Prof. Rebecca L. Spang
Department of History
Indiana University, Bloomington
Office Hours: Mon. 2:00-­‐‑3:30
Ballantine 711
e-mail: [email protected]
History H620 Colloquium in Modern European History Past and Future in Nineteenth-­‐‑Century Europe http://www.indiana.edu/~histoire/
For many Europeans, the French Revolution and Napoleon’s conquests marked the end
of an historical era if not, perhaps, the end of time itself. Political transformations and
military conflicts intensified and spread to encompass most of the continent; whether
bemoaned as disasters or celebrated as accomplishments, the events of 1789-1815 made
understanding the past both more difficult and more urgent. No one could turn back the
clocks. (Though some tried.) In formal history writing, as well as in many domains we
today consider distinct—politics, the sciences, architecture—men and women endeavored
to explain how the present related to the past. The past might be deliberately or
accidentally rejected (as by revolutionaries or in a natural disaster) or it might be used as
a model. Yet no matter how they understood it, people could not actually live in the past.
Instead, intentionally and unintentionally, in politics and in the arts, nineteenth-century
Europeans forged a new world with reference to the old.
In this colloquium, we will look at a range of these nineteenth-century ways of
(re)constructing the past and imagining the future. Many of our readings will be primary
sources; students are expected to do however much “background” reading they find
necessary in order to situate these texts and their authors. Those who have never before
studied this period in European history will probably find it helpful to read a survey
history or two; a list of recommended works can be found on the course website.
Grading and Requirements. It is assumed that all students will do at least the required
readings for every week and that they will participate actively in all sessions. Repeated
absences and/or non-participation will result in a final grade of B- or less, regardless of
the quality of submitted written work. That work should consist of:
Preparing, circulating, and being responsible for questions about the chronology relevant
for the week’s reading (two times) (5% each)
Preparing and circulating a short account of how readers reacted to one of the nineteenthcentury texts we read (10%)
Reviewing one book from the suggested further reading (10%)
Participation in discussion (20%)
Final project, the basic skeleton of a substantial research paper (50%)
Further notes on required written work. I hope my comments below make my
expectations clear. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them, either
before/after class, in office hours, or by e-mail. If you cannot make my office hours, I am
happy to make an appointment to meet with you at some other time. I try to answer all email within 24 hours, though circumstances sometimes make this impossible.
Chronology: twice in the semester, you will be responsible for compiling an outline
chronology that provides historical context for one or more of that week’s readings. Your
chronology should be approximately 1-2 pages, single spaced and should explain the
significance of the dates you include (you will probably want to include more than five
dates and fewer than thirty). You should circulate this document to the entire group and
make sure that it reaches everyone at least 24 hours before class (i.e., at 3:30 on Sunday).
This is probably a more difficult exercise than you imagine; it is also a more
important one than it initially appears. As historians, chronology is one of our most
basic—though rarely interrogated—explanatory tools. Whenever we write, we tell stories
that begin at some date and end at another; it is often only at a late state of our research
that we know enough to determine what those dates should be. Depending on your
approach to a question, you may need a very fine-grained chronology (July 14, 1789
versus the twelfth of that same month) or it may be nonsensical to pin your analysis to
anything more specific than a year or a decade. In your chronology, you may want to
privilege biographical details or you may prefer to emphasize political or literary events.
Large-scale social and economic transformations can be difficult to incorporate into a
time-line format but that does not mean they should be excluded!
Reception account: once in the semester, you should write a brief account (2-3 singlespaced pages) of how contemporaries reacted to one of the nineteenth-century sources we
are reading. For some texts, you will easily be able to find reviews from the period; for
others, you will need to rely more heavily on the work of other historians. Remember,
too, to check the most comprehensive relevant library catalogue you can find (i.e., that of
the British Library for works published in Great Britain, the Bibliothèque Nationale for
works published in France): how many editions of the text exist? When, and into what
languages, was it translated? What, if any, reputation did the author have at the time the
text was published and did its publication affect it? For examples of how one might write
an entire book about the reception of a single work, see: Dominick LaCapra, Madame
Bovary on Trial (1982); James Secord, Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary
Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (2000); Rob Priest, The Gospel According to Renan (2015). As with your
chronologies, you should circulate your reception account to the entire group at least
twenty-four hours before class (that is, by 3:30 on Sunday).
Book review: once in the semester, you will be responsible for reviewing one of the
books listed as “further reading” on the website. Your review should be 2-3 singe-spaced
pages (i.e., 1200-1500 words—reviews of less than 1000 words or more than 2000 will
be substantially penalized) and you should assume that you are writing for a universityeducated audience with a particular interest in European history. In it, you should briefly
summarize the work’s argument and purpose, but you should devote most of your time to
placing the work in historical and historiographical context and highlighting the elements
you think most deserving of scholars’ attention. Make sure to comment on both the
book’s strengths and its weaknesses, paying special attention to sources and
methodology. For further advice on review writing and for recommendations of model
reviews, please see the course website. Your book review is due in class the week that the
work is listed. You may submit it earlier, if you like.
Final proto-paper: Given our shared reading obligations, I cannot reasonably expect you
to write a full research paper this semester. Moreover, linguistic limitations may make it
difficult for you to research comprehensively the topic that interests you most. I expect,
however, that you will be able to envision, plan, and begin such a paper. Your research
should emerge from your engagement with one or more of the primary sources we have
read for discussion and should culminate in 12-15 double-spaced pages (not including
notes and bibliography) that include: a polished and engaging introduction; a statement of
your research question and method; a concise and pointed overview of the relevant
historiography; analysis of several primary sources; some tentative conclusions.
Please note that I will only give a grade of “Incomplete” in the case of major illness or
personal upheaval (divorce, bereavement). Because of the university’s calendar for
submitting final grades, I cannot accept work submitted after Wednesday, 4 May 2016.
History H620 Past and Future in Nineteenth-­‐‑Century Europe http://www.indiana.edu/~histoire/
Class Schedule and Required Readings
For further bibliographical suggestions, including recommended books for review, please
see the course website.
11 January: When was the nineteenth century?
No required reading, but please do see the website for suggestions. Especially if you have
little relevant background, I encourage you to at least skim one or more of the
works recommended there.
18 January: Martin Luther King Day (no class)
25 January: In the Beginning was Napoleon
Christopher Clark, “The Wars of Liberation in Prussian Memory: Reflections on the
Memorialization of War in Early Nineteenth-Century Germany,” The Journal of
Modern History 68 (1996): 550-576.
Stuart Semmel, “Reading the Tangible Past: British Tourism, Collecting, and Memory
after Waterloo,” Representations 69 (2000): 9-37.
Las Cases, Mémorial de Saint Hélène, Journal of the Private Life and Conversations of
the Emperor Napoleon (1823), extracts in translation on the website.
01 February: The Nineteenth Century, when History was New (and Old)
Hayden White, Metahistory: the Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe
(1975), 1-42; this is available as an ACLS Humanities e-book via IUCAT.
Remember that only one person can consult an e-book at a time, so it would be
wise to do this reading well in advance of our class time.
Peter Fritzsche, “Specters of History: On Nostalgia, Exile, and Modernity,” American
Historical Review 106 (2001), 1587-1618.
Walter Benjamin, “Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century” (1939), on the website—
there is also a text by this title from 1935 and you may want to read both of them.
08 February: History and Catastrophe
Volney, The Ruins: or, a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires (1796); introductory
“Invocation” and at least the first three chapters (10-15 pages total, depending on
the edition).
Thomas Malthus, Essay on Population (1798), at least the Preface and chapters 4-5.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, “Introduction” to the Lectures on the Philosophy of
History (1821-1837) at least sections 1-59 (available on-line at marxists.org and
linked from the course website).
Georges Cuvier, On the Revolutionary Upheavals of the Surface of the Globe (1812),
selections on the course website.
15 February: Nations of the Past, Nations of the Future
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (1983; 2006), 5-46.
Adam Mickiewicz, “The Books of the Polish Nation” (1832).
Giuseppe Mazzini, “Young Italy Manifesto” (1831) and “Europe, its Condition and
Prospects” (1851).
Friedrich List, The National System of Political Economy (1840), Book/Part One, chapter
10 (“Lessons/Teachings of History”); Book Two, chapter 2 (on “powers of
production” and theories of value).
Louis Kossuth, address to the people of the United States upon landing in America, 5
December 1851, and Hungarian Declaration of Independence, April 1849, in
Select Speeches of Kossuth (1854), 19-36.
22 February: Times and Places
Edward Said, Orientalism (1978), skim at least pp. 1-73.
Suzanne Marchand, “German Orientalism and the Decline of the West,” Proceedings of
the American Philosophical Society 145 (2001), 465-473.
François Guizot, General History of Civilization in Europe (1828), lecture two (“Of
European Civilization in Particular: Its Distinguishing Character, Superiority,
Elements”).
Pyotr Chaadeav, Philosophical Letters addressed to a Lady (1829), selections available
in English on the website.
Ivan Kireevsky, “On the Nature of European Culture and on its Relationship to Russian
Culture” (1852), in English on the website.
David Urquhart, The Spirit of the East (1838), Introduction, pp. 270-276 (comparison of
Albanians with Scots and Spaniards) and chapter 26 (the state of women); if
you’re especially interested, you may also want to look at his England and Russia
chapter 5 (comparison of Poland and Turkey).
29 February: Society of the Present, Society of the Future
Robert Owen, A New View of Society (1816), at least the third essay (“Principles Applied
to a Particular Situation”) and Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing
System (1817).
Thomas Carlyle, “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review (1829); also available in
editions of his works such as Critical and Miscellaneous Essays.
Frederick Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), chapter four
(on Irish immigration).
Benjamin Constant, “On the Liberty of the Ancients and the Moderns” (1816), selections
linked from website.
07 March: Societies of the Past, Present, and Future
Charles Fourier, texts labeled “Universal Harmony,” “Indices and Methods which led to
the Discovery,” “The Passionate Series,” “Establishment of a Trial Phalanx,”
“The Phalanstery,” “Architectural Innovation: the Street Gallery,” “the Phalanx at
Dawn,” “Administrative Institutions and Practices,” “The Exchange”—all written
in the period 1800-1830 and available from www.marxists.org
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology (written in the 1840s; first
published in 1933), Volume One, Part One (“Feuerbach. Opposition of the
Materialist and Idealist Outlook”)—the texts in the Marx-Engels Reader and online at www.marxists.org are not identical, but they are similar enough for our
purposes. You will probably find it easier to read in hard copy.
14 March: SPRING BREAK
21 March: Men Make their own Histories?
Jules Michelet, History of the French Revolution (1847), Preface.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II
(1848), chapter one, sections 1-8 (“Introduction” to “Amalgamation of Races”)
and chapter four, section one (“The Death of Charles II”).
Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), Part Two
(“Development of the Individual”), chapters 1-3.
Catherine Hall, Macaulay and Son: Architects of Imperial Britain (2012), chapter three.
Bonnie Smith, “Gender and the Practices of Scientific History: the Seminar and Archival
Research,” American Historical Review 100:4 (Oct. 1995), 1150-1176.
Lionel Gossman, Basel in the Age of Burckhardt (2000), 203-221, 297-321, available via
the website.
28 March: In the Middle (or thereabouts) was Napoleon
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852).
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Volume III, Part II, chapters 1, 7, 19, 27-28, 38-39;
Epilogue, Part Two, chapters 1-7.
04 April: Empire of the Present
[Thomas Carlyle], “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question,” Fraser’s Magazine
for Town and Country 40:240 (Dec. 1849), 670-679.
[John Stuart Mill], “The Negro Question,” Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country
41:241 (Jan. 1850), 25-31.
Arthur de Gobineau, Essay on the Inequality of Human Races (1853-1855), selections.
Jules Ferry, “On the Madagascar Question” (1884).
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, “Infant Marriage in India,” Contemporary Review 58
(November 1890), 712-720.
11 April: A New Time?
Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life” (1863).
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, “Railway Space and Railroad Time” in his The Railway Journey
(1977; 1986), 33-45.
Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon (1865); at least chapters 1-12 (but you may well
want to skim the whole thing as it is pretty entertaining).
18 April: The Future of an Illusion?
E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (1871), chapter one, pp. 1-7 (page numbers may vary
depending on the edition you have; read at least to the paragraph beginning “A
first step in the study of civilization…”) and chapters 3-4 (to some extent these
can be skimmed, but make sure you read several sets of examples carefully).
James Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890—remember to make sure you have found this,
the original 2-volume version, and not the 12-volume later edition) vol. 1, pp. 1and the section on religion and magic, beginning with “The fatal flaw of
magic…” and going to “Of all natural phenomena there are perhaps none which
civilized man feels himself more powerless to influence than the rain…”
Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus (1863), at least chapters 1, 11, 15.
25 April: Histories of the Past, Sciences of the Future
Ernst Haeckel, “Mental Life,” chapter 14 of his The Wonders of Life (1904).
Thomas Huxley, “The Aryan Question and Pre-Historic Man,” The Nineteenth Century, a
Monthly Review 28 (1890), 750-777.
Camille Flammarion, L’Inconnu: The Unknown (1900), chapter one (“On Incredulity”).
Lord Acton, “Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History” (1895) in his Lectures on
Modern History (1906).
H.C. Lea, “Ethical Values in History” (Presidential Address to the American Historical
Association), American Historical Review 9 (1904), 233-246.