imagine a historical person living at a particular time and place in Europe during the early modern period. TWO PARTS

For both parts of your signature assignment, you will draw on the full range of primary and secondary sources we have examined in this course. You will draw on the work you did in analyzing large-scale historical structures and how these structures affected groups and individuals. You will also draw on the various assignments in which you used primary and secondary sources to craft arguments. Your signature assignment should reflect the entire body of knowledge of early modern European systems, values, and practices you have acquired during this course.

Formatting

Put the title of your signature assignment at the top and your name underneath the title. 

Use subheadings for the two parts of your signature assignment:

1. Secondary Source: Analytical Essay
2. Fictional Primary Source

Part 1: Secondary Source (3 pages,1000 WORDS)

In the first part of your signature assignment (3 pages), you will write a secondary source—an analytical essay from a historian’s perspective—in which you clearly identify the early modern place, time, and life span of your historical person and your person’s specific social, religious, political, economic, and health status in the early modern period. You will describe and analyze the historical events that your person lived through and the larger contexts that influenced their life.

• Your analytical essay needs to be written in past tense.
• Three pages are c. 1000 words (Times New Roman 12 pt, 1″ margins, double-spaced)
• Use clear and concise prose.
• Use quotes with extreme caution. This analytical essay should be entirely your own writing, with quotes only used for specific phrases that are necessary for clarity. 
•  In this class, please provide inline citations for all information that is not common knowledge. “Common Knowledge,” in this class refers to information commonly known by the general public.
  • Citations are required both for direct quotations and summarized information from any source.
  • For citing inline at the end of the sentence, use the following formula: (author last name(s): publication date, page number). 
• Carefully proofread your text.
  • Link to instructions for using Google Docs spelling and grammar tools

Grading

Your grade is based on successful completion of the guidelines listed above.

Part 2: Primary Source (3 pages,1000 WORDS)

In the second part of your signature assignment (3 pages), you engage in creative writing and produce a fictional primary source—a personal narrative in the form of a letter or a diary entry, for example, or, if your historical person could not write, an indirect record of their views and attitudes, e.g. a deposition, testimony, or confession recorded by a scribe. In this fictional primary source, your historical person describes their life and place in the early modern world from their own perspective. You will show how your historical person relates to other persons and groups in early modern European society, which challenges and successes your historical person experienced in their life, and how they would have solved problems that they encountered during their lifetime.

• Your fictional primary source should cover as many aspects of your historical person’s life and relationships as you can think of. Paint as full a picture of the circumstances of your historical person from their point of view as you can. Your three pages should be chock-full of the views and emotions of your historical person. Avoid filler language and repeating yourself.
• Your fictional primary source may be written in present or past tense, as appropriate.
• Three pages are c. 1000 words (Times New Roman 12 pt, 1″ margins, double-spaced)
• It needs to be entirely your own ideas and writing.
• Citations are not required in your fictional primary source, but you must make sure that you do not commit accidental plagiarism, including by using ideas or language from readings or discussion boards in this class.

THE IMAGINED CHARACTER IS TO BE NAMED LOUIS LAMBERT. HE AND HIS WIFE, ROSE ARE USED CLOTH DEALERS IN EARLY MODERN PARIS, AND THEY HAVE GOTTEN ATTACKED BY AN ARMED ANTI-SEMETIC MOB. FOR THE SECONDAR SOURCE PORTION, DISCUSS THEIR LIVES AND IDEALS UP UNTIL THE ATTACK. EXPLAIN HOW THEY ENDED UP IN THEIR POSITION, USUSING HISTORICAL ACCURACY. ALSO DISCUSS THE ATTACK. VISIT THE SOURCE TITLED 

Antisemitism in a City Without Jews: Crime, Print and a Used-Clothes Dealer in Early Modern Paris By Melish, Jacob for inspiration, DO NOT COPY THE STORY ENTIRELY. YOU MAY ALSO USE OUTSIDE SOURCES. Discuss VEIWS ON JEWS IN EARLY MODERN PARIS, DESPITE THERE BEING A VERY SMALL JEWISH POPULATION. AKNOWLAGE THAT THERE WERE SEVERAL PROFESSIONS THAT WERE ASSOCIATED WITH JUDAISM, INCLUDING USED GOODS DEALERS. BE SURE TO HIGHLIGHT THE FACT THAT LOUIS AND ROSE ARE ACTUALLY CATHOLIC, BUT ARE DICRIMMINATED AGAINST DUE TO THEIR LYFESTYLE AND PROFESSION. Rose and Louis are to be close to the couple described by Melish, and then you could talk about the ways that they attempted to protect themselves by integrating more into their communities, their parish church, and/or the larger used-clothes guild. You could then make your primary source related to some of these actions.