Second Writing Assignment for EUH 2021—Early Modern Europe

Dr. Jeremy Rowan

Students must write a research paper--using both primary and secondary sources--that
answers the following:

In the 1950’s two famous British historians, Eric Hobsbawm and Hugh Trevor
Roper, characterized mid-17th century Europe as a time of “general crisis.” They
cited as evidence of this crisis the Fronde in France, the Civil War and Glorious
Revolution in England, and the Thirty Years’ War in Germany. Yet, Hobsbawm
and Trevor Roper interpreted the underlying causes of this “general crisis” very
differently. As a Marxist historian, Hobsbawm argued that economic and social
forces created the mid-17th century upheaval, while Trevor Roper emphasized
religious and political conflict as the root cause. Trevor Roper especially focused
on the tensions created by the growing power of the monarchy (what he called the
Court Party) at the expense of the nobility and landed orders in the provinces
(Country Party). The question for this assignment is: which side do you think is
most persuasive? Although both points of view have historical validity, your
mission (if you choose to accept it) is to argue for and defend either the
Hobsbawm or the Trevor Roper thesis.

• The Rough Draft of the writing assignment is due on Friday, April 9th.
Please bring a hard copy for the peer review session. The Final Draft is due on
Monday, April 12 and must be uploaded to Turnitin.com by midnight on that
date. Late papers will be penalized by one grade per class session.

• This paper is worth 20% of the course grade.

• The length of the paper should be 5-6 pages (approximately 1800 words) not
including citations.

• The paper must be typed in 12-font Times New Roman and double-spaced.

• You must provide at least 5 outside sources (besides Levack and Kishlansky).
Do not use an Encyclopedia, including Wikipedia, as an academic source.
Encyclopedias are reference works and not research!

• All sources must be correctly cited using the Chicago Manual of Style. You must
use footnotes or endnotes and have a Bibliography page. A useful source for
citations can be found at Dianahacker.com.