Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts

Course Number
HIST 251
About the Course

This course is intended to provide an up-to-date introduction to the development of English society between the late fifteenth and the early eighteenth centuries. Particular issues addressed in the lectures will include: the changing social structure; households; local communities; gender roles; economic development; urbanization; religious change from the Reformation to the Act of Toleration; the Tudor and Stuart monarchies; rebellion, popular protest and civil war; witchcraft; education, literacy and print culture; crime and the law; poverty and social welfare; the changing structures and dynamics of political participation and the emergence of parliamentary government.

Course Structure

This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Fall 2009.

Syllabus

Professor
Description

This course is intended to provide an up-to-date introduction to the development of English society between the late fifteenth and the early eighteenth centuries. Particular issues addressed in the lectures will include: the changing social structure; households; local communities; gender roles; economic development; urbanization; religious change from the Reformation to the Act of Toleration; the Tudor and Stuart monarchies; rebellion, popular protest and civil war; witchcraft; education, literacy and print culture; crime and the law; poverty and social welfare; the changing structures and dynamics of political participation and the emergence of parliamentary government.

Texts

Brewer, John. The Sinews of Power. New York: Routledge, 1989.

Canny, Nicholas, ed. The Oxford History of the British Empire: Origins of Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Cust, Richard and Ann Hughes, eds. The English Civil War. London: Arnold, 1997.

Gunn, S.J. Early Tudor Government, 1485-1558. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995.

Guy, John, ed. The Tudor Monarchy. London: Arnold, 1997.

Haigh, Christopher. English Reformations. Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Kishlansky, Mark. A Monarchy Transformed: Britain, 1603-1714. New York: Penguin, 1996.

Reay, Barry. Popular Cultures in England, 1550-1750. New York: Longman, 1998.

Slack, Paul. “The English Urban Landscape” in The Urban Setting (English Urban History 1500-1780). Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1977.

Slack, Paul. Poverty and Policy in Tudor and Stuart England. New York: Longman, 1988.

Wrightson, Keith. English Society, 1580-1680. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1982.

Requirements

One five-page paper, one ten-page paper, and a final examination.

Grading

Short paper: 20%
Long paper: 40%
Final exam: 25%
Participation in discussion section: 15%