History
Junior Seminar

Summary & Course Goals

The law and its institutions played a central role in pre-modern European society and culture. Historians have noted the pervasiveness of litigation in this period, which saw peasants and nobles alike routinely turn to courts of law in disputes over property, honor, and other concerns. Expanding state authorities, meanwhile, increasingly relied on professional or semi-professional courts to suppress criminal behavior and maintain public order. Religious, social, and political deviance were defined and persecuted through legal apparatuses such as the Inquisition and witch-hunts.

This course aims to introduce you to some (though by no means all) of the rich and fascinating body of historical scholarship on the relationship between the world of the law and European culture and society during the late medieval and early modern periods. At the same time, we will examine how historians' examinations of legal processes and legal records have profoundly influenced the study of European social and cultural history.

The main goal of this course is to help you develop your skills in historical research and writing in preparation for your senior thesis. As such, this course has three main points of emphasis.

• How did late medieval and early modern Europeans understand, experience, and use the law (i.e. state authorities, legal codes and customs, the courts)? How did these change over time?
• How can the rich legal records of this period be used to pursue historical research into a wide range of topics, including (but not limited to): popular culture, gender relations, the family, urban and village life, deviance, religious history, and state formation?
• How do scholars define historical questions? How do they conduct research? How do they construct arguments and present their findings in response to these questions?

Readings

The following books are available at the bookstore and on reserve at the library:

• Thomas V, Cohen & Elizabeth S. Cohen, Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome: Trials Before the Papal Magistrates (Toronto, 1993).
• Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and Their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France, (Stanford, 1987).
• James R. Farr, A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France (Duke, 2005).
• Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, trans. John & Anne Tedeschi, (Johns Hopkins, 1992).
• James B. Given, Inquisition and Medieval Society: Power, Discipline and Resistance in Languedoc, (Cornell, 1997).
• Cynthia B. Herrup, The Common Peace: Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England, (Cambridge, 1987).
• Martha Howell & Walter Prevenier, From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods (Cornell, 2001).
• Jenny Kermode & Garthine Walker, eds, Women, Crime, and the Courts in Early Modern England, (North Carolina, 1994).
• Thomas Kuehn, Law, Family and Women: Toward a Legal Anthropology of Renaissance Italy, (Chicago, 1991).
• John H. Langbein, Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in the Ancien Régime (Chicago, 2006).
• Richard Marius & Melvin E. Page, A Short Guide to Writing About History, 5^th ed. (Pearson Longman, 2005).
• Peter Morton, ed., The Trial of Tempel Anneke: Records of a Witchcraft Trial in Brunswick, Germany, 1663, trans. Barbara Dähms (Broadview, 2006).
• Lisa Silverman, Tortured Subjects: Pain, Truth and the Body in Early Modern France, (Chicago, 2001).

N.B.: Additional required readings are available on reserve. Readings marked:
(E) - are available via E-Reserves.
(R) - are on 2-hour reserve at the Reserves Desk.

Required Assignments

The principal assignment for this course is a 25-30 pg. research paper on a topic to be chosen in consultation with me. This paper is due Thurs. Dec. 14 @ 5pm. Over the course of the semester, there will be several intermediate assignments whose purpose is to help you determine a topic, conduct the necessary research, and write and revise your essay. These assignments include:

• An individual meeting with me during the third week of the semester in advance of our first Library session (19 Sept.). [NB: You are encouraged to meet with me individually at any time throughout the semester].
• A 2pg. précis of a selected chapter from Daniel Lord Smail's The Consumption of Justice. (due Tues. Sept. 12 at the beginning of conference)
• A 1-2 pg. research proposal. (due Fri. Sept. 29 @ 5pm)
• A 5 pg. annotated bibliography (due Fri. Oct. 13 @ 5pm)
• A 5-7 pg. historiographic essay on your chosen topic (due Fri. Nov. 3 @ 5pm)
• A first draft of your essay. (due Mon. Nov. 27 @ 10am)
• A 15-minute in-class presentation of your research during the last two weeks of classes.

Because this seminar relies on the careful reading and critical analysis of a variety of different texts, its success will depend primarily your regular conference attendance and participation. It goes without saying that you are expected to come to conference having done the reading for that day and prepared with questions, observations and/or ideas to discuss. If you must miss a conference, please try to let me know in advance.

Policies: I do grant extensions, but never on the day an assignment is due (except in the case of serious emergencies). If you need additional time, you must contact me more than 24 hours before the assignment is due, provide a reasonable explanation for your request and an alternate due date. I reserve the right to refuse any extension, so just getting in touch with me does not in itself guarantee an extension. Given the interrelated nature of the assignments for this course, I strongly encourage you to stick to the established deadlines, as any delay may hamper your progress on later assignments. Also, please note that in the absence of a serious emergency, NO EXTENSIONS will be granted for the first draft and in-class presentations.

Schedule of Readings and Classes

Created by: Gay Walker, History Liaison & Michael Breen, History Professor