**THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA**

Early Modern Europe: HY 315


Prof. W. J. Wright


Baroque:
Augustinian Church, Mainz, Germany; an example of the combination of ceiling painting and architecture to convey unlimited space, movement, and grandeur.

Course Syllabus

SYLLABUS


Early Modern Europe: 1600-1750


The purpose of Early Modern Europe: 1600-1750 is to familiarize the student with the development of European civilization during the period that is often associated with absolute monarchies, Baroque architecture and painting, and the Enlightenment. We will examine and attempt to correlate the intellectual, political, economic and social developments of this exciting period. The most resplendent features of this period include the magnificent achievements of Baroque art, architecture, and literature, and the creation of absolute monarchical states by divine right. Louis XIV, the Sun King, was the epitome of this epoch. Less celebrated but more important for the rising expectation of the masses in the modern Western tradition were the development of constitutional government and a new way of viewing man and the universe which we call "scientific".

Required reading for the course:


  • John Gagliardo, Germany Under the Old Regime (1991)
  • Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV and Sixteen Million Frenchmen (1966)
  • Carl Becker, Heavenly City of the 18th-Century Philosophes (1932)
  • Peter Dear, Revolutionizing the Sciences (2001)
  • Christopher F. Black, Early Modern Italy, (2001)

    Electronic connections:

    All of the class information, syllabus, bibliography, term paper guide, and announcements are available by internet. The course homepage address is www.utc.edu/~bwright/ I will also encourage submission of certain assignments by e-mail. You may also contact me by e-mail at bwright@cecasun.utc.edu If you do not have a personal computer, please make use of the university facilities in the Hunter Student Lab, Library, and other locations. If you do not have an account, please apply for one. Help in using this medium may be obtained at the Hunter Student Lab and in the Library.

    Term papers:

    During the first week of class, in consultation with the instructor, each student will arrange to undertake a research topic. Once contracted, students will be free to work on this term research project throughout the semester. A written essay on the topic will be due during the last week of the semester, prior to the final examination period. Late submissions will result in the subtraction of one letter grade for each day beyond the deadline. All papers will be done according to the guidelines provided in the Term Paper Guide.

    Examinations:

    There will be two mid-term exams and a longer, comprehensive final examination. These exams will consist of objective questions and essay problems. Essays will be graded for form as well as content. All objective questions on the exams will come from the list of terms. All exams must be written with a pen: the use of a pencil is not acceptable. Exams will be written in exam booklets available at the bookstore.

    Grades

    Semester grades will represent the semester average, calculated with the following grade components: the average of the take-home exams, the mid-term exam, the term paper, and the double-value comprehensive final exam. Hence, five components will be averaged, with the final representing two of the components. The instructor may add a sixth component, a class-grade, in order to raise a student's average. Calculations will be made using the 4- point system; i.e., A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0, and zero = -1. (Rounding off will move up from .51 or higher.)

    Attendance:

    Attendance is highly recommended since lectures are an essential component of learning in this course. The class will meet regularly, as indicated in STARS, and lectures and class discussions will follow the course outline. Attendance is required for all exams. If a student cannot be present for an examination, it is up to the student to contact the instructor and demonstrate an excused absence (e.g., court summons, hospitalization, death in the immediate family). Excused absences for an exam must be cleared up within a week of the event and arrangement made for a makeup exam. Unexcused absences on exams will result in a zero grade.

    Special Assistance:

    Students with special challenges that may require assistance or accommodations, or with questions related to any accommodations for testing, note takers, readers, and the like, are encouraged to speak with the professor at their earliest convenience. Students may also contact the Office of Student Affairs (755-4534) with questions about such services.

    Exam Schedule:

    Exam I late. Sept. 2001;
    Exam II late October 2001;
    Final Exam Wednesday 5. December 2001, 11:00-1:00.
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    More Information:

    Course Outline


    For the course outline, click on the following:
  • Course Outline

    Bibliography


    For the course bibliography, click on the following:
  • Bibliography

    Term Paper Guide

    Guidelines for TERM PAPERS
    Each student will be required to undertake and successfully complete a term paper; that is, an undergraduate research essay developed over the course of the semester. The following schedule of submissions will be strictly followed: Friday, 31. August, Title, Thesis, and Bibliography; and Friday, 30. November, Final Draft.

    In researching and writing this paper, one should remember that the purpose of term papers is twofold. First, this work will develop an understanding of how historians and other social scientists do research. Doing research comprises using library resources, reading and taking notes from books and other sources, organizing one's thoughts about the subject, and historical writing. On an abstract level, the project consists in observing reality and then attempting to reconstruct it in a meaningful way. In this case, most students will observe reality in books which they will read. Reconstructing reality, in this case, will consist in writing the paper. Your description of what you observed will be a reconstruction created by you for your reader.

    While most of the books you use will represent secondary sources, wherever possible students will also use primary resources. One should strive to think of the authors of secondary sources as experts who have prepared the way for those who come after. They have pioneered the way for us and have presented theses and hypotheses about the past. We are thankful to them for we do not have to invent the wheel again. However, it is also important to use primary sources, for they present the best opportunity for testing our and our secondary sources' theses. Moreover, historians are always most excited about using the primary sources for they are closest to our interest or subject. Hence, we will test hypotheses of our secondary sources and build upon their findings. Our library provides adequate secondary and primary sources. We have collections for all of the major reformers and a number of humanists and writers. Everything written by contemporaries of events or individuals, or by the individuals themselves comprise primary sources. There are many kinds of primary sources. For example, if one studies a litterateur, then that writer's stories or epics are primary resources.

    The second purpose of doing a term paper is to enable the student to develop an in-depth view of one aspect of the Baroque and Enlightenment Period. In other words, doing the term paper on a seeminly small aspect of it will expand the student's understanding of the period as a whole.

    The term paper will strictly adhere to the style or form for the same set forth in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987; fifth edition). Each paper will contain a front section (comprising a title page and table of contents), the text (including an introduction and clearly defined parts), and the reference matter (containing a bibliography or works consulted). Students may use either footnotes or endnotes. Turabian's Manual provides all of the particulars regarding the style or form for these parts of the paper. Turabian's Manual will serve as the standard for all questions of writing style regarding such matters as quotations, punctuation, abbreviation, sections and subsections of the text, pagination, and headings.

    The text of the term paper should begin with a clear statement of the author's thesis, or the purpose of the term paper. The thesis statement will constitute the introduction, which will consist of at least one paragraph setting forth the author's subject and purpose. The body of the paper, or most of the text, should demonstrate and explicate the thesis. The term paper must be an essay in the sense that the author provides an analysis or interpretation of the selected topic. The writer is expected to raise questions about his subject and present logical, demonstrable conclusions thereon. Each paragraph should have a purpose which is properly set forth in the first sentence, or topic sentence, asserting a point. The bulk of the paragraph provides the demonstration of the assertion as well as additional information helpful to interpreting and understanding the point. Proper transitions should be made between sentences and paragraphs using linking adjectives, repeating identifiable phrases, and established structures. [For a good handbook of style see, Floyd C. Watkins and William B. Dillingham, Practical English Handbook (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1989; eighth edition), pp. 228-257.]

    The student is required to use either footnotes or endnotes to indicate the exact sources of all ideas and facts that he/she has borrowed from others. All quotations must have an immediate footnote or endnote. It is not uncommon for a good term paper to have more than one note in each paragraph. The notes not only give proper credit to the authors of original ideas and authorities upon whom we can rely, they allow the reader to pursue the subject further. The failure to use notes represents plagiarism, a severe breach of the law and academic ethics. Moreover, if defeats the purpose of systematic, scientific research.

    Ideas found in textbooks for this course and general surveys of the period (unless your subject is general surveys of the Baroque and Englightenment Period) are considered public or general knowledge. Hence, one does not need to provide notes to ideas borrowed from them, unless directly quoting from them. However, students should include the names of such books, which all scholars use, in the bibliography.
    Questions to:     PROF. Wright

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  • Special maps & graphics

    Lowlands
    Burgundian Kingdom of the Netherlands

  • Special pictures:
  • Picture of Richelieu

    Announcements

    Announcements:

    Note bene!
    Revised Final Exam Study Questions
    Term paper: Final draft due Monday. 3 December 2001; e-mail submissions must come in proper form by 5:00 PM. A letter grade will be subtracted for each day late after this deadline.

    Additional study sheets:

  • Study Questions on Becker's Heavenly City
  • Final Study Questions

    Last updated: Son. Katharine, 25 Nov. 01.
    Comments or questions to: PROF. Wright

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