17th Century

15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, Collection Essays

Daily Life in Early Modern France

How did handwritten documents shape life in the early modern period? What can these documents tell us about the experiences of early modern people?

Blake Smith with Caroline Prud'Homme
August 28, 2015

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

The French Colonial Empire, 1500-1800

Map of a small island mostly filled with fortified structures. Above and below the island are keys in French describing its features.

Why did France’s empire expand to so many parts of the world in the early modern period? How did its expansion shape the history of the United States, Canada, Haiti, and other modern-day countries?

Blake Smith
September 14, 2014

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

The World of Don Quixote

How did Cervantes’ Don Quixote respond to the social conditions and literary traditions of early modern Spain?

Hana Layson and Glen Carman
October 23, 2013

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Mapping Chicago and the Midwest, 1688–1906

How do maps tell the early history of Chicago and the Midwest? How have maps been used by different empires and nations to secure control of the region?

Hana Layson and Diane Dillon
October 22, 2013

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

Maps and the Beginnings of Colonial North America

What can maps tell us about how people from different times, places, and cultures make sense of their world? How did maps and mapmaking influence the development of colonial North America?

Neal Dugre
September 1, 2013

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare’s Romans: Politics and Ethics in Julius Caesar and Coriolanus

What is the context for Shakespeare’s Roman plays? What were his sources? Why did classical Rome capture the interest of people in Renaissance England?

Hana Layson with Amelia Zurcher
October 17, 2012

17th Century, Collection Essays

Marriage and Family in Shakespeare’s England

How did Renaissance writers define the family? What were the obligations of family members to one another? What threats to the family did writers perceive?

Hana Layson with Susan Phillips
July 16, 2012

13th Century, 17th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

The Crusades: Motivations, Administration, and Cultural Influence

Reproduction of a colored medieval manuscript illustration showing three white European knights in armor on horses talking to three bearded, darker-skinned men on foot. The darker-skinned men are barefoot and wear long tunics.

What were Western Christian religious beliefs, political relationships, and personal values during the Middle Ages? How did the motives, organization, and effects of the Crusades change over time? How have writers from the eleventh century on criticized the Crusaders’ goals and actions?

Rachel Rooney with Andrew Miller
June 25, 2012

17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko: Slavery and Race in the Atlantic World

How does Behn’s novel Oroonoko compare to other representations of race, slavery, and colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

Hana Layson with Amelia Zurcher
May 14, 2012

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Utopias of the European Renaissance

What is the historical and literary context for Shakespeare’s representation of Prospero’s island and its inhabitants? How did Renaissance writers and artists portray the European exploration of the Americas? How did that exploration inspire their visions of an ideal society?

Hana Layson with Kasey Evans
May 14, 2012