCT 27

Oct 31-Nov 4The Black Death; War and National Identity

William Wallace (handout)

Nov 2 Outline and Draft Section of Paper Due

Nov 7-11 Late Medieval Religion

Bookof Margery Kempe, excerpts at Luminarum

Condemnation of Wycliffe

Nov 14-18: Tudor Government and Religious Change

Rutherfurd, “Hampton Court”

ThomasMore, Utopia, “Discourses of Raphael Hythlodaye,” “Of Their Traffic,” “Of the Travelling of the Utopians,” “Of Their Military Discipline,” “Of the Religions of the Utopians”

Nov 21-23: Cultural and Demographic Change

Ruthurfurd, “The Globe”

Nov 23 Draft Paper Due

Nov 28-Dec 2:Beginnings of Colonialism; Civil War

Rutherfurd, “God’s Fire”

Leveller Documents:

Putney Debate, up to the phrase "Rainborough: To the thing itself, property in the franchise"

Lilburne, England’s New Chains Discovered up up to the phrase "When we consider what rackings..."

An Agreement of the Free People of England

Dec 5-9:Revolution; Culture and Science

Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary(CP)

Walter Raleigh,Discovery of Guiana: Introductory Note, all of "The Discovery of Guiana," the last paragraph only of "To the Reader,"Part I from the phrase "Meeting with the ships at Puerto de los Espanoles" to the phrase "Todo el servicio de su casa,"Part III from the phrase "As we abode here awhile" to the phrase "After we departed from the port of these Ciawani."

Dec 12-14:European Expansion

Rutherfurd, “London’s Fire,” “St. Paul’s”

Dec 14Final Paper Due

Final Exam, Thursday, December 22, 8:00 a.m.