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HIST 4B - MEDIEV ERLY MOD EUR - Fall 2025

Discussion Post 1: Getting Started with Medieval Society

Welcome to the first section activity for Hist 4B! These activities are meant to help you learn skills essential for historical reading, analysis, thinking, and writing. They will help you build toward the larger assignments in this course and give you a platform to develop your own interpretations of what is revealing, interesting, or frustrating about the periods and place we are studying: medieval and early modern Europe.

For this first discussion post, please wait until after your section meets to complete it, because you will discussing this activity in section. Also, as with all assignments in Hist 4B, you may only use materials specifically supplied for this course. Do not use information off the wider internet or anywhere else!

In this first assignment, we will be focusing on reading one text carefully and taking note of the parts of it that help us understand who wrote it; what kind of document it is; what ideas the text is trying to convey; and what those ideas tell us about medieval Europe. As you read and think about your text, it is also great to have questions. What strikes you as odd about what you have read?

Anote on quotations: Quotations are short portions of a text that we take from that text word-for-word. Quotations always go in "quotation marks," with the punctuation inside the "quotation marks.” We always provide a source for quotations, meaning where did you get it? For this course, internal quotations are sufficient. They should be in the form: (Name of Author, page number of text); or, if there is no author (Short title of text, page number). For web sources, there might not be a page number. In that case, if there is a paragraph number, use that, or if there is no way to mark the exact place in the text, just use the URL.

Steps: (A) Choose one of the documents assigned for Week 1 of this course (readings 1.1-1.5); (B) Read it carefully (don't skim!); (C) Respond to the following prompts:

Who? It is always important to think about the person who wrote a document. Is it possible to know who that specific person was, or can we only know what their general position and/or interests were? For your document, choose one quotation that helps you answer this question about authorship and then summarize what it tells you.

Quotation:

Summary:

What kind? Documents are created for all kinds of purposes, sometimes to express ideas and make arguments, sometimes as records of events or transactions (for example). What is the general purpose of your document? Choose one quotation that helps you answer this question and then summarize what it tells you.

Quotation:

Summary:

What argument/claim? Texts or other media always have some kind of point of view, argument, or claim they are trying to convey. Some of these points are explicit, while others are more subtle or implicit. Choose one quotation that expresses the point of view or argument of your document and then summarize what it tells you.

Quotation:

Summary:

Adding it up: Reading and analyzing documents in history helps us to understand what was different and unique about past times and places. This helps us gain perspective on how human experience has changed over time, including what is different and unique about our own present-day experience. So, reflect on what you have already noticed about your document and answer one (or both, if you like) of the following questions:

Based on your document, what stands out to you as being different, unique, or interesting about the ways that people thought or behaved in medieval Europe?

Based on your document, what questions do you have about it or about the ways that people thought or behaved in medieval Europe?