History 125B

Winter 1997

Mr. Sabean

 

European History in the Seventeenth Century

 

This course deals with the changing nature of state and social domination during the seventeenth century. It examines the redeployment of military violence and the mapping of strategies of discipline onto the population as a whole. It considers absolutism as a political system and looks closely at the culture of the Baroque as a new discourse about power and hierarchy. Of central concern will be the new forms of bureacratic intervention and the practices of the well-ordered "police state." The course will also deal with recent discussions about ways of representing the family, sexuality, and the body and the social and political background to the witch persecution.

 

The reading for the course is not closely tied to the lectures and should be treated as an independent exercise. Regular attendance of lectures is expected.

 

Exams will consist of essay questions, some of which will be related to the assigned reading. The midterm will count for 40% of the grade and the final for 50%. There wil be no makeup midterm. Anyone wishing to substitute a paper for the midterm should discuss tipics with the instructor.

 

 

Section I

Political Structures of the Absolutist State

 

Week 1

 

Reading: Thomas Munck, Seventeenth-Century Europe 1598-1700

 

January 7: Warfare: Centralization of Violence

 

January 9: Armies: Reorganization of European Elites

 

Week 2

 

Reading: Geoffrey Parker, Military Revolution

 

January 14: Military Discipline: The New Social Program

 

January 16: The Culture of War

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3

 

Reading: William Beik, Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-Century France, pp. 3-59, 77-116, 149-197, 223-244, 308-328

 

January 21: The Theory of Constancy: Lipsius and His Followers

 

January 23: Sovereignty and Sovereigns: The Articulation of Court Society

 

Week 4

 

Reading: Review reading of first three weeks.

 

January 28: Sovereignty and Sovereigns: New Forms of Representation

 

January 30: Midterm

 

Week 5

 

Section II

 

Population, Family, and Self

 

Reading: Michael Flinn, European Demographic System

 

February 4: Demographic Structures of the Seventeenth Century

 

February 6: Demographic Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

 

Week 6

 

Reading: Francis Barker, Tremulous Private Body

 

February 11: Family and Sexuality: Ideology

 

February 13: Family and Sexuality: Practice

 

Week 7

 

Reading: Richard van Dülmen, Theater of Horror (on reserve in Powell)

 

February 18: The Body and Textuality

 

February 20: Conscience and Casuistry

 

      

 

 

Week 8

 

Reading: Joseph Klaits, Servants of Satan

 

February 25: Boundaries of the Self

 

February 27: The European Witch Persecution

 

Week 9

 

Reading: Louis Marin, Portrait of the King (on reserve in Powell, assignment to be given)

 

March 4: Woman as Witch

 

March 6: Forms of Resistance to Authority

 

Week 10

 

Reading: Maravall, Culture of the Baroque (on reserve in Powell, assignment to be given)

 

March 11: The Theater of the World

 

March 13: A Theory of Power