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History 3141
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3141 Course Information | 3141 Syllabus | William Lundell Home |
Rebecca
at the well, Vienna Genesis, 6h c,
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Ms Cod. theol. Gr.
31, f.36
William Lundell
Department of History
#210, Hart Hall
364.2321
wlundell@mta.ca
Office hours: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, 11
am–1 pm. Appointments otherwise easily arranged.
Welcome to History 3141. This
course will treat the history of western and central Europe from
the late third to the early eleventh century. It has two primary
objectives. First it undertakes to persuade you that the study of
the early middle ages, an era often dismissed (sometimes even by
mediæval historians!) as a dark age of barbarism, political and
social turmoil, and superstitious ignorance, is challenging and
worthwhile, that early mediæval people, exhibiting habits of
thought and conduct that frequently seem strange and,
occasionally, repellent to us, met the undoubted difficulties of
their time with invention and resource and so shaped dynamically
and fundamentally the course of European civilization. Second the
course aims to help you to hone your historical skills: to think
as historians think, to ask the sorts of questions historians
ask, and to formulate explanations of the causes and significance
of past events sustained by reasoned arguments rooted in the
disciplined and sensitive interpretation of available evidence.
To this end your participation in class discussion of assigned
readings of original sources will carry meaningful weight, along
with your results on examinations and essays, when I come to
evaluate your performance.
Maintained by wlundell@mta.ca