The End Was Near?: Bubonic Plague, Black Death

Assignment for Friday, August 24: Read here and here about the Black Death, taking careful note of its causes, consequences, and overall effect on Europe and the world. Then read this account from Florence OR this document from Pistoia, Italy, and fill out a primary document analysis form. Bring tomorrow and be ready to discuss.

Voicing the Past

Assignment for Thursday 8/23: As stated in class, pick 1 document from any of the primary source links (print it out), print a primary document analysis sheet, complete it and be ready to discuss tomorrow. The document must be post-1450. Also, from the AP Euro College Board guide (AP College Board link; the book is a pdf file) print the DBQ scoring rubric page and bring it to class.

Prayer in Schools

Writer and thinker W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), pictured here late in life in Accra, Ghana, wrote prayers for his students while teaching at Altanta University during the early years of the twentieth century. His spiritual meditations, I hope, will offer inspiration for the coming academic year.

The prayers below comes from a slender volume titled Prayers for Dark People, a collection of Du Bois's spiritual petitions published in 1980 and edited by scholar Herbert Aptheker.

"Let us remember, O God, that our religion in life is expressed in our work, and therefore in this school [Atlanta University] it is shown in the way we conquer our studies—not entirely in our marks but in the honesty of our endeavour, the thoroughness of our accomplishment and the singleness and purity of our purpose. In school life there is but one unforgivable sin and that is to know how to study and to be able to study, and then to waste and throw away God’s time and opportunity. From this blasphemy deliver us all, O God. Amen” (p. 33).

"God bless all schools and forward the great work of education for which we stand. Arouse within us and within our land a deep realization of the seriousness of our problem of training children. On them rests the future work and throught and sentiment and goodness of the world. If here and elsewhere we train the lazy and shallow, the self-indulgent and the frivolous--if we destroy reason and religion and do not rebuild, help us, O God, to realize how heavy is our responsibility and how great the cost. The school of today is the world of tomorrow and today and tomorrow are Thine, O God. Amen (I Samuel 16:6-12)" (p. 53).

Best wishes for a productive and successful semester and year!

[Photo from UMass-Amherst Digital Archive.]

Something Old, Something New: The Future of the Past, or the History of the Future?

An interesting NPR story discusses religious pluralism in India (discussion can link experiences to Europe's history here).

In other news, Philip Jenkins's new book God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2007) covers important ground and offers interesting and provocative claims. Read an exerpt here. Read a New York Sun review here, Christianity Today review here, Catholic On-line review here, a Publisher's Weekly summary here, and a First Things review here. (Please note other reviews I've missed in the Comments.)

God's Continent is the third installment in Jenkins's appraisal of contemporary religion in a global context, preceded by The Next Christendom (2003; rev. ed. 2007) and The New Faces of Christianity (2006).

All of this provides really interesting material for teaching European history (not to mention world history).

What Did You Say?: Voices of the Past

Prof. Paul Halsall provides this helpful essay on the importance of studying primary documents. Read it and get ready to discuss.