HIST 594

Readings in European History

The Mediterranean World                                                         

Thursday 3:30-5:30 pm

                                                                                               

William Caraher                                                Office: Merrifield 209   a/b                  

Department of History                          Office Phone: 777-6379

william.caraher@und.nodak.edu                       Office Hours: by appointment

 

Goal and Description

The goal of this course is to develop a deeper and broader understanding of the Mediterranean World as a historical construct.  The first 7 weeks of the course will introduce the seminal works on the Mediterranean over the last 50 years.  The second half of the class will consider more detailed studies that have either contributed to the Mediterraneanist discourse, provided useful counterpoints to the general trends in the field, or took basic ideas of the field as a point of departure.  The course will be explicitly diachronic in focus ranging from prehistory to the Modern period and draw on a full range of interdisciplinary approaches including the history of the Annales School, cultural anthropology, archaeology, regional studies, cultural theory, and natural ecology.   As my personal specialty is Greece, Cyprus, and the Eastern Mediterranean, there will be a noticeable emphasis on the Eastern Mediterranean.

 

Requirements:

It is, of course, expected that you attend and complete the required readings in a timely and conscientious way.  Moreover, it is assumed that you will participate in classroom discussion. 

 

The class will have three written assignments.  Late papers will not be accepted.

 

Paper 1

30% – 10-15 page paper on the one aspect of the Mediterraneanist discourse in the major works in the field that we read over the first 7 weeks.  Rather than a traditional book review, this paper will require that you integrate the analysis of several authors into a comprehensive, diachronic picture of the field. 

Paper 2

30% – 5 page critical, professional book review on a monograph dealing directly with a “Mediterranean” topic.  Rather than the typical slap-dash, graduate-student book review, this is to be a professional review prepared as if for publication in a major journal.  It must integrate analysis and description and demonstrate an awareness of the major contours of the discipline of Mediterranean studies.

Paper 3

10% – 1 page abstract (300-400 words) due.  Bring enough copies for the entire class.

30% – 10-15 page prospectus for future research.  The final paper will be a critique of one aspect of Mediterranean studies with an emphasis on potential future research.  The best papers will go beyond the books required for class and demonstrate a deep and subtle understanding of the field.  The paper should also demonstrate an awareness, if not a familiarity, with the major sources for the study of a particular area of the Mediterranean.  While this paper does not require “original research” it should conclude with a proposal for future study that might serve as a point of departure for future research.

 

Reading List

 

January

12 –       Introductory Readings

19 –       F. Braudel, The Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II.  Trans. by S. Reynolds based upon 2nd ed. 1966 (London 1972).

 

Various authors, Journal of Modern History 44 (1972), passim.

B. Bailyn, “Braudel’s geohistory – a reconsideration,” Journal of Economic History 11 (1951), 277-82.

P. Braudel, Les mémoires de la Méditerranée: préhistoire et antiquité. (Paris 1998)

M. Harsgor, “Braudel’s Sea Revisited,” Mediterranean Historical Review 1 (1986), 135-157.

H. Kellner, “Disorderly Conduct: Braudel’s Mediterranean Satire,” History and Theory 18 (1979), 197-222.

S. Kinser, “Annaliste paradigm? The geohistorical structuralism of Ferdnand Braudel,” AHR 86 (1981), 63-105.

G. Parker, “Braudel’s Mediterranean: the making and marketing of a masterpiece,” History 59 (1974), 238-243.

 

26 –       S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: An Abridgement in One Volume.  Ed. J. Lassner.  Berkeley 1999.

 

February

2 –          A.T. Grove and Oliver Rackham, The Nature of Mediterranean Europe : An Ecological History. New Haven 2003.

 

H. Forbes, Strategies and Soils: technology, production and environment in the peninsula of Methana, Greece. Ann Arbor 1985.

J.R. McNeill, The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History. New York 1994.

G. Marsh, Man and Nature. [reprint] Seattle 2003

O. Rackham and Moody, The Making of the Cretan Landscape. (1997)

G. Semple, The Geography of the Mediterranean Region: Its Relation to Ancient History. (1932)

C. Vita-Finzi, The Mediterranean valleys: geological changes in historical times. London 1969.

 

9 –          H. Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne.  London 1939.

R. Hodges and D. Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe.  Ithaca 1983.

 

S.J.B. Barnish, “The transformation of classical cities and the Pirenne debate (review article),” JRA 2, 385-400.

G. Duby, The early growth of the European economy; warriors and peasants from the seventh to the twelfth c.  Trans. H.B. Clark.  London 1974.

A. H. Havighurst, The Pirenne Thesis: Analysis, Criticism, and Revision.  Boston 1958.

R. Hodges and W. Bowden, The sixth century : production, distribution, and demand. Leiden 1998.

I. L. Hansen and C. Wickham, The long eighth century. Leiden 2000.

B.D. Lyon, Henri Pirenne: An Biographical and Intellectual Study. Ghent 1974. 

 

16 –       M. McCormick, The Origins of the European Economy.  Cambridge 2001.

                Mediterraneo – 7 pm Merrifield 300.

23 –       P. Horden and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea.  Oxford 2000.

 

March

2 –          W. V. Harris ed., Rethinking the Mediterranean.  Oxford 2005.

                Città Aperta (Open City) – 7 pm Merrifield 300

Paper 1 Due.

               

9 –          J.H.R Davis, People of the Mediterranean  an essay in comparative social anthropology. London 1977.

                M. Herzfeld, Anthropology through the Looking Glass: Critical Ethnography in the Margins of Europe.  Cambridge 1987.

                La Dolce Vita – 7 pm Merrifield 300.

 

J. Boissevain and A. Blok eds., Two Essays on Mediterranean Societies.  Amsterdam 1963.

J. Boissevain, “Towards a social anthropology of the Mediterranean,” Current Anthropology 20 (1979), 81-93.

J.K. Cambell, Honor, Family, and Patronage: A Study of Institutions and Moral Values in a Greek Mountain Village. Oxford 1964.

D. D. Gilmore, “Anthropology in the Mediterranean area,” ARA 11 (1982), 175-205.

M. Herzfeld, “The Horns of the Mediterraneanist dilemma,” American Ethnologist 11 (1984), 439-454.

M. Herzfeld, The Poetics of Manhood: Contest and Identity in a Cretan MountainVillage.  Princeton 1985.

M. Herzfeld, A Place in History: Social and Monumental Time in a Cretan Town. Princeton 1991.

Peristiany ed., Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society. London 1965.

J.A. Pitt-Rivers, The Fate of Shechem: Essays in the Anthropology of the Mediterranean. Cambridge 1977.

J.A. Pitt-Rivers ed., Mediterranean Countrymen, Essays in the Sociology of the Mediterranean.  Paris 1963.

 

16 –       Spring Break

24 –       C. Broodbank, The Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades.  Cambridge 2002.

                C. Renfrew, An Island polity : the Archaeology of Exploitation in Melos.  Cambridge 1981.

                OR: E. Blake and A. B. Knapp, The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory.  London 2005.

                Big Night – 7 pm Merrifield 300.

 

E. Athanassopoulos and L. Wandsnider, Mediterranean Archaeological Landscapes: Current Issues. Philadelphia 2004.

Barker, G., A Mediterranean Valley: Landscape Archaeology and Annales History in the Biferno Valley. London 1995.

J.F. Cherry, J.L. Davis, and E. Mantzourani, Landscape archaeology as long-term history : northern Keos in the Cycladic Islands from earliest settlement until modern times.  Los Angeles 1991.

I. Morris, “Mediterraneanization” MHR, 18 (2003), 30-55.

J. K. Papadopoulos and R. M. Leventhal eds., Theory and Practice in Mediterranean Archaeology: Old World and New World Perspectives.  Los Angeles 2003.

M. Patton, Islands in time : island sociogeography and Mediterranean prehistory.  London 1996.

P. Rainbird, “Islands Out of Time: Towards a Critique of Island Archaeology,” JMA 12 (1999), 216-234, 259-260.

C. Renfrew, The emergence of civilisation: the Cyclades and the Aegean in the third millennium B.C. London 1972.

 

                Paper 2 Due

29 –       J. Pemble, The Mediterranean Passion.  Oxford 1987.

                R. Eisner, Travelers to an Antique Land.  Ann Arbor 1991.

 

R. Byron, The Station.  London 1928 reprint 1949.

R. Chandler, Travels in Asia Minor and Greece.  2 vols. Oxford 1825.

Lord Charlemont, The Travels of Lord Charlemont in Greece and Turkey, 1749. edited and reprinted 1984.

F. A. R. Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt and Barbary, During the Years 1806 and 1807.  Trans. Frederic Shoberl. 2 vols. London 1811.

W. Dalrymple.  From the Holy Mountain : A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East. New York 1999.

E. Dodwell, A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece during the Years 1801, 1805, and 1806.  London 1819.

L. Durrell, Prospero’s Cell.  London 1945

--, The Dark Labyrinth. London 1947.

--, Reflections on a Marine Venus. London 1952.

--, Bitter Lemons. New York 1957.

P. L. Fermor, Mani.  New York 1958.

E. M. Forester, A Room with a View. 1908. 

D. H. Lawrence, D.H. Lawrence and Italy: Twilight in Italy, Sea and Sardinia, Etruscan Places.  Harmondsworth 1985.

W. M. Leake, Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor. 1824 reprint 1976.

--, Travels in the Morea.  London 1830.

E. Lear, Various Journals from Italy, Albania, and Greece.

H. Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi. New York 1941.

 

April

5 –      S. R. Epstein, An Island for Itself: economic development and social change in late medieval Sicily.  Cambridge 1992.

            M. Greene, Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean.  Princeton 2000.

 

12 –   E. Said, Orientalism. New York 1978.

            M. Todorova, Imagining the Balkans. New York 1997.

 

Shavit, “The Mediterranean world and ‘Mediterraneanism’: the origins, meaning, and application of geo-cultural notion in Israel,” MHR 3 (1988), 96-117.

 

19 – T. Gallant, Experiencing Dominion.  South Bend 2002.

            S. Gourgouris, Dream Nation : enlightenment, colonization, and the institution of modern Greece. Paolo Alto 1996.

            Paper 3: One Page Abstract Due

 

T. Gallant, Modern Greece. New York 2001.

J.K. Cambell and P. Sherrard, Modern Greece. New York 1968.

R. Clogg, A Concise History of Modern Greece. Cambridge 2002.

A. Leontis, Topographies of Hellenism : mapping the homeland. Ithaca 1995.

M. Shanks, Classical archaeology of Greece : experiences of the discipline. London 1996.

S. B. Sutton ed., Contingent countryside : settlement, economy, and land use in the southern Argolid since 1700. Palo Alto 2000.

C.M. Woodhouse, Modern Greece : a short history. London 1991.

 

26 –   Concluding Discussion

            Paper 3 Due