J.P.SOMMERVILLE
Instructor:
Johann Sommerville
Email: jsommerv@wisc.edu
Office: Humanities 5214; Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:15-2:15 and by appointment.
Teaching Assistant:
Nadine Zimmerli
Email:
zimmerli@wisc.edu
Office: Humanities 4271; Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:30-1:30 PM; Thursdays 9:15-10:45 AM.
The Course schedule gives an outline of this course's content, summaries of the lectures, additional relevant information, and links to other internet sites.
This is a three or four credit course for undergraduates, and a three credit course for graduate students. If you are registered for the wrong number of credits, please visit your MyUW site and follow the links to update your current course information.
Three credit undergraduates do two midterms (in class on 2/28 and 4/15,) and take the final (12:25, Tuesday 5/13, place to be announced;) four credit students do the same things and also write a term paper (due 3/27 in class.)
Your fourth credit term paper should be
double-spaced and about 5-6 pages in length; in addition to the 5-6 pages of
text, the paper should also include a bibliography, and references to things you
have read, giving your sources,
and it should show familiarity with at least two books or articles in
addition to the course reading.
See
this guide on how to cite references in your paper.
The paper should be on either:
(1) Why did the Thirty years' war break out, and why did it last so long?
or (2) In what ways did the long reign of Louis XIV
benefit the French people, and in what ways did it harm them?;
or (3)
Galileo is often seen as a martyr to the causes of truth, freedom, and
scientific objectivity. Is that right, or was he in fact an obstinate
and opinionated man whom the Catholic church was fully justified in
prosecuting?;
or (4) another topic, by arrangement by myself or Nadine Zimmerli.
Reading
Required Texts:
(1) Richard S. Dunn, The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1715, paper, second edition 1979, W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-09021-3 This is the main textbook for the whole course.
(2) Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen, Paper, Vintage 1972; ISBN-10: 0394717511; ISBN-13: 978-0394717517. This book will be especially relevant between the first and second midterms.
(3) Jerome J. Langford, Galileo, Science and the Church, paper, revised edition 1992, Ann Arbor Paperbacks, University of Michigan. ISBN-10: 0472065106; ISBN-13: 978-0472065103. This will be relevant to the material we cover after the second midterm.
NOTE: you will be given detailed reading assignments in discussion section.
Also read the material and follow the links in the pages on this site, beginning with the Course schedule. For those who are interested, and for people writing term papers, there are additional readings here.
How much are the exams (etc.) worth:
Undergraduates:
3 credit: discussion section participation and attendance: 20%; each midterm 20%; final 40%.
4 credit: discussion section participation and attendance: 20%; each midterm 15%; final 30%; term paper 20%.
Graduates: 50% for each paper.
A note on term papers and the Internet:
The term paper should cite at least two sources in addition to the course reading. You can find many sources here, and others are listed in the footnotes and endnotes of the course reading. A good link for buying books is here. Be careful about using sources from the Internet, as they are not always reliable. As a general rule, use printed, published sources (though it's fine to use them in pdf versions available on the Internet.)
In addition, there are a great many relevant web sites; try starting
with:
History On-line: The Seventeenth Century.
A good guide on questions of style, grammar etc. is available at The Wisconsin Handbook.
Finally, be aware that you should be careful to give proper citations for things you take from the Internet or from printed books and articles; take a look at this information on academic misconduct.