TRENT UNIVERSITY
Fall 2016
HIST 2041H 2016 FA
Peterborough
The Age of Disasters, 1300-1500
DR. IVANA ELBL
Office: Lady Eaton College, S114
Academic Administrative Assistant:
Phone: 748-1011 x 7833 (office), 705-876-1358 (home office)
E-mail: [email protected]
Office: LEC, S 101.3
Phone: 705-748-1011 x 7706
E-mail: [email protected]
Trisha Gayle Pearce
Office Hours: Tuesday 11-12.50. (no appointment necessary). By appointment only: Wednesday 13-13.50 and
16-16.50 .
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ABOUT the Age of Disasters ... and HIST 2041H
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The late medieval world was devastated by overwhelming calamities, including the Little Ice Age, the Black
Death and other forms of “pestilence”, famines, economic crises, endless wars, rebellions, breakdown of order,
ubiquitous violence, and religious turmoil. The course examines these disastrous developments, as well as the
human efforts to cope.
TEXTS:
John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle
Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010). Available from Trent U. Bookstore
HIST 2041H Reprotext. Available from Trent U. Bookstore
LEARNING SYSTEM/ BLACKBOARD:
HIST 2041H has a BL site and uses it extensively. Note that all assignments should be submitted there and that
all feedback and marks will be posted there.
COURSE FORMAT:
Lectures (two hours weekly):
Mondays, 12-13.50
BL103
Tutorials (one hour weekly):
Tuesdays 9-9.50
Tuesdays, 10-10.50
BL 402
BL 402
Please check http://www.trentu.ca/admin/mytrent/AcademicTimetable.htm to confirm
times and locations.
LEARNING OUTCOMES/OBJECTIVES/GOALS/EXPECTATIONS:
1. The course aims at providing students with a solid overview and command of issues surrounding the
disasters and crises of late medieval history, and their impact around the world.
2. In a broader sense, it hopes to contribute to their intellectual development and their ability to deal with
and reason about broad and complex historical issues both in time and space, while able to zoom in
selected aspects and micro-aspects and put them in the requisite context.
3. Aimed at nurturing both history-specific abilities and transferable general skills, the course requirements
foster and hone students’ research capacity, critical thinking, historiographical analysis, and the ability to
communicate concisely both verbally and in writing.
COURSE EVALUATION:
Class Participation I (six weeks):
Class Participation II (six weeks):
Mid-term Take-Home Exam
Research Paper Proposal
15%
15%
15%
5%
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Research Paper, Final Draft
Final Exam:
20%
30%
Note: Assignments scheduled to be marked before Nov. 8 (the deadline to drop the course without academic
penalty) are Class Participation I (15%), Research Paper Proposal (5%), and Mid-Term Take-Home Exam (15%),
to a total of 35% of the final grade.
DEADLINES:
Research Question Selection:
Research Paper Proposal:
Mid-Term Take-Home Exam:
Research Paper, First Draft (Optional):
Research Paper, Final:
September 26 or before
October 11
October 31
November 7
November 28
SUBMISSIONS:
All assignments should be submitted on the due day. Being late for a good reason is not a capital sin.
Extensions up to a week are possible. Make sure you ask for one if necessary. However: 1) Extensions longer
than a week will be granted only on very serious grounds and will require documentation; 2) Late submissions
for which extension was not granted or which abuse the extension privilege will see a deduction of 5% per day.
All assignments should be submitted as Blackboard Learn (BL) attachments, using MS Word (.doc or .docx),
Wordperfect (.wpd), Open Office (.odt), or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). Assignments written in Microsoft Works (.wps)
or Mac (pages) are not compatible and will not be accepted. Comments and marks will also be available on
Blackboard Learn.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Lectures and Tutorials:
The weekly lectures & tutorials are essential. The tutorials are compulsory. Students may miss one seminar
without penalty and make up for up to two additional tutorial absences by submitting, on BL, written answers to
the Thought Triggers posted on BL (250-400 words). Those who wish to demonstrate their ability to the fullest
are welcome to enter their thoughts on the Discussion Board (in addition to class participation). Note that midterm class participation feedback will be posted on BL by Nov. 6 and overall class participation mark on Dec. 9,
Knowledge of the lecture material must be demonstrated in tutorial work, take-home exam, and the final
exam.
Written Assignments:
All written assignments must be posted on Blackboard Learn (BL). Comments and marks will also be
available through BL. Tutorial write-ups should also be submitted on BL.
Research Paper
Research Question Selection: Choose, from a list of possible research questions, three that appeal to you
and submit them, in the order of your preference, on BL. Due: Sep. 26 or before. I will review your submissions
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(in the order in which they arrive) and assign you a research question (together with start-up readings and
possible primary sources), by Blackboard, by September 28, Note that students must write on the assigned
research question (not to be changed without permission). Other submissions will not be accepted.
Research Paper Proposal: Based on a preliminary research, the proposal should a) briefly outline how the
paper will deal with the assigned research question c. 250 words), including a working hypothesis on the
assigned research question; b) provide a clear idea as to how it will address the requirements; and c) present a
preliminary bibliography of at least 8 directly relevant scholarly sources) for the instructor’s approval.
Due: Oct. 11
Research Paper Requirements:
a) Length: The paper must be at least 2,000 words long (plus bibliography). The bibliography is not
included in the word count.
b) Approach and Structure: The paper must be analytical (as opposed to descriptive), organized
clearly into introduction, discussion, and conclusion. It must be written in full sentences and contain
proper transitions.
c) Introduction: The paper must contain a clear introduction stating the hypothesis/argument about the
research question and end with a clearly stated thesis/answer to the research question.
d) Research support: at least eight directly relevant scholarly works (books, chapters in collected
volumes, articles in scholarly journals), in addition to readings and primary sources accompanying the
assigned research question. Each work listed in the bibliography must appear in the notes at least once,
to document its use.
e) Writing and Presentation: The paper should be well written (style, grammar, spelling) and
presented.
f) Historiography: It should contain at least some critique of the relevant secondary literature, and
highlight historians' views and interpretations (historiography),
g) Primary Sources: The paper should include work with primary sources, unless otherwise agreed.
h) Evidence and Interpretation: The argument must be rigorously supported by evidence and avoid
speculation, overstatement, over-generalization, and failure to interpret the evidence presented.
I) Documentation: The paper must be properly supported by documentation, including footnotes) and a
complete bibliography. The documentation must comply with the Chicago Manual of Style, Footnotes
and Bibliography Format. See http://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/documentation/chicago.php.
Research Paper — First Draft (Optional): The draft must constitute a full research paper, both in content and
form. It will receive a mark as if it were the final version, to be later substituted by the final version mark (or the
higher of the two, in the unlikely case that the final version is marked lower than the first one).
You are not required to submit the first draft and may proceed directly to the final version. There is no need to
inform me of you choice – if the first draft is not submitted by the deadline, I will assume you not submitting it
Due: Nov. 7
‘
‘Research Paper - Final Version: The final version should meet the Requirements listed above. If it had
been preceded by a first draft, it should address the suggestions and criticism raised in my comments. If you do
not to submit a final draft but have submitted the first draft the mark on the first draft will stand for both. Due:
Nov. 28.
‘
Mid-Term Take-Home Exam:
Students will be asked to answer four questions from a list of eight, dealing with subject matter and readings
covered in the first five weeks of the course, plus one question about a primary source covered in the readings,
from a list of three. The questions will be available on Blackboard Learn on Oct 21.
Each of the five answers should be least 250 words long and worth 20% of the exam mark. All answers must be
analytical and offer a central argument clearly proposed in the introduction, examined in the discussion, and
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stated in the form of a final answer in the conclusion. They must reflect command of the lecture material and
basic knowledge of the readings. Footnotes are not required, except in the case of direct quotations.
Due: Oct. 31
Final Examination:
The course will conclude with a three-hour in-person written examination that aims at ascertaining the students’
ability to reason about the main aspects of the disasters of late medieval period and offer arguments about their
nature, scope, context, and consequences, engaging critically the lecture material and basic knowledge of the
readings.
Students will be asked to write one short essay (c. 500 words), one longer one (approx. 750 words) and
answer five identification questions out of 10, c. 50 words each. The Short Essay will be worth 30% of the
exam mark, the Long Essay 45%, and the Identifications 5% each (to the total of 25%)
The Short Essay will deal with a question chosen from a short list, and the Long Essay will address a common
overarching theme. The exam questions will not be available ahead of the exam but an example list will be
provided in the last tutorial. The exam answers must be analytical and offer a central argument clearly proposed
in the introduction, examined in the discussion, and stated in the form of a final answer in the conclusion.
All answers and identifications must reflect command of the lecture material.
Note: Teaching Evaluations will be available in the last class.
LECTURES AND TUTORIALS
Knowledge of the lectures and readings must be evident in tutorial work and exam answers.
1. (Sep. 12)
Lecture: “The Age of Disasters”: An Introduction
Tutorial:
Getting acquainted and discussing the course, its requirements, and
the first lecture.
FAMINES, NATURAL CATASTROPHES
AND MAN-MADE DISASTERS
2. (Sep. 19)
Lecture:
The Fourteenth Century: Disastrous Around the Globe?
Tutorial:
The “Revenge of Nature”
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Readings:
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, “The Revenge of Nature: Plague, Cold, and the Limits of of
Disaster in the Fourteenth Century, Chap.14 in Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The World
History (Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007), 440-79 (pp. 461-474 are for
orientation only: skim) (Reprotext #1)
Thought Triggers:
1. What made the calamities of the fourteenth-century a global phenomena, and why?
2. Can we talk about a synergy of disasters in the late medieval period, and why?
3. (Sep. 26)
Lecture:
The Little Ice Age and its Impact
Tutorial: Famine in later medieval Europe: Nature-made and Man-Made
Reading:
John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and
Death in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010), 8-42.
Thought Triggers:
1. Imagine you are a member of a farming family living in a small village, first hit by the cold
and wet weather and them by the consequences. What were they ad how would you cope?
2. What was the impact of the Great Famine on the elites?
3. What was the relationship between famine, war and violence?
4. (Oct. 3)
Lecture:
Earthquakes, Floods, and other Acts of God(s)
Tutorial: Natural Disasters and Human Response
Readings:
Christopher Gerard and David N. Petley, “A Risk Society? Environmental Hazards, Risk, and
Resilience in the Later Middle Ages in Europe.” Nat. Hazards 69 (2013): 1059-1079.
(Reprotext #2).
Bruce M.S. Campbell, “Physical Shocks, Biological Hazards, and Human Impacts: The
Crisis of the Fourteenth Century Revisited,” in Le Interazioni fra economia e ambiente
biologico nell'Europa preindustriale secc. XIII-XVIII/ Economic and Biological Interactions in
Pre-Industriarl Europe from the 13th to the 18th Centuries. Atti delle “Quarantunesima
Settimana di Studi”, 26-30 aprile 2009, ed. Simonetta Cavaciocchi (Firenze: Firenze
University Press, 2010), 14-32 (Reprotext #3).
Thought Triggers:
1. Compare the role of nature and human agency in the making of the disasters of the
fourteenth century, and the causal chains that linked them.
2. Both articles deal with a similar set of issues: Compare their approach and its
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effectiveness.
3. How did different human groups react to the often catastrophic impact of natural disaster
and the broader consequences that followed?
Oct. 10:
Thanksgiving Holiday – No class
PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE
5. (Oct. 17)
The Black Death as a Pandemic
Tutorial:
Facing the Plague
Readings:
Re-read: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, “The Revenge of Nature: Plague, Cold, and the Limits
of of Disaster in the Fourteenth Century, Chap.14 in Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The World
History (Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007), 440-1 and 448-454 (pp. 1-2 and
-15 of the Reprotext) (Reprotext #1)
John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and
Death in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010), 79-119.
Thought Triggers:
1. Fernandez-Armesto opens his chapter with the impressions of Ibn Battuta, the great
fourteenth-century Moroccan traveller, who visited Cairo, one of the greatest Mediterranean
cities, both on his outbound and return voyage when he witnessed the impact of the Plague.
Why?
2. What disease was the Plague and why was it so hard to treat?
3. What characterized the contemporary reactions to the Black Death?
4. Was late medieval medicine equipped to deal with virulently contagious illness?
Oct. 24:
Residential Reading Week – No Class
6. (Oct. 31)
Lecture:
The “Great Mortality” and the subsequent Waves of
Epidemics in Europe
Tutorial: Living with the Plague
Readings:
John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and
Death in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010), 119-156, 191-210.
Christiane Klapish-Zuber, “Plague and Family Life,” Chapter 7 in in The New Cambridge
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Medieval History, Vol. VI 1300-1415, ed. Michael Jones (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 2000), 124-154. (Reprotext #4).
Thought Triggers:
1. The authorities, both secular and spiritual, were faced with addressing a catastrophe of
unprecedented proportions.
If you were ... (choose your circumstances), would you put your hopes in
a) government
b) doctors
c) religion
d) all of the above
e) none of the above?
Why?
What would your reaction be once they failed you?
If you were among those expected to provide solutions, what could/would you do?
2. How did the recurrent plague affect life-cycle and family life in late medieval Europe.
WARS AND VIOLENCE
7. (Nov. 7)
Lecture:
The Great Wars of the Age
Tutorial:
England and France in the Hundred Years' War
Readings:
John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and
Death in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010), 43-78.
Thought Triggers:
1. What and who was responsible for the outbreak and continuation of the Hundred Years'
War?
2. Why were the English and their Allies initially successful against the much larger and
richer France?
3. What was the impact of the war campaigns on ordinary people?
4. Did the English benefit from the war or was it rather a mechanism to export trouble
abroad?
8. (Nov. 14)
Lecture:
Civil Wars and Rebellions
Tutorial:
Peasant Anger, Revolts and Uprisings
Readings:
Paul Freeman, “Rural Society, Chapter 5 in The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. VI
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1300-1415, ed. Michael Jones (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000), 82-101.
(Reprotext #5);
Paul Freeman, “ Peasant Anger in the Late Middle Ages,” in Anger's Past, The Social Uses
of an Emotion in the Middle Ages, ed. Barbara H. Rosenwein (Ithaca and London; Cornell
Univ. Press, 1998), 171-88 (Reprotext #6);
Samuel K. Cohn, “Revolts of the late Middle Ages and the Peculiarities of the English,” in
Survival and Discord in Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of Christopher Dyer, ed.
Richard Goddard, John Langdon, and Miriam Müller (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), 269-285
(Reprotext #7).
Thought Triggers:
1. Why was peasants' understandable anger at their misery and oppression regarded with
ridicule by their “betters”?
2. Freeman's analysis is one of the best on the subject. What are his key arguments?
3. What did Cohn see as English peculiarities in terms of their late medieval revolts? Do you
agree with him?
4. Why were peasants' revolts almost never successful in the long run?
9. (Nov. 21)
Lecture:
Fear, Hate, Violence, and Scapegoats
Tutorial: Blaming the “Enemy Within”
Readings:
John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and
Death in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010), 156-91.
Tracy Adams, “Valentina Visconti, Charles IV, and the Politics of Witchcraft.” Parergon 30 2
(2013): 11- 32. (Reprotext 8)
Thought Triggers:
1. Why were Jews and “witches” scapegoated as the “enemies within”?
2. What role did social pressures exacerbate the persecution of scapegoats?
3. What were the sources of the increasing persecution of Jews in late medieval Europe?
4. Were accusations of witchcraft merely a political and social weapon?
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'KING DEATH'
AND THE END OF THE WORLD
10. (Nov. 28)
Lecture: Dealing with Death. Divine Wrath, and Crises of Faith
Tutorial: The Fourth Horseman -- Death in Late Medieval Europe
Readings: John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War,
Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010), 210-242.
Thought Triggers:
1.What was the psychological, social, and cultural consequences of the ever-present
sudden death in late medieval Europe?
2. Imagine that you are living in the late medieval period and see the images of “Death
Victorious” and “The Living, The Dead” around you. What would your reaction be?
3. What mechanisms were used to cope with despair?
4. What were the sources of apocalyptic thought?
11. (Dec. 5)
Lecture: The World Will End in 1500 (or so) ... Or Not
Tutorial: Confronting Despair and Hope: Apocalypse Now, Bliss Later?
Readings:
John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and
Death in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2010), 242-270.
Laura A. Smoller, “Of Earthquakes, Hail, Frogs and Geography. Plague and the Investigation
of the Apocalypse In the Later Middle Ages,” Last Things: Death and the Apocalypse in the
Middle Ages, ed. by Caroline Walker Bynum and Paul Freedman (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), 316-337 (Reprotext # 9).
Thought Triggers:
1. What were the means and mechanism of reconciling oneself to the inevitability of death?
Interpret the images and excerpts from primary sources?
2. What hopes were there for the afterlife?
3. What evidence was there that the End was on hand ... and that it was believed?
4. The world limped on ... often in great style.
apocalyptic expectations?
Writing Course Evaluations
What did it mean for the credibility of
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UNIVERSITY POLICIES:
Academic Integrity:
Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an extremely
serious academic offence and carries penalties varying from failure on an
assignment to expulsion from the University. Definitions, penalties, and
procedures for dealing with plagiarism and cheating are set out in Trent
University’s Academic Integrity Policy. You have a responsibility to educate yourself
– unfamiliarity with the policy is not an excuse. You are strongly encouraged to visit
Trent’s Academic Integrity website to learn more: www.trentu.ca/academicintegrity.
Access to Instruction:
It is Trent University's intent to create an inclusive learning environment. If a
student has a disability and documentation from a regulated health care
practitioner and feels that he/she may need accommodations to succeed in a
course, the student should contact the Student Accessibility Services Office (SAS)
at the respective campus as soon as possible.