The World of the Middle Ages: The West

Catalog description

This course examines the history of the high Middle Ages, ca. 900-ca. 1300 A.D., focusing on western Europe. The course will examine the creation of stable political structures as the age of migrations ended; the expansion of Europe's internal and external frontiers; religious reform movements; European contacts and confrontations with Byzantium and Islam; the growth of cities and urban society; the development of schools and universities; the challenge of Greek, Muslim, and Jewish philosophy; courtly culture, chivalry, and romanticism; popular piety, asceticism, and heresy; the development of the "secular state"; papal monarchy; and unresolved tensions within medieval society. Emphasis will be placed on the reading of a variety of primary sources from this creative period.