Introduction

OVERVIEW

This week is about introductions and orientations.

The lecture answers some basic questions about the module, such as:

• what is the module about?
• what are the values or principles or big ideas underlying the module?
• why 'Europe'?
• why 1450 to 1800?
• who is teaching the module?
• what are the lectures for?
• what are the seminars for?
• how should I prepare for seminars?
• what are the assessments and when are they due?
• how can I give feedback on the module?

The seminar builds on the lecture. Please do the following before the seminar (this should take 3-4 hours altogether):

• attend the lecture and think of some questions about it
• locate the e-book edited by Beat Kümin (see 'essential reading' below) by using the Warwick University library catalogue
• read the 20-odd pages from the e-book mentioned below and make brief notes about your reading
• look through the Past and Present abstracts noted below and count the number of articles that are on 'early modern' topics
• pick one early-modern abstract that you find most interesting and think about why you find it interesting

ESSENTIAL READING

Butters, Humfrey, ‘Europe in 1500’, and Gerritsen, Anne and Anthony McFarlane, ‘Beyond Europe c. 1500’, in Beat Kümin (ed.), The European World, 4th edn, (2022), pp. 13-22, 161-70

Abstracts from the journal Past and Present from the issues published in 2026 - note that you don't need to read the articles, just the abstracts of the articles; that you don't need to read the texts in the 'viewpoint' section of the journal, only the 'article' section; and that you do need to look at the abstracts in the 'supplement' as well as the February, May and August issues

* * *

RECOMMENDED READING:

Cameron, Euan, ‘Editor's Introduction’, in his Early Modern Europe (Oxford, 1999)

Scribner, R. W., ‘Understanding Early Modern Europe’, Historical Journal 30 (1987) [review article]

Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E., Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (Cambridge, 2006), chap. 1, ‘Europe in the World of 1450’, pp. 15-42

 

FURTHER READING (AND GENERAL REFERENCE WORKS FOR THE MODULE):

Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 (2008) - ebook

Brady Jr, H. Oberman & J. Tracy (eds.), Handbook of European History, 1400-1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation(2 vols, 1994-5) [available as an e-book]

J.B. Collins & K. Taylor (eds.), Early modern Europe: issues and interpretations (2004) [a reader of key texts, available as an e-book]

Cook, The Longman Handbook of Early Modern Europe(2001)

Cook & P. Broadhead, The Routledge Companion to Early Modern Europe 1453-1763(London, 2006)

Darwin, After Tamerlane: the Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000 (London, 2007), chaps. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Dewald (ed.),Europe 1450 to1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World (London, 2004) [available as an e-book]

Fletcher, The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1330-1590(1999)

Greengrass, Christendom Destroyed: Europe 1517-1648 (2014)

R. Hale, Renaissance Europe 1480-1520(1971)

G. Koenigsberger, Early Modern Europe, 1500-1789 (1987)

Koenigsberger & G. Mosse, Europe in the Sixteenth Century(new edn, 1989)

Konnert, Early Modern Europe(2006)

Peter Linehan and Janet Nelson eds., The Medieval World (2003)

MacKenney, Sixteenth-Century Europe(1993)

Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, Vol. 1: from the Renaissance to the Age of Napoleon (2nd edn, 2004) SLC

Nicholas,The Transformation of Europe, 1300-1600 (1999) SLC

Pettegree, Europe in the Sixteenth Century(2002)

Pettegree, 'Introduction'to The Reformation World(London, 2000) (ebook)

Porter & M. Teich (eds), The Renaissance in National Context(1992)

Sangha and J. Willis, Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources (London: Routledge, 2016) [available as an e-book]

Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe (3rd edition, 2023) - ebook

'Tethered Hawks', ink/colour drawings by the Japansese artist Soga Chokuan, soon before 1606. See Past and Present no. 270 (Feb 2026) for details.