Everyday Life in Medieval Europe

4.0 credits

Moving past outdated stereotypes of the Middle Ages as dark, dirty, and dangerous, what was life for medieval people actually like? This course explores how people lived, worked, and died in medieval England from the eleventh to the twelfth centuries. We will investigate topics such as family life, labor and servitude, popular revolt, and migration. We will examine the sources that social historians have used to reconstruct these issues; how scholarly interpretations of medieval life have evolved since the inception of the field; and how medievalists have drawn on techniques from disciplines including anthropology, demography. In studying this course, students will develop familiarity with key transferable concepts and methodologies in the field of social history.