Six Things We Should Talk About More When We Teach European History

  1. The Early Middle Ages

Formerly the “Dark Ages,” these centuries have now been reinterpreted as a period of great political and cultural creativity, a pivotal era in the emergence of a European society based on monarchy and Christianity.   Highlighting this period, and tracing the expansion of Europe that began in the Early Middle Ages through the High Middle Ages and the early modern period, clarifies the emergence of Europe as a cultural zone. Chris Wickham’s The Inheritance of Roman: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000 (2009) is a wonderful resource.

2. Islam in Europe, Islam and Europe

Periods of Islamic rule shaped Iberia, Hungary, and southeastern Europe.  Fighting against Muslims shaped the outlook of many other Europeans, including Russians, Austrians, Venetians, and French.  For centuries, Muslims were Europeans’ predominant picture of an other; Hernan Cortès, confronting Aztec temples, described them as “mosques.”  At the same time, items as varied as ‘Arabic’ numerals (based on South Asian figures), astronomical and surgical equipment, preserved texts from classical Greece, musical instruments (the forerunners of the violin and guitar), spinach, and eggplant arrived in medieval and early modern Europe from the Islamic world.  Islamic science and Islamic art both left an indelible imprint.  There’s lots to unpack here.

3. Jewish History other than the Holocaust

This could include great scholars such as Rashi, intellectual and religious movements such as Hasidism and the Haskalah, and ordinary, everyday life in historical settings in which Jews lived beside Christians or Muslims.  There are two dangers to guard against: first, that Jewish history gets presented only in catastrophic contexts (pogroms, antisemitism, the Holocaust); second, that Jewish culture gets presented as timeless and static.  We need more quick mentions of Jewish topics in ways that evoke the variety of Jewish life in Europe.

4. Human Rights and Religious Toleration

Lynn Hunt’s Inventing Human Rights: A History (2008) is a wonderful book to teach: not easy, but thought-provoking, vivid, and engaging.  It pairs well with a variety of primary sources (and there’s also a related Bedford book).  Stepping back in time, I’ve wrestled with how to make the Protestant Reformation seem relevant to twenty-first-century teenagers, and foregrounding themes of religious diversity and religious toleration seems to help.  Stepping forward, the 1940s is an excellent moment at which to revisit themes of toleration and human rights.  Keith Lowe’s Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II (2012) is a splendid resource.

5. Poverty

Students picture Europe as rich, and also as a very comfortable place to live.  I think this makes it hard for them to the urgency of early modern Europe’s quest for trade opportunities and natural resources, the lure of industrialization, and the intensity of conflict between labor and capital in 19th and 20thcentury Europe.  Jan de Vries, The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present (2008) makes a good lesson in the sort of economic choices that early modern Europeans faced.  Shifting to a later period, works such as Charles Booth’s Life and Labour of the People in London (1902) and Maud Pember Reeves’ Round about a Pound a Week (1913) address the plight of the working poor or one-step-above-poor at the beginning of the 20th century.  Elizabeth Roberts, A Woman’s Place: An Oral History of Working-Class Women 1890-1940 (1984) and its sequel, which carried the project up to 1970, contain rich passages of personal testimony. 

6. The Social Welfare State

When I ask students what they admire about Europe today, quality of life and the social safety net are high on the list.  I think this topic needs to figure prominently in history courses: we might consider the European social welfare state as a national strategy for overcoming class conflict, warding off communism, developing the economy, and forging strong nation-states.  Ideally, one would consider the political history of how European social welfare states came into being and contrast different models (e.g. Nordic vs. continental vs. British vs. Soviet-influenced).