Introductory description

Like other advanced options, this module involves the study of a broad-ranging theme in a comparative and interdisciplinary context. It will examine developments in a number of different European countries (mainly the German lands, France and England) and draws on insights from neighbouring disciplines such as art and legal history, anthropology, theology and sociology. Compared to second-year options, there is a greater emphasis on historiographical debate, active student input in seminar organization and engagement with primary sources.

The module uses one of the most prominent social centres in early modern Europe to illustrate key themes and processes of the period, such as patterns of sociability, the growth of regulation, communication networks, confessional identity, incidence of crime, gender roles and alcohol consumption. It approaches pre-modern social conditions through the analysis of an ubiquitous leisure activity and highlights tensions between religious doctrines, secular laws and popular culture.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Part I: INTRODUCTION

• Module framework and introduction
• Historiography
• Early modern voices

Part II: THEMATIC APPROACHES

• Catering services
• Regulation
• Group presentation on publicans
• Group presentation on economic dimensions
• Group presentation on cultural services
• Group presentation on gender roles
• Crime: Publicans & Patrons
• Sex and the Early Modern Public House
• Long-term-changes I (medieval/early modern)
• Long-term-changes II (early modern/modern)
• Presentations on dissertations and public house(s) projects

Part III. WIDER PERSPECTIVES

• Church and tavern
• Tavern and local authorities
• Class presentations on dissertations and long essays
• Interdisciplinary approaches
• Conclusion

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the multifunctional role of early modern public houses
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources (from a range of European case studies) relating to the history of early modern public houses
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the history of early modern public houses
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the history of early modern public houses

Indicative reading list

Primary sources

• Brennan, Thomas (gen ed.), Public Drinking in the Early Modern World: Voices from the Tavern (4 vols, London, 2011)
  Secondary works
• Brandwood G.; Davison, A.; Slaughter, M., Licensed to Sell: The History and Heritage of the Public House (Swindon: English Heritage/CAMRA, 2004)
• Brennan, Thomas, Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Princeton, 1988)
• Burke, Peter, What is Cultural History? (Cambridge, 2004)
• Clark, Peter, The English Alehouse. A Social History 1200-1830 (London, New York, 1983)
• Gibbons, Ed, All Beer & Skittles? A Short History of Inns and Taverns (London: National Trust, 2001) [GT 3834.G4]
• Hames, Gina, Alcohol in World History (London, 2012), esp. chapters 3-4
• Hailwood, Mark, Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England (Woodbridge, 2014)
• Haydon, Peter, The English Pub: A History (London, 1994)
• Kümin, Beat, Drinking Matters: Public Houses and Social Exchange in Early Modern Central Europe (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007)
• “ (ed.), A Cultural History of Food in the Early Modern Age (London: Bloomsbury, 2012)
• “ and Tlusty, B. Ann (eds), The World of the Tavern: Public Houses in Early Modern Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002)
• Martin, A. Lynn, Alcohol, Sex and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001)
• “ , Alcohol, Violence and Disorder in Traditional Europe (Kirksville, 2009)
• Tlusty, B.Ann, Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany(Charlottesville: U. of Virginia Press, 2001)
• Walker, G. (ed.), Writing Early Modern History (Oxford, 2005 )
• Whitington, Phil; McShane, Angela (eds), 'Cultures of Intoxication', Past and Present Supplement 9 (2014)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.