Thesis statement post for Chain of Circumstance paper. Please post as a comment you thesis statement for you fall research paper. If you can post your opening paragraph, all the better. These are due before Tuesday, Nov. 4.  Per Lab tech rules to protect your own privacy, please post with only your first name (or initials) and class period.  Please use your non-U of C Google account and make sure you log into blogger before posting (so your post doesn't disappear).

Post on the Jewel in the Crown. Would students selected by their class leaders in the yearlong project please post a comment on pages 26-70. How might this material be used in your class drama? See Mr. Janus' post on pages 1-26 for an example on how this might be done.  Per Lab tech rules to protect your own privacy, please post with only your first name or initials and class period.  Please use your non-U of C Google account and make sure you log into blogger before posting (so your post doesn't disappear).

Happy Halloween! Let the Witch Trials Begin . . .

Ms. Gerst's class: A fun change of pace: this link is to a video game simulation of the witch trials in Germany in 1628 (during 30 Years War): http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/witch/hunt/

And make sure you remember the important point on the "new" nobility and are not confused.  To become "noble," the king must say it is so.  He might appoint someone or sell the office in hard economic times.  He might also make you pay a tax (French: paulette) for that right to continue beyond you or pass to another. For the French judiciary, this means that higher level judges - say the Parlment of Paris - are likely noblesse de robe, but small affairs of local justice might be dealt with by non-noble lower level judges.  Nobility and the new entrepeneurs affairs will increasingly be mixed over time, as the nobility invest in business enterprises and the new entrepeneurs buy land/estates. Economic wealth does not confer social status. Just because you are more wealthy than a king does not mean you are considered of high social status or are exempt from taxation as most nobles are.

See the linked article from 2007, comparing Iraq '07 and India '47, including the idea of "partition."
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2007/08/remembering_partition.html
Many scholars, including Margaret Anderson at Berkeley, would call the Edict of Nantes (France) a "soft partition," allowing Huguenots to fortify a "state within a state."   Another article calling events in the Middle East, The New Thirty Years War,
http://www.cfr.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/new-thirty-years-war/p33267   We welcome comments.

Would some eager beaver student please research the origins of defenestration and post them as a comment to this post. Thanks.

Comment on the Thirty Years War

After you have read the Palmer section on the Thirty Years War, students from both Mr. Janus and Ms. Gerst's classes should please comment on the reading by clicking on "Comment" at the end of this post. We are particularly interested in what you believe the key aspects to understanding this war are. If you had to write a brief and easy to understand narrative of this conflict, what would it be? (Ms. Gerst would like to point out that if you've been asked to increase your participation, commenting on our blog posts is another way to do it!)

Francis Fukuyama, the famed historian from Stanford University, who wrote End of History 25 years ago will be at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Tuesday night. Ms. Gerst has a conflict, but you may attend with bus transportation to and from with Mrs. Shapiro and Ms. Martonffy.  Please email her this weekend if you are interested (after you confirm your availability with your family) at cgerst@ucls.uchicago.edu. You can read about his most recent book Political Order and Political Decay here.

LEADERSHIP: Phillip II

No doubt, Spain hit the "mother lode" in the New World: what should Phillip II have done with the money?  When do you go to war and when do you not?  Did Phillip do a good job (as a leader) dealing with the revolt of the Netherlands?  Could Phillip have prevented the revolt in the first place?  What about his actions with regard to England? On Friday, we will continue this discussion as well as contrast Phillip II's leadership with Henry IV of France.   If you are having difficulties thinking politically, review pages 74-77 on the NEW MONARCHS, the predecessors of these Reformation Age monarchs.  There are characteristics of new politically-minded monarchs and how they develop sound political, economic and social policy. 

If you missed class, we also watched this 3 minute clip about Phillip II's Baroque palace El Escorial. 

Baroque Art Slides

Click here for the slides from the Baroque Art History lecture (given Monday, October 20th).

Please note:

- Click here for a page summarizing the Wolfflin terms we used in class to define Baroque art. (This slide appears messed up in the shared google document for some reason, but these terms are very important and you should use them when writing your prompt)!

-The prompt appears at the end of the slides.

Test Study Session will be held Monday at lunch.

Dramatic Possibilities in the First Jewel in the Crown assignment for the end-of-the year plays. The first 36 pages may be found at this link. 

The story of the rape

Two nations locked in an imperial embrace “of such long standing and subtlety that it was no longer possible for them to know whether they hated or loved one another, or what it was that held them together and seemed to have confused the image of their separate identities.”

                       
The most stunning and incomprehensible act of this embrace was Gandhi’s open invitation to the Japanese to invade India during World War II.

Miss Crane is also locked in this embrace with her recognition that she gets along best with people of mixed blood and her realization that she will need a courage to survive this intimacy that she does not possess.

The expatriate community abroad that gives an elevated sense of security at the cost of a heightened sense of snobbery not only towards the indigenous population but towards each other.

An increasing sense of alienation and isolation on the part of Miss Crane: “And so on, year after year, as Crane, Miss Crane, and sometimes, increasingly rarely, until no more, Edwina?” This leads to “giving a thought that had never properly been a thought until now, ‘to train for the mission.’”

The picture of the Jewel in the Crown and Miss Crane conflating her role with that of the “old Queen” to promote a “wider happiness” and “rid the world of the very evils the picture took no account of: poverty, disease, misery, ignorance and injustice.”

The catena between Miss Crane and the Humanists: she rationalizes staying on “to promote human dignity and happiness” and to feed the “migratory birds” that carried the “humane concepts of classical and Renaissance Europe” to India.

Art History Lecture 2, Baroque Art

The next art history lecture will be next Monday, October 20th.

Please complete the same pre-class assignment that you did for Renaissance Art for the Baroque Art images now up on the flickr site.

Click here for the Baroque images to look at.

(As a reminder: you are to look carefully at each image, then select one to briefly research and turn in a few sentences of something you learned. Please use your own words but cite your sources).

To help prepare you for the essay question next Tuesday

Renaissance Art Slides

Click here to view the slides from the Renaissance Art lecture (from October 13th).

You do NOT need to write up the prompt that appears at the end of the slides this time!

Interesting NY Times piece, Is religion a matter of beliefs and practices or Identity and context?

Also, your first Jewel in the Crown reading is due on Thursday/Friday, October 16/17. Make sure you have your copy, available here order a new/used/Kindle version

Art History Lecture 1, Renaissance Art

DUE OCTOBER 13
Art History Lecture 1: Renaissance Art

Pre-class Assignments

1) Please read the attached chapter from JoshuaTaylor, Learning to Look. (Don't worry, this will be the only reading assignment I have you do! Please do it carefully!)

The purpose of this reading is NOT for you to memorize facts about the artworks he discusses, but rather for you to see the language of visual analysis we'll be doing in class discussion and that you should use in your written art response papers. This chapter is meant as an example for how to write about art.

You may also refer to my "cheat sheet" on the Taylor chapter. I wrote this to outline and emphasize the way he makes claims about art and supports them with visual evidence.

Click here for the Taylor reading.
Click here for my notes.


2) Look at each image on the flickr page carefully before the class in order to become familiar with the visual elements of the style. Here's the link to the Renaissance Art album.

3) Pick one image from the Renaissance Art album, briefly research it, and turn in a few sentences to me on the day of class describing one thing you learned that was not included in the artist/title/date information of the image. This exercise should take only around 30 minutes, and the “fact learned” may be simple. Google and Wikipedia are fine, though I encourage you to use other sources of well. Be sure to cite the source and use your own words. Imagine you’re standing in front of a painting in a gallery teaching someone this cool fact.

For example: what is one common art historical analysis of the meaning or significance of the artwork? What does it depict (if not obvious)? Is there something interesting about the artist who made it? Who was it made for?

EXAMPLE: Saint Margaret of Antioch, ca. 1475. In this late-Medieval sculpture saint Margaret appears on the body of an animal, but the head has been broken off. After researching the story of the saint, the animal turns out to be a dragon. This is because, according to legend, St. Margaret was tortured and imprisoned for her faith, and while in prison was swallowed by the devil in the form of a dragon. However the cross she wore irritated the dragon’s stomach and it “disgorged” her; for this reason she is the patron saint of childbirth. (Story from catholic.org/saints).

EXAMPLE: Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504. The block of marble Michelangelo used for this sculpture was left over from a project started by another artist, Agostino di Duccio, who began sculpting the feet and legs. The block of marble was then passed on to the artist Antonio Rossellino, but he stopped the project soon after. The block was then left untouched for twenty-five years before the young Michelangelo (only 26 years old) used it for his David. (From Wikipedia).

EXAMPLE: Jacques de Gheyn II, Vanitas Still Life, 1603. The skull, bubble, and cut flowers in this still life are meant to represent the brevity of human life. This is part of the theme of a “vanitas” still life, which is a genre of painting that emphasizes the fleetingness of life.  (From Metmuseum.org).

EXAMPLE: Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin, 1604-1606. The church that commissioned this painting, the Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, rejected it because Caravaggio used a prostitute as the model for the Virgin. (From Wikipedia).

Questions? Feel free to email me: cochrane.sally(at)gmail.com

State of the "Latin" Mass Today

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/13/us-pope-latin-facts-idUSTRE74C2C220110513 

Ms. Gerst's students, here is our answer.  It appears the Catholic Church continued in Latin (after this practice was reaffirmed by the Church at the Council of Trent) until the mid-1960s, when it decided to allow the vernacular language.  According to the above article, "Latin was not meant to be fully scrapped, but it was quickly abandoned by local churches."   IN 2007, Pope Benedict tried to support the Latin mass by "instruct[ing] bishops around the world to reintroduce the old Latin mass abandoned in the late 1960s if traditionalist Catholics in their areas request it."  Very interesting.

Mr. Janus' classes will watch this brief video on Caravaggio and the Counter Reformation

Protestant Reformation continued . . .

You guys have a terrific understanding of why reformers want to break from the church, why the authority of the pope would be challenged, and the debate over the ultimate authority (Bible or the pope).  We will look at this very short video lectures (18 minutes) from Khan Academy on the varieties of Protestantism quickly on Thursday.  If absent for classes related to the Protestant Reformation, please see:

You'll also see the work related to your first art history lecture by Ms. Cochrane on Monday, Oct. 13 posted immediately below.

Important Note to Students

[All red links are clickable.]  Remember the Reformation Roundtable Discussion will be held  on Tuesday (6th and 8th) and Wednesday (7th), so make sure you do some research on your religious or political character over the weekend. Second, please read the great write-up by Mr. Janus of the theater talk given by Charlie Newell. Third, please order a new/used/Kindle version of Jewel in the Crown, by Paul Scott, which we will begin using the week of Oct 13 or 21.  Finally, we encourage you to read the WSJ's article linked here, Europe's Alarming New Anti-Semitism, which argues that "the driving thrust of the assault on Jews is new. Today’s anti-Semitism differs from the old in three ways. First, its pretext. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they were hated for their race. Today, they are hated for their nation state. Israel, now 66 years old, still finds itself the only country among the 193 in the United Nations whose right to exist is routinely challenged and in many quarters denied."

Guest Speaker: Charlie Newell

Charles Newell's insights into staging an artistic production

Start with why, what for?

Read the text and listen to your response. Why am I reacting this way?  Look for what scares you, moves you. That is what you want to work on. Once you have a response that gives a unique point of view, then you have a "why" into the play.

The chaos and uncertainty that is often part of the process that leads up to a play is the adrenaline rush that allows you to focus on what's important. 

Ask the the question, "How is colonialism affecting us today?" Consider setting the play in a contemporary setting such as Afghanistan. Maybe something could be done with prisoners of war there.

Be narrowly focused on small episodes. The novel, "The Jewel in the Crown," is episodic; so take little pieces of it and keep your sense of why narrowly focused on your unique point of view. Above all, don't try to tell the whole story. 

The question of authenticity is tricky. In the theater you should focus on behavior and heightening the relationship that you are dealing with in trying to achieve it. Don't spend a whole lot of time worrying about dress and other props.

Get the text down early and, again, don't try to tell the whole story. Be the guy who walks into a bar and tries to tell the story of imperialism to the audience.

Take an episode in the novel and extract the dialogue from it. Then try to create a scene by expressing the dialogue over and over again in your own words. 

Is there drama or inherent conflict in the scene? Does this sort of conflict exist in your own life and how can you take more risks with the scene? 

Never create a scene to set the stage for another scene. Every scene must have its own drama.

Charles Newell's insights into staging an artistic production

Start with why, what for?

Read the text and listen to your response. Why am I reacting this way?  Look for what scares you, moves you. That is what you want to work on. Once you have a response that gives a unique point of view, then you have a "why" into the play.

The chaos and uncertainty that is often part of the process that leads up to a play is the adrenaline rush that allows you to focus on what's important. 

Ask the the question, "How is colonialism affecting us today?" Consider setting the play in a contemporary setting such as Afghanistan. Maybe something could be done with prisoners of war there.

Be narrowly focused on small episodes. The novel, "The Jewel in the Crown," is episodic; so take little pieces of it and keep your sense of why narrowly focused on your unique point of view. Above all, don't try to tell the whole story. 

The question of authenticity is tricky. In the theater you should focus on behavior and heightening the relationship that you are dealing with in trying to achieve it. Don't spend a whole lot of time worrying about dress and other props.

Get the text down early and, again, don't try to tell the whole story. Be the guy who walks into a bar and tries to tell the story of imperialism to the audience.

Take an episode in the novel and extract the dialogue from it. Then try to create a scene by expressing the dialogue over and over again in your own words. 

Is there drama or inherent conflict in the scene? Does this sort of conflict exist in your own life and how can you take more risks with the scene? 

Never create a scene to set the stage for another scene. Every scene must have its own drama.

Charles Newell Guest Lecture TOMORROW (THURSDAY)

Please be prompt and arrive in U103/104 for our guest lecture by the Artistic Director of the Court Theater at 10:10 am during ASSEMBLY.   Remind your classmates!  This is required.

Introduction to the Protestant Reformation

Using the handout we gave you after the exam (Manchester 112-136), we will discuss the sources of dissatisfaction that contributed to the sixteenth-century religious upheaval.  For example, what Renaissance trends may have inspired the Reformation?  Below, we have posted 3 minute videos introducing you to the Protestant Reformation. 

(History Channel) Martin Luther

http://www.history.com/videos/martin-luther-sparks-a-revolution#martin-luther-sparks-a-revolution

(History Channel) Calvinism

http://www.history.com/videos/the-origins-of-calvinism#the-origins-of-calvinism

(History Channel) Henry VIII

http://www.history.com/topics/british-history/videos#henry-viii

(History Channel) English Reformation

http://www.history.com/topics/british-history/videos#protestand-reformation-english-reformation

Reformation Roundtable Discussion (Project Grade)

This is a role-playing exercise.  You will portray one of the 20 following religious or political leaders.  Depending on class size, it is possible a handful of you could double up to portray a few of the major leaders (Luther, Calvin, Henry VIII, Eramus) or, in a small class, omit minor players.  I will act as the facilitator of the discussion, posing questions based on the topics listed below, to guide the discussion.  At times, you will disagree with one another, such as when you are discussing controversial doctrines and beliefs.  At other times, you will agree with segments of other students with whom you share similar doctrines and beliefs.   Finally, you may have unique religious or political leanings or circumstances that cause you to see things differently than others.

Step 1:  We have asked you to read the Palmer textbook (pages 77-98) and the reading from Manchester (pages 112-136) to familiarize you with the political, religious, and socio-economic context in which the Reformation arises.  It will also alert you to the major personalities of the age.

Step 2:  Once you understand the context, you will need to research on your own, drawing from reliable, scholarly sources and/or primary sources.  Manchester wrote about several of the leaders below in A World Lit Only By Fire (pages 136-219) and copies of the text will be made available in class.  You may also use Internet sources; we have some recommendations of the kinds and types of sources below.

Step 3: You should prepare an outline of your personality’s beliefs/arguments on the following topics, along with responses to the arguments of other (opposing) religious and political leaders.  This will aid you in the discussion, which will be graded entirely based on your verbal participation and dramatic flair (see rubric). Many of the figures of the time actually wrote about (and maybe even to) each other, such as Eramus and Luther. 

  

John Huss (Bohemia)                                                              

Wyclif (Lollards) (England)  

Eramus (Holland)                                                                           

Tetzel (Germany)

Martin Luther (Germany) 

Charles V (Germany)

Frederick the Wise (Germany)

Josel Of Rosheim (Germany)

Leo X (Italy)

Suleyman the Magnificent (Ottoman Empire) 

Pope Paul III (Italy)                                                                      

Ignatius Loyola (Spain)                                              

Teresa of Avila (Spain)                                               

Clement VII (Italy)

Henry VIII (England)

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (England)                                            

Thomas More (England)

John Knox (Scotland)

Zwingli (Switzerland)                                                 

Calvin (France/Switzerland)  

DISCUSSION TOPICS

·      Celibacy, absenteeism, pluralism, and simony

·      Clerical poverty or wealth

·      Education of the clergy

·      Ultimate authority: pope or Bible? Why?

·      Salvation: faith, good works, other?

·      Good works/indulgences/confession/purgatory

·      Predestination, sacraments, etc.

·      Trans vs. consubstantiation vs. memorial

·      Sex/marriage/role of women/morality

·      Political vs. religious authority

·      Political realities within Germany, England, and Papal States

GRADING RUBRIC

Did you show thorough familiarity with the beliefs of your political or religious figure, showing preparation for the task at hand?

Were you able to compare and contrast the beliefs of your political or religious figure with the others present?

Did you use your best efforts to respond directly to the topic open for debate or discussion?  (Try to build on each other’s comments.)

Did you take us off-course, diverting us from flushing out the different perspectives on each?

Did you exhibit any dramatic flair (costume, great pithy quotes, engaging your contemporaries, etc.)?

Did everyone participate?  (Please persuade, coerce, and compel all students to take part.)

SUGGESTED INTERNET RESOURCES

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/modsbook02.asp

http://www.historyteacher.net/GlobalHistory-1/WebLinks/WebLinks-ProtestantReformation.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/german_reformation.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Popes-and-the-Counter-Reformation.htm#related

http://www.pbs.org/empires/martinluther/char_index.html

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=4415  (Josel von Rosheim)