Graduate Liberal Studies

Wesleyan University
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SOCS639
Early Modern Europe, 1350-1750: From Christian Commonwealth to Sovereign States

Michael Printy • Tuesday, 6:00-8:30 p.m.

Office Hours Tuesday, 8:30pm-9:15pm; Thursday 10:30am-11:30am, and by appointment
Assignments 2 short papers (5-7 pages each)
1 long paper (7-10 pages)
Leading class discussion (2 times)
Grading 20%     Paper 1
20%     Paper 2
40%     Final paper
20%     Participation (leading discussion, attendance)
 

Course Calendar
  Part I: Before the State
January 27 Overview. Basic Concepts: Legitimacy and Domination

Reading:
Tilly, "War Making and State Making as Organized Crime"
Max Weber, "The Types of Legitimate Domination," in Economy and Society, pp. 221-301
February 3 Medieval Political Thought

Reading:
Dante, On Monarchy, p. 3-94
Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctum
Otto Brunner, Land and Lordship, 1-138
February 10 The Reformation I: Luther; The Communal Reformation

Reading:
Martin Luther, Secular Authority: To What Extent it Should be Obeyed
Radical Reformation Readings
The Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants
Peter Blickle, The Revolution of 1525, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 9, 13

Suggested Reading:
Martin Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation
Blickle, The Revolution of 1525 (entire)
February 17 The Reformation II: Calving, Geneva, and International Calvinism; Social Discipline

Reading:
Calvin, "The Geneva Ordinances," "The Sum of Christian Life," "The Church," and "Civil Government," from Institutes of the Christian Religion
Roper, The Holy Household

Suggested Reading:
William Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait
  Part II: The Emergence of the State and the Political Self
February 24 Sovereignty

Reading:
Bodin, On Sovereignty, pp. xliii-126
March 2 The Military Revolution

Reading:
Parker, The Military Revolution
Oesterreich, "The Military Renascence," in Neostoicism and the early modern state
Feld, M.D. "Middle Class Society and the rise of military professionalism. The Dutch Army 1559-1609.
March 5 Paper 1 Due Friday, 3/5
March 6-March 24 Spring Break
March 23 English Reformation and Civil War; Religion and Radical Politics

Reading:
Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints
March 30 Lecture: Hobbes I: Politics and the Science of the Man

Reading:
Leviathan, Introduction and Parts I and II
April 6 Hobbes II: The Christian Commonwealth and the Kingdom of Darkness

Reading:
Leviathan, Parts III-IV, Conclusion
April 9 Paper 2 Due Friday, 4/9
  Part III: The Triumph of the State. New Challenges
April 13 The Thirty Years' War, the Peace of Westphalia, and Absolutism

Reading:
St. Simon, Memoirs
Pufendorf, On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law (selections)
Koselleck, Critique and Crisis, 1-50

Suggested Reading:
Norbert Elias, The Court Society 35-116, 146-213
April 20 England and Great Britain from the Restoration to 1783; Alternative Models of the State, Failed States, and Enlightened Absolutism

Reading:
Brewer, xiii-34
Gorski, "Disciplinary Revolution from Below in the Low Countries," Chapter 2 in The Disciplinary Revolution, 39-77
Frederick the Great, Political Testament

Suggested Reading:
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
April 27 Subjects and Citizens: The State on Trial

Reading:
Rousseau, Social Contract
Koselleck, Critique and Crisis, 51-186

Suggested Reading:
Keith Baker, "Representation Redefined," in Inventing the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1990)
Mark Mazower, "Violence and State," American Historical Review 107:4 (October 2002)
Carl Schmitt, Political Theology