This course surveys medieval European history from Constantine's conversion to Christianity in 310 to 1400, emphasizing the creativity of the new peoples populating Europe in adapting the heritage of the Roman world and the role of economic change in transforming European societies after the millennium. Topics include the development of kingship and states, courtly literary and material cultures, economic change, the environment, and religious movements. Discussion sections will explore medieval sources—heroic epics, biographies of kings and saints, letters and chronicles, documents, social satires, and material artifacts—while lectures narrate the changes transforming Europe over the Middle Ages in conversation with our contemporary world.

Both a survey of a remarkable millennium in western history and an introduction to an array of fascinating medieval primary sources (in translation), the main goal of this course is to give you the opportunity to reflect on your own experience of the world through the lens of a time distantly related to its fundamental institutions but shockingly different in its sensibilities and priorities. It's a past I have found immensely fruitful to "think with" as I navigate our own strange times. Contemporary issues such as conflicts between religious belief and political authority, persecution of those deemed "other," migrations of peoples and their remaking of societies (to name just a few), all figure in the history of medieval Europe. To encourage student learning at various levels of engagement and in diverse circumstances, a flexible point-based grading system will offer enrollees various paths to course completion. In person participation in sections, where you focus on the sources medieval people created, is an important (50%) component of the final grade. All lectures will be delivered in person but will also be "course captured" (audio and screen) to allow students additional flexibility. Required course readings will be from several sources. Purchase required: there will be assigned weekly readings from an excellent textbook, Barbara Rosenwein's Short History of the Middle Ages, but students may use ANY EDITION (early editions are available for as little as $3 from online vendors). Purchase highly recommended: a course reader, available in print or digital form from Copy Central on Telegraph (a limited number of copies will be made available for semester-long free check out on loan to facilitate the enrollment of students on tight budgets, but you may NOT write in these); PDFs of most of the course reader selections will also be made available on bCourses. Purchase recommended: 1) The Táin, trans. Thomas Kinsella (Oxford University Press): this entire book is assigned; it is also available as an ebook through the library; 2) The Poem of the Cid, trans. Lesley Byrd Simpson (UC Press): this entire book is also assigned; it will be on digital reserve via the library, however, and the instructor has copies that can be checked out on loan.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills