84287 - Social History (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module the student will be able to recognize the methodological and interpretative choices of historical research in the context of the historiographic tradition of the discipline. Through hands-on experience of guided readings in relation to the analysis of specific themes, he or she will demonstrate adequate knowledge of the sources of social history. He or she will critically evaluate the implications inherent to the diverse historiographic registers of social history.

Course contents

The course includes three parts.

In the first we will define what is meant by social history, when it was born, how it has changed over the last fifty years and what are its most important fields of research. In particular, some lessons will be devoted to the concept of micro-history and to the history of the family; of birth, marriage and death; of private life; of illness and medicine; of warfare and violence.

In the second part the course will focus on a specific theme: the lexicons of wealth, poverty and inequality in Europe from the late Middle Ages to the birth of capitalism, between religion and economy.

These are some of the topics that will be addressed, analyzing sources and images:

1. The Christian tradition: the late antiquity

2. After the year 1.000: the formation of social classes in Europe

3. After the year 1.000: urban world and countryside

4. Turpe profit, good profit: market and loan

5. Purgatory and restitution. Franciscan theology

6. Avarice and its representations. Judas, Lazarus, the bag around the neck

7. Infamous and outcasts. Anti-Judaism and the 'Monti di Pietà'

8. At the origins of modern fiscal state: the tribute

9. How urban charity was organized: some examples

10. The crisis of charity: the sixteenth century debate

11. Vives, Luther, Erasmus and the new assistance

12. The reaction of religious orders

13. Protestant Reformation and economic spirit

14. How to consume: eat, live, dress. The luxury

15. The birth of global commercial networks

16. The causes of the greatness of empires: the treatises

17. The first economic reflection: moral theology and arbitristas

18. Was the difference racialized? The social hierarchies of the early modern age

19. Work, slavery, property and the wealth of nations.

In the third part the attending students will discuss with colleagues and the teacher a topic or a source they will have chosen

Readings/Bibliography

A. All students, attending or not, will have to study the following volumes:

George Huppert, Storia sociale dell'Europa moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2001

Paolo Prodi, Settimo non rubare. Furto e mercato nella storia dell'Occidente, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009

B. Non-attending students will add the following text:

Claudia Pancino, Storia sociale. Metodi, esempi, strumenti, Venezia, Marsilio, 2003

Attending students will add the following book:

Luciano Pezzolo, L'economia d'Antico Regime, Roma, Carocci, 2005

C. Attending students will agree with the teacher a small research to expose to colleagues in the third part of the course.

Non-attending students will have to study a fourth text choosing it from the following:

Coccoli Lorenzo, Il governo dei poveri all'inizio dell'età moderna, Napoli, Jouvence, 2017

Del Negro Piero, Guerra ed eserciti da Machiavelli a Napoleone, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007

Delcorno Pietro, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone. Metamorfosi di una parabola, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014

Delwald Jonathan, La nobiltà europea in età moderna, Torino, Einaudi, 2001

Filippini Nadia Maria, Generare, partorire, nascere. Una storia, Roma, Viella, 2017

Foucault Michel, Sorvegliare e punire. Nascita della prigione, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (1976)

Garbellotti Marina, Per carità. Poveri e politiche assistenziali nell'Italia moderna, Roma, Carocci, 2013

Geremek Bronislaw, La pietà e la forca. Storia della miseria e della carità in Europa, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2001

Groppi Angela, Il Welfare prima del Welfare, Roma, Viella, 2010

Klein, Herbert, Il commercio atlantico degli schiavi, Roma, Carocci, 2014

Lombardi Daniela, Storia del matrimonio. Dal medioevo a oggi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2008

Pagden Anthony, Signori del mondo. Ideologie dell'impero in Spagna, Gran Bretagna e Francia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2008

Pastore Alessandro, Le regole dei corpi. Medicina e disciplina nell'Italia moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006

Prosperi Adriano, Dare l'anima. Storia di un infanticidio, Torino, Einaudi, 2005

Ricci Giovanni, Povertà, vergogna, superbia. I declassati fra medioevo ed età moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1996

Roscioni Lisa, Il governo della follia. Ospedali, medici, pazzi in età moderna, Milano, B. Mondadori, 2011

Sarti Raffaella, Vita di casa. Abitare, mangiare, vestire nell'Europa moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2011

Terpstra Nicholas, L'infanzia abbandonata nell'Italia del Rinascimento, Bologna, Clueb, 2014

Terpstra Nicholas, Ragazze perdute. Sesso e morte nella Firenze del Rinascimento, Roma, Carocci, 2015

Todeschini Giacomo, Visibilmente crudeli. Malviventi, persone sospette e gente qualunque dal medioevo all'età moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007

Todeschini Giacomo, Come Giuda. La gente comune e i giochi dell'economia all'inizio dell'epoca moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011

Todeschini Giacomo, La banca e il ghetto. Una storia italiana, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2016

Weber Max, L'etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, Milano, Bur, 2016

Teaching methods

In addition to the traditional lecture, the teacher will analyze texts and images concerning the theme of the course. Any educational materials will be made available on-line in the appropriate section (Alma-DL) of the University website http://campus.cib.unibo.it/

Assessment methods

The oral exam, on the texts of group A and B, will take place in the dates expected at the end of the lessons. Non-attending students will also have to expose the contents of a group C text. Attending students will agree with the teacher a little research to be discussed in the third part of the course by exposing it to their colleagues.

For a successful exam it is appreciated not only the direct and in-depth reading of the texts, but also the liveliness and the ability to critically re-elaborate the information.

Teaching tools

The course may also include participation in seminars and conferences promoted by the teacher, as well as visits to archives and libraries to make contact with the early modern age sources present in the city of Bologna and its surroundings. Internet will be used to access sites that redirect manuscript sources, images, texts and materials of interest.

Links to further information

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/vincenzo.lavenia

Office hours

See the website of Vincenzo Lavenia