HISTORY 345 --THE BLACK DEATH/FALL SEMESTER 2011
Tuesday/Thursday 1:10-2:40
Dr. George Dameron
Department of History/Office:
Library 306
Office Hours: Mondays, 8:30-10:30;
Wednesdays, 4-5
Source:
Medievalists.net
The human and ecological catastrophe of the Black Death in the middle of the
fourteenth century was the most serious and devastating epidemiological and
demographic crisis in world history. One-third to a half of the entire
population of Europe and equally high proportions of people in Asia and
The purposes of the course are several: 1) to use the Black Death as a case
study to examine the impact of disease on human history and the consequences of
human history on the development of disease, 2) to expose the student to recent
research and scholarship regarding the disease, 3) to examine in a comparative
fashion how human societies over time have reacted and adjusted to cataclysmic
epidemiological, demographic, and ecological disasters; 4) to encourage a global
approach to the understanding of history, 5) to encourage critical thinking
about the past through a careful study of primary sources, 6) to offer the
student an opportunity to do advanced research on a topic of his or her choosing
associated with the Black Death, 8) to stimulate student interest in the study
of the pre-modern world, 9) to prepare advanced students for graduate work, and
10) to fulfill one of the 4-credit elective requirements in the History major
and/or Medieval Studies minor.
Prerequisites
The prerequisite for the course is any of the following courses:
History 105, History 109, History 111, Humanities 101, Humanities 203, or
permission of the instructor. Students should normally have Junior or
Senior standing.
Requirements:
·
Active participation and attendance in the seminar: 20% of final grade.
No unexcused absences are allowed.
It is the responsibility of each student to keep up with the reading.
Not doing so can have a negative impact on the grade for the seminar.
·
A 12-15 page research paper on a topic associated with the Black Death:
40% of final grade, due Friday,
December 9, at my office. (NOTE:
for every day the paper is late, half a letter grade will be deducted from
the grade).
·
A ten (10) minute oral presentation to the seminar at the end of the semester
summarizing research results on either December 1, 6, and 8:
10% of final grade;
·
A brief prospectus and annotated bibliography related to the research project
due
October 27:
10% of grade;
·
two brief essays (2-4 pages) responding to questions related to assigned
readings due on September 15 and
September 29:
20% of grade, 10% apiece.
Documented Learning Differences
Students with documented learning differences should feel free to discuss with
me special accommodations regarding assignments of the course.
Seminar Format.
The seminar will focus on class discussions of the assigned readings and papers,
and it will meet twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The study questions posted at the
eCollege web site
will help guide our discussions.
There will be no lectures. Every
week one or more students will bring a question or comment on the readings to
the seminar to initiate discussion on that day. During the semester we
will have an orientation to the
library
and to its resources (both print and
online resources)
available for the research paper. A
bibliography of primary and secondary sources on the Black Death and on disease
will be available at the seminar eCollege Web site and at my personal Web site.
There will be one evening film (“The Seventh Seal”) on the evening of November 3
(the evening screening will substitute for the regular afternoon seminar
meeting, which will not take place).
We will also have a field trip (unrequired) to see the film, “Contagion,”
in September.
All electronic devices will powered off during the seminar, except with the
permission of the instructor.
Students will not leave during seminar sessions except for illness or another
very compelling reason.
Required texts for purchase:
Required readings on reserve (all in Durick) and/or online:
·
John Aberth,
“Introduction,” in Plagues in World
History (Lanham, Md.: Rowman
Littlefield, 2011). On eCollege.
·
Ole
Benedictow, The Black Death, 1346-1353:
the complete history (boydell 2004)
·
Samuel Kline
Cohn, Jr., “The Black Death: The End of a Paradigm,”
The American Historical Review 107.3
(June 2002): p703 (36).
Online reserve.
·
David
Herlihy, The Black Death and the
Transformation of the West (1997)
·
Richard Preston, The Hot Zone (New York:
Random House, 1994). On reserve (Circulation Desk)
·
Vivian Nutton, “The Rise of Medicine,” in
The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine, ed. Roy Porter (Cambridge,
1996): 52-81.
On eCollege
·
Michael Vargas, “How a “Brood of Vipers”
Survived the Black Death; Recovery and Dysfunction in the Fourteenth-Century
Dominican Order,” Speculum 86 (3)
2011: 688-714. On reserve
(Circulation Desk)
Optional reading (at eCollege):
Kenneth E. Kiple, “The history of disease,” in
The Cambridge Illustrated History of
Medicine, 6-15. On eCollege
COURSE PLAN
Week 1: Introduction and
Orientation to Seminar
Week 2 : Disease—Its Early History
Week 3:
Pre-Modern Medicine
Week 4:
Pre-Modern Medicine
Week 5:
Plague and the End of Antiquity
Week 6:
Plague: the End of Antiquity
and the Fourteenth Century
·
October 4:
Little, Part 5
·
October 6:
Kelly, chapters 1-4; Benedictow, part one
Week 7:
The Black Death
Week 8:
The Black Death: A Personal
History
Week 9:
The Black Death: A Personal
History (continued)
Week 10:
The Black Death: The Debates about Its Identity
Week 10:
The Black Death and Film
Week 11:
Recent Scholarship on the Black Death
Week 12:
Disease in the Modern World
Week 13:
Disease in the Modern World:
The Case of Cholera
Week 14:
Disease in the Modern World:
The Case of Cholera
Week 15:
Seminar Presentations (continued)