Department of History

  EUH-6177: ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Professor:         Dr. Florin Curta

Office:               202 Keene-Flint Hall

Office hours:     R 9:00-10:30 or by appointment

Phone:               (352) 273-3367

E-mail:               fcurta@ufl.edu

Class will meet in CBD 216 on Tuesdays between 7:20 and 10:10

   No other topic has witnessed a more dramatic explosion of research in the last few years than the economy and society of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Today, we speak of the "Pirenne thesis" as an outdated model of understanding the very complex transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. In the last three decades, new approaches to documentary history, but especially the hundredfold growth of archaeological studies have transformed beyond recognition the study of the social and economic history of the period betweeen 300 and 800. New questions have emerged and scholars have increasingly moved towards a comparative approach. This course will focus upon the history of the late antique and early medieval economy and society and, more specifically, the recent breakthroughs in the historiography of the problem. Comparative analysis is the main development in recent years, and the course is intended to familiarize students with that approach.  Through reading and discussion of a variety of issues and regions, we will come to some understanding of the workings of late-antique and early medieval economy and society.
    The course has three objectives. The first is to introduce you to some of the major issues of early medieval history: trade and coins; the rise of new aristocracies; emporia ("ports-of-trade"); kingdoms and communities; the archaeology of late antique and early medieval social change. These issues should provide a broad understanding of important trends in medieval history which will enable you to formulate more specialized research projects during graduate work in European history. Such a broad understanding can also serve as the foundation for preparation in undergraduate teaching. The second objective is to present the continuing, often heated historiographic debates surrounding those issues. Students will read some "classic" texts, as well as more current literature, reflecting recent historical perspectives. The final objective will be to offer you an opportunity to develop and improve skills in bibliographic development and most important oral and written skills in the critical evaluation of historical texts.

There will be four review essays. Three of them will analyze the assigned readings for three of the seminar topics. You will have some choice in your selection. Each essay should be between two and four typed pages and each is worth 50 points for a total of 150. One review essay will deal with a larger body of literature and take the form of a more sustained historiographic essay analyzing at least four related texts (assigned texts may be included). This essay should be at least ten to twelve pages long, with appropriate bibliography and notes (using the Chicago Manual of Style). Within the first month of the course, you must consult with me on selection of topic and bibliography. This essay is worth 100 points. In addition, there will be two short essays focusing on the historical substance of two of the seminar's topics. You will have some choice of which two topics to select. The essay will answer a broad historical question, constructed similarly to questions found on qualifying exams. Each essay is worth 25 points for a total of 50 points. You are expected to have read the assigned reading thoroughly and critically for each meeting. Before each meeting you should prepare several questions (at least three) pertaining to the text and the author. These should be submitted weekly before every meeting, via e-mail. A maximum of 50 points can be earned for this preparation and your presentation. Finally, your participation in class discussion is worth 50 points.

The total number of points to be earned is 400. Your grade will be the percentage of these points that you accumulated during this course. Percentage equivalents to letter grades are as following: A=100-90; B+=89-87%; B=86-80%; C+=79-77.

• Jairus Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; ISBN: 0199244405; on two-hour reserve in Library West.
• Peter Garnsey and Richard Saller, The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture. London: Duckworth, 2001; ISBN: 0520060660; on two-hour reserve in Library West.
• Ruth E. Leader-Newby, Silver and Society in Late Antiquity. Functions and Meanings of Silver Plate in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries. Aldershot/Burlington: Ashgate, 2004; ISBN: 0754607283; on two-hour reserve in Library West.
• Richard Hodges, Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne. London: Duckworth, 2000; ISBN: 0715629654.
• Angeliki E. Laiou and Cecile Morrisson, The Byzantine Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007; ISBN: 0521849780.
  
• Michael McCormick, Origins of the European Economy. Communications and Commerce AD 300-900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001; ISBN: 0521661021; on two-hour reserve in the Legal Information Center.
• Peter Sarris, Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006; ISBN: 9780521865432; on two-hour reserve in Library West.
• Dionysios Ch. Stathakopoulos, Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire. A Systematic Survey of Subsistence Crises and Epidemics. Burlington: Ashgate, 2004; ISBN: 0754630218; on two-hour reserve in Library West.
• Adriaan E. Verhulst, The Carolingian Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002; ISBN: 0521808693; on two-hour reserve in Library West.
• Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages. Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; ISBN: 019926449X; on two-hour reserve in Library West.

January 6:            Introduction. Economy and society as objects of historical research - concepts and approaches.

January 13:          The Late Roman Empire

                    Read:

• Garnsey and Saller, Roman Empire
• Bryan Ward-Perkins, "Jones and the late Roman economy," in A. H. M. Jones and the Later Roman Empire, ed. by David M. Gwynn (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008), pp. 193-208

January 20:          Law and rural economy

                    Read:

Banaji, Agrarian Change

January 27:          The sixth century

• Sarris, Economy

February 3:          Review of the economic and social history of the Late Roman Empire. FIRST REVIEW DUE

February 10:       Catastrophe

                    Read:

• Stathakopoulos, Famine
• Elizabeth Jones, "Climate, archaeology, history, and the Arthurian tradition: a multiple-source study of two Dark-Age puzzles," in The Years Without Summer: Tracing AD 536 and its Aftermath, ed. by Joel D. Gunn (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2000), pp. 25-34
•  Peregrine Horden, "Mediterranean plague in the age of Justinian," in Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian, ed. by Michael Maas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 134-160

February 17:        Value

                    Read:

Leader-Newby, Silver

February 24:        Review of sixth-century changes in economy and society

                               FIRST ESSAY QUESTION DUE

March 3:             The transition

                   Read:

Wickham, Framing

 March 17:          Towns

                   Read:

• Hodges, Towns
• Stuart Brookes, "The early Anglo-Saxon framework for the middle Anglo-Saxon economics: the case of East Kent," in Markets in Early Medieval Europe. Trading and Productive Sites, 650-850 (Macclesfield: Windgather, 2003), pp. 84-96

March 24:            The Arab connection

                    Read:

McCormick, Origins

March 31:            Review of the historiography of the transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages

                               SECOND REVIEW DUE

April 7:                 East

                     Read:

Laiou and Morrisson, Byzantine Economy

April 14:               West

                            SECOND ESSAY QUESTION DUE/THIRD REVIEW DUE

                     Read:

Verhulst, Carolingian Economy

April  22:              Review of the medieval economy, East and West.

                             HISTORIOGRAPHIC ESSAY DUE