History 223: Early Modern Europe (Summer 2009) Participation = 10% Tips for reading Instructor| Course Home Page | Course Description | Course Requirements | Schedule of Weekly Readings and Questions

History 223 will mix a traditional lecture format with the active and critical involvement of students. Class participation, the result of individual effort and group work, will be essential.

History 223 requires your participation at all times. This course emphasizes your reading, which serves as the basis both of your understanding of early modern European history and of the discussions that will deepen our historical knowledge. These discussions will take place in class both in the Monday "lecture" block and in the Wednesday tutorials. In class you can expect to work in small groups for short periods in order to contribute to a larger class discussion.

Class participation will be both oral and written and will be based on the questions on the assigned readings posted via the Schedule of Weekly Readings and Questions. Students will be expected to consider these questions while they read and to answer them in class, sometimes in writing. Effective preparation for and participation in class also includes familiarity with the historical vocabulary of the assigned readings. If you come across words, whose meaning you do not know, it is your responsibility to find out what they mean. If you do not find the words in a pocket dictionary, look them up in a more authoritative and comprehensive dictionary.

You cannot participate unless you attend class. You are expected to be in class on time. Punctuality is a mark of courtesy both on and off campus. Late arrivals disrupt class discussions, which cover the course material and are vital for student preparation for exams and essays. Those who arrive late or absent themselves from class must on their own make up for the material that they have missed. Regular attendance without regular participation will result in a mark no higher than 6/10. Repeated absence, late arrival, and early departure will likely ensure a mark that is less than 5/10. I do not mark as present those who come to class late.

Please do not eat during class. You cannot contribute to or follow class discussions if you are eating. We will have a break on Mondays, leaving enough time for a snack should you need one.

Read to understand. Reading a new book, whether it is a novel or a history book, often ushers us into a new and strange world of thought that we need to understand through its own concepts and vocabulary. In short, reading a new book is a learning experience. As you read, make sure that you know what the author is saying. Keep a good dictionary close by so that you can look up words unfamiliar to you. For example, in Cameron, Early Modern Europe, you will encounter the following terms: aggregation (xxvi), Iberian peninsula (xxvii), languorous (17), arable farming (36), stationers' shops (65), corsair raids (110), international entrepôt (117); in Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe, you will read of self-flagellation, golden chalices, jeweled reliquaries (65). If you do not know what these and other words mean, it is your business to find out. Do not hesitate to use resources available to you in the reference section of the library, such as encyclopedias and atlases. Looking at a map of Europe will be a useful and a necessary exercise. This will help you to visualize the Iberian peninsula, for example.

Read with attention. Often when we read, it is easy to become distracted or to let our eyes pass over the pages without fully realizing what is going on in the text. That is why it is important to pay attention to what we read. We need to be engaged by what we read. As you read, be aware of the essential concepts that an author uses-how, for example, are we to think of ritual in Muir's book? In addition, consider the explicit or implicit arguments in your readings as well as the way in which an author shapes a narrative and martials facts to substantiate an argument. Remember: to read history means to read interpretations. Always be on the lookout for interpretation.

Read to evaluate. The first two tips correspond to these questions: Do we understand the words that we read? Do we understand what the author is up to in his or her text? The final and most important stage in reading history involves questions like these: What is our reaction to a text? How do we judge it? What is the basis for our judgment? These questions all speak to the evaluative process of our reading. The act of reading does not achieve its full potential and value unless we think about what we read. After determining an author's argument and interpretive method, we need to consider if the argument is convincing and the method is sound.

The best way to discover how well we understand a book and what we think of it is to write down our thoughts. Hence, the brief writing assignments and the term essay.

If you follow the above three tips, you will, I hope, find the reading assignments valuable, interesting, and enjoyable.
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