Guide to the Study of Early Modern European History For Students ...

I. INTRODUCTION
I first wrote this guide in 1991. Since then, I have kept revising it, mostly by adding
new items to the lists of books, articles, and tools of research that attracted my attention at
one point or another for one reason or another. Over time, these lists have grown too long.
They have also been superseded by a great deal of information that is now available online. I
have therefore put together shorter and more focused lists of readings that will give you a
more specific sense of what I expect you to know if you are studying with me.
But this document is the only place where I've put my understanding of the purpose
of the oral exam in writing, given a systematic account of the different kinds of knowledge I
want you to acquire, and described what I regard as the most effective ways in which you
can prepare yourself for the oral exam.
If you plan on taking your oral exam with me, please read this guide carefully and
write a brief statement of your intent (as described below) before we meet to talk about your
plans for the exam. I do not of course expect you to familiarize yourself with every
bibliographical item listed below. But do read through those lists. They may bring one or
another item to your attention that you would otherwise have missed and they will give you a
sense of what I have been reading or would have liked to have read over the years.
II. GENERAL POINTS
The purpose of the oral examination is for you to demonstrate a professional grasp
of early modern European history. The purpose of this guide is to explain what I mean by a
"professional grasp of early modern European history," and how you can go about acquiring
one.
In keeping with the limits of my research, this guide is focused on continental
Europe—especially the Germanies—from the Black Death to the Peace of Westphalia. It
privileges the history of law and politics, legal and political thought, historiography, and
theory of history. It is informed by my conviction that the early modern period is impossible
to understand without a knowledge of its place in the history of Europe as a whole, and that
the history of Europe properly speaking begins with what R. I. Moore has called the First
European Revolution, that is, the transformative two centuries after the collapse of the
Carolingian Empire in the tenth century, when Europe first acquired the institutions and the
habits of mind that have given Europe its specific historical character. The most important
institutions are a governmental church, governmental states, incorporated cities, and
incorporated universities. The most telling habit of mind is the preference for scientific
objectivity most memorably singled out for attention by Max Weber, whether it is in the area
of theology and law, as in the Middle Ages, or in the study of nature and politics, as in
modern times.
Do not take any of my suggestions as writ in stone. They are meant to help you in
your preparation for the examination and to explain to you what I expect students to know
about early modern European history unless I am told otherwise. If you are already
prepared, for example, or if you have some definite ideas of your own about how you would
like to structure your field that don't agree with mine, by all means let me know. There is no
inherent reason why you should have to proceed in the manner I have suggested below. The
definition of your field depends on certain basic intellectual decisions that will make a
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