First-Year Seminar: The City in Early Modern Europe

3 units

From the city-states of Renaissance Italy to the eighteenth-century boomtowns of London and Paris, cities functioned as political, economic, and cultural centers, creating unique opportunities and challenges for their diverse inhabitants. Using a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, this course will examine how men and women, rich and poor, established citizens and marginal groups, tried to understand and manage life in the city. Their conflicting experiences and expectations created not only social and economic unrest, but also a resilient social infrastructure, a tradition of popular participation in politics, and a rich legacy of cultural accomplishment. Topics studied include: urban political and economic organization; the creation and use of public spaces; religion as a source of community and conflict; and urban crime and public punishment.