Undergraduate Course: Early Modern History: A Connected World (HIST08034)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces students to key themes and debates in early modern history (c. 1500-1800), using selected case studies from Britain, Europe and the wider world. Particular attention will be paid to the usefulness (or otherwise) of the concept of 'early modernity', and the extent to which it can be applied to the world beyond Europe. |
| Course description |
The period between c. 1500 and c. 1800 was an age of discovery, in which adventurers, merchants and diplomats sailed farther than ever before, and the lives of peoples from disparate parts of the globe became meaningfully entangled for the first time in human history. Trade in new commodities allowed great fortunes to be made by some, while others found themselves subjugated by the emergence of new imperial powers. Established relationships between church, state and the self were contested, and social and technological developments allowed for the dissemination of the written word beyond a privileged elite for the first time. A vibrant and noisy urban culture - and the emergence of women into the public sphere - brought with it new opportunities and new anxieties for the people of the early modern world.This course introduces students to key themes and debates in early modern history (c. 1500-1800), using selected case studies from Britain, Europe and the wider world. Particular attention will be paid to the usefulness (or otherwise) of the concept of 'early modernity', and the extent to which it can be applied to the world beyond Europe.
Indicative timetable
(themes subject to change):
Week 1: Introduction: Early Modernity?
2 lectures
Weeks 2-3: Theme 1: Travel & Communication
4 lectures, 2 tutorials
Weeks 4-5: Theme 2: Empire& Power
4 lectures, 2 tutorials
Weeks 6-7: Theme 3: Religion & Belief
4 lectures, 2 tutorials
Weeks 8-9: Theme 4: Production & Consumption
4 lectures, 2 tutorials
Weeks 10-11: Theme 5: Society & Gender
4 lectures, 2 tutorials
In other years, themes may include:
Popular Culture
Deviance
Natural Environment
Crisis
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers
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Reading List
Brotton, Jerry, Trading Territories: Mapping the Early Modern World (London, 2003).
Burke, Peter, 'Rex et Verba:Conspicuous Consumption in the Early Modern World', in J. Brewer and R. Porter (eds), Consumption and the World of Goods (London, 1993), ch. 7.
Cameron, E. (ed.), Early Modern Europe (Oxford, 1999).
Collins, James B. and Karen L. Taylor (eds), Early Modern Europe: Issues and Interpretations (Oxford, 2006).
Crosby, Alfred W., The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (Westport, 1972).
Frank, Andre Gunder, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley, 1998).
Kümin, Beat (ed.), The European World, 1500-1800 (London, 2009 or 2013).
Parker, Charles H., Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age (Cambridge, 2010).
Porter, David (ed.), Comparative Early Modernities, 1100-1800 (New York, 2012).
Richards, John F., The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World (Berkeley, 2003).
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry, Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (Cambridge, 2nd edn, 2006 or 3rd edn, 2013).
Woodworth, C. K. 'Ocean and Steppe: Early Modern World Empires', Journal of Early Modern History, 11.6 (2007), pp. 501-518. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course will develop the following graduate attributes and skills:
Skills and abilities in research and enquiry:
- ability to draw valid conclusions about the past
- ability to identify, define and analyse historical problems
- ability to select and apply a variety of critical approaches to problems informed by uneven evidence
- ability to exercise critical judgement in creating new understanding
- ability to extract key elements from complex information
- readiness and capacity to ask key questions and exercise rational enquiry
- ability critically to assess existing understanding and the limitations of knowledge and recognition of the need regularly to challenge/test knowledge
- ability to search for, evaluate and use information to develop knowledge and understanding
Skills and abilities in personal and intellectual autonomy:
- openness to new ideas, methods and ways of thinking
- ability to identify processes and strategies for learning
- independence as a learner, with readiness to take responsibility for one's own learning, and commitment to continuous reflection, self
- evaluation and self-improvement
- ability to make decisions on the basis of rigorous and independent thought
- ability to test, modify and strengthen one's own views through collaboration and debate
- intellectual curiosity
- ability to sustain intellectual interest
Skills and abilities in communication:
- ability to make effective use of oral and written means convey understanding of historical issues and one's interpretation of them.
- ability to marshal argument lucidly and coherently
- ability to collaborate and to relate to others
- readiness to seek and value open feedback to inform genuine self-awareness
Skills and abilities in personal effectiveness:
- ability to approach historical problems with academic rigour
- ability to manage and meet firm deadlines
- possession of the confidence to make decisions based on one's understanding and personal/intellectual autonomy
- ability to work effectively with others, capitalising on diversities of thinking, experience and skills |
| Keywords | Early Modern |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Esther Mijers
Tel: (0131 6)50 3756
Email: E.Mijers@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Annabel Stobie
Tel: (0131 6)50 3783
Email: Annabel.Stobie@ed.ac.uk |
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