Living, loving, and dying in Europe 1500-1800
HIST 4100A
Living, loving, and dying in Europe 1500-1800
Fall 2026/Winter 2027
Instructor: Professor Rod Phillips
What is this course about?
In this full-year seminar we try to capture the texture of the everyday lives of Europeans in the Early Modern period, roughly 1500-1800. It’s an exciting and challenging task because everyday lives are difficult to generalize about and the evidence of them is often elusive and apparently contradictory. That shouldn’t be surprising, as we look at the diversity of everyday lives around us. At the same time, it’s possible to define patterns and regularities, and that will be our achievement by the end of the course, even while we appreciate deviations from what appear to be the dominant patterns.
We’ll focus on a number of themes that lead us down a number of trails. Supposing we start with birth, which marks the beginning of ‘living’. We might ask: What were birth rates in Early Modern Europe? How many children did women have on average? Were there variations by region, by class, by religion, and between town and country? How did birth rates change over time, and why? What percentage of children were born to married or cohabiting couples, what percentage to single women?
Having established the big picture, we’ll try to understand these birth rates. Why did people have children anyway – to provide workers, to ensure there were heirs for land and titles, to comply with religious teachings, or unintentionally? Did religious and secular authorities encourage people to have children? If women or couples didn’t want to have children, what kinds of family limitation were available – abortion, contraception, sexual abstinence, non-procreative sexual behaviour, infanticide? Were they permitted, and how widely were they used?
How old were women when they started and ceased having children? How were births spaced, and why? Did many women die in childbirth, and what became of their children? Why did women have children outside marriage? Were these births simply unintended or were women persuaded to risk pregnancy by promises of marriage? Were women coerced to have sex or raped?
Where and in what context did births take place? How often were midwives involved? How were newborns cared for? Were they breast-fed by their mothers or by wet-nurses? Why did so many children – often a fifth or a quarter – die in the first year of life? How common were infanticide and child-abandonment? What was the state of medical knowledge with regard to infants? How were children named and how many were baptized?
What seems a reasonably straightforward event – birth – leads us into many areas of economic, religious, social, cultural, and even political life. At every point, women and men made decisions that can reveal their attitudes towards one another and the world around them. Their decisions give us insights into their modes of thought, experiences, and behaviour.
We’ll track a number of life events/issues in this way, including childhood, relationships, marriage, family and household relationships, diet, clothing, animals, work, leisure, illness, old age, and death. As we do, we’ll study the way historians employ theoretical perspectives and methodologies as they write their histories. We’ll read secondary works (mainly articles), watch videos, analyse primary printed sources, interpret statistics, and evaluate contemporary images. In short, we’ll deploy a wide range of resources and perspectives to understand the complexities of living, loving, and dying in Early Modern Europe.
Course format
This is a seminar that will meet in person once a week throughout the academic year (September 2026 to April 2027).
Coursework
Seminars are discussions, and students are expected to read specified readings in advance of each meeting so as to be prepared to participate in discussions. The course outline will list the topics of the weekly seminars and the readings to be done in advance. All the readings (almost all are articles) are available on-line. Each student will briefly introduce one article each term.
The major piece of coursework is an essay that’s due by the end of the Winter term. In the last few weeks of that term, each student will present their essay to the seminar. Just as “living, loving, and dying” includes a massive range of subjects, so there’s great flexibility in your choice of essay topic. Past essays have included domestic architecture, evidence of contraception, violence, attitudes toward death, wolves, child-rearing, responses to disease, and tea-drinking practices. You’ll decide on your topic in consultation with me.
Your final grade will be based on (1) your participation in discussions, (2) your introduction of two articles, and (3) the presentation of your essay and the essay itself. (There is no final examination.)
Textbook
There’s no textbook for this seminar, but students not familiar with Early Modern Europe are advised to read a general survey so as to have a sense of the place and the period. Good surveys are: Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (3rd edition); Henry Kamen, Early Modern European Society; and Beat Kümin (ed.), The European World, 1500-1800 (available on-line).
Questions?
For more information, please contact me: roderick.phillips@carleton.ca