Given the odd hand-off of instructors during the second quarter, your exam will be somewhat different from those of the past. Since I don’t know precisely what you have been discussing in class it is difficult to devise a fair content-driven section for your exam in January beyond what is contained in your assigned readings. Please read ALL of the advice below in order to prepare properly for your exam.

HERE’S A TEST you would have been given in December if I had remained with you.

Some Major Themes you Might Pursue While Studying

What does Europe look like politically following the Treaty of Westphalia? What were the major territorial shifts as a result?

What does Europe look like culturally and religiously following the Reformation? What were the major divisions — social, cultural, and intellectual — as a result of the Wars of Religion?

How has Europe changed between c.1350 and 1650?

READING/Documents

You have read three serious sources in full — The Prince and the Utopia — and should be able to discuss the central ideas of each in historical context.

We have also discussed a bit historiography and you have read chapters 1,2, and 4 of What Is History. You should know and be able to discuss the central arguments of the following historians: Burckhardt, Weber, Elton, and of course Carr.

ALSO, make sure you have completed Gay&Webb reading through chapter six (up to the England section)

Yes, Facts Matter and You will have a geography section

You may wish to brush up on (or take a look at for the first time) your terms lists, esp: Reformation, Tudor England, Anglo-Spanish Rivalry, and Thirty Years War. You will be asked to write, demonstrating a command of the major historical people, places, and events discussed over the semester. Failure to include factual information in your essays will seriously decline your score. ALSO, you are expected to know salient features of European geography that have been part of the semesters’ discussion.

Culled From Gay&Webb (and worth working up a serious response)

“The world in which young Luther was laboring was, as usual, in turmoil, but perhaps in greater turmoil than usual…. there were new and explosive ingredients in the mix.” (132)

“On the Continent, the Reformation began with religion and ended in politics; In England, it began with politics and ended in religion.” (153)

“Next to the Renaissance Popes, Henry VIII of England was the most effective unwitting agent the Reformation had.” (154)

‘Elizabeth reversed the marital diplomacy of the Hapsburgs.’

“Dutch nationality was a consequence, not the cause, of the rebellion.”

“Ferdinand could rationalize his edict as an extreme expression of piety, a late fruit of the Counter Reformation; Ferdinand’s victims could only see it as a typical Hapsburg maneuver, a cynical grab for hegemony in the name of a spiritual cause.” (252)

“Few of the provisions of the peace were new; they were important more for what they confirmed than for what they created.” (255)

Exam Day

You may bring a single moleskin journal with you, but only a journal. No folders. No loose-leaf binder. No collection of single sheet notes.