HISTORY 664 is a genuine research seminar designed for graduate students.  

Goals:

• To prepare us all for a high-profile conference slated for the end of March 2008 under the provisional title of “Poverty in Medieval Europe”. This is sponsored by Cornell via its unit on Poverty, Inequality, and Development (http://www.arts.cornell.edu/poverty/).
• To this end we shall canvas the historical literature for the current state of the field, what aspects are well understood, and even more where the gaps lie. I hope especially to compare the approaches of historians with those made by the development community actually involved in studying and perhaps treating the problem of poverty in our own world.
• And we shall collectively compile a reasoned bibliography of helpful readings on the various aspects of the subject that could interest historians but also students of medieval studies more broadly, including literature, art, thought and philosophy. Poverty (with its corollary of Wealth) is an often forgotten portal into almost everything worth thinking about in the medieval European world.

We shall begin by reading and taking apart the classic work on the subject, Michel Mollat’s,  The Poor in the Middle Ages published in 1978 (English translation 1986) but based on Paris seminars dating back into the 1960s and beyond. (Etudes sur l'histoire de la pauvrete (Moyen Age-XVIe siecle), ed. Mollat (2 vols., 1974) [BV4647. P7 M72] summarized some of these earlier studies) After that, the class will decide on precise questions and topics for the rest of the semester. Readings will be drawn partly from materials kept on Library Reserve, and partly made available as the result of class research. Materials will be posted at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/664/index.html.

Schedule

I Aug 27

II. Sept 3

III. Sept 10

IV. Sept 17

V. Sept 24

VI. Oct 1

FALL BREAK SAT-WED, OCT 6-10

VII. Oct 15

VIII. Oct 22

IX. Oct 29

X. Nov 5

XI. Nov 12

XII. Nov 19

THANKSGIVING BREAK WED-MON, NOV 21-6

XIII. Nov 26

XIV. Dec 3

STUDY PERIOD Sun 2 - Wed 5 Dec
EXAMINATIONS Wed 5- Friday 14 Dec

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Books Ordered through the Campus Store:

REQUIRED:
    

Mollat, The Poor in the Middle Ages    [Custom Publishing]   

Sen, Development as Freedom 

     

OPTIONAL:

Farmer, Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris  

Little, Religious Poverty & the Profit Economy 

Initial Uris Reserve List:

BV4647.P6 L77                      LITTLE          RELIGIOUS POVERTY & PROFIT ECONOMY  IN MED. EUROPE

D202.8 .J67x 1996                  JORDAN          THE GREAT FAMINE

D75 .S455x 1999                    SEN                  DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM

HN11 .M72 1986                   MOLLAT          THE POOR IN THE MIDDLE AGES

HV78 .T56                              TIERNEY         MEDIEVAL POOR LAW

HC278.P3 F37 2005               FARMER          SURVIVING POVERTY IN MEDIEVAL PARIS (2002)

HC240.9.P6 G4713x 1994     GEREMEK         POVERTY: A SHORT HISTORY

PN682.P35 F74x 1999           FREEDMAN      IMAGES OF THE MEDIEVAL PEASANT

I shall add items as they come to mind, anmd try to tell you what they are.

eg HN11 M72                           MOLLAT            LES PAUVRES AU MOYEN AGE   [The 1978 French original, which lists sources chapter by chapter in the back]

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Discussion Topics:

Bibliography Drafts:

prh/8-07   e&oe

       

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