profile photo of Paul Monod
Office
Axinn Center 330
Tel
(802) 443-5041
Email
monod@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
AY 2023-2024: On Leave

Paul Monod has taught at Middlebury College since 1984.  He grew up in Montreal and was educated at Princeton and Yale Universities.  He has offered courses in British History from 1485 to the present, European History from 1500 to 1800 and the History of the Atlantic World.  In addition, he has advised more than 100 senior theses on various topics.  His own area of specialization is 17th -18th century Britain, and he is now working on a study of the occult (alchemy, astrology, ritual magic) in the British Enlightenment.  He has been the recipient of fellowships from the NEH, the Huntington Library, the Getty Research Institute and the Leverhulme Trust.

Courses Taught

Course Description

Love and Death in Western Europe, 1300-1900
History is not just names and dates; it also encompasses how ordinary people lived and felt. Emotions have a history because they have changed over time. This seminar deals with aspects of the history of desire and fear in Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the industrial era. Topics will include sex, marriage, child-rearing, disease, suicide, and the belief in immortality. In addition to works of historical analysis, we will read literary and theoretical sources, including Dante, Goethe, and Freud. Our aim is to understand how common emotions have been altered by social and cultural circumstances. 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021

Requirements

CW, EUR, HIS, SOC

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Course Description

Society and Culture in Early Modern Europe
War, famine, and disease marked the terrible "iron century" of European history, from 1550 to 1660. Out of this frightful crucible, modern society was created. We will trace this troubled genesis from the aftershocks of the Reformation to the first rumblings of the French Revolution, stressing the conflicts that gave rise to the modern world: monarchy vs. "liberty," religion vs. "enlightenment," elite vs. popular culture. Topics such as the family, witchcraft, warfare, and fashion will be given special attention. Pre-1800 3 hr lect/disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Spring 2022

Requirements

EUR, HIS, SOC

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Course Description

British History: 1603-1815
The medieval pattern of English and Scottish society began to implode in the seventeenth century. The unity of the Church, the relationship between Crown and Parliament, even the social hierarchy, were shaken to their foundations. After generations of civil war, revolution, and party strife, the eighteenth century saw the establishment of a flexible, oligarchic order, able to fight off the challenges of radicalism and the American and French revolutions. By 1815 Britain, at the peak of its power in Europe, was already beginning to experience the tensions incumbent on becoming the first industrial nation. Pre-1800 2 hrs. lect., 1 hr. disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021, Fall 2022

Requirements

EUR, HIS

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Course Description

British History 1815-Present
The spectacular rise and dramatic decline of Britain’s imperial and industrial power is the central theme of this course. The century after 1815 brought political and social reform and the apogee of middle class culture, but in 1914 the crucial problems of women's rights, labor against capital, and Irish nationalism remained unsolved. War, economic depression and the loss of empire followed. The Labour Party envisaged a welfare state and social contract for post-war Britain; the conservative response was free-market Thatcherism. Today, Britain continues to exemplify the promise and perils of what can be called modernity. 3 hrs. lect/disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2023

Requirements

EUR, HIS

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Course Description

Race in the British Empire, 1580-1960
Race was a significant factor in the formation of Britain’s global empire. Within the British Isles, the Irish and Highland Scots were racialized as “Celts.” In the Americas, race shaped relations with indigenous peoples and defined systems of Black enslavement. Later, it informed British expansionism in South Asia, the Pacific and Africa, as well as eugenics policies and responses to independence movements. This course examines shifting interpretations of racial categories within Britain itself and the British empire overseas, from the Tudor period down to the beginning of large-scale immigration into Britain from South Asia and the Caribbean. 3 hr. sem.

Terms Taught

Spring 2023

Requirements

CMP, HIS, SOC

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Course Description

Special research projects may only be taken during the Junior or Senior year, preferable after taking HIST 0600. Approval of department chair and project advisor is required.

Terms Taught

Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023

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Course Description

Writing History
In this course students discuss historical methods and writing strategies to create convincing historical narratives. With the approval and guidance of the professor, students complete a 20-25-page research paper based on primary and secondary sources. Students take this course in the fall of their junior year or with permission in the spring. If students are away for the entire junior year, they can take the course in the fall of their senior year. 3 hr. sem.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Fall 2022

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study I
The optional History Senior Thesis is written over two terms, with the final grade applying to both terms. Approval is required. Students submit thesis proposals in the spring before the year that they choose to write their thesis. Students generally begin their thesis in the fall and complete it during winter or spring. Approval is required to begin the thesis in winter or spring. All students must attend the Thesis Writer's Workshops in fall and winter semesters and work with a faculty advisor to complete a 55-70 page paper. Please see detailed guidelines under history requirements.

Terms Taught

Fall 2019, Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study II
With departmental approval, senior history majors may write a two-term thesis under an advisor in the area of their choosing. The final grade is applied to both terms. Students must submit thesis proposals in the spring before the academic year that they choose to write their thesis. They must attend the Thesis Writers' Workshops held in the fall and winter of the academic year in which they begin the thesis. The department encourages students to write theses during the fall (0700) and winter terms (0701), but with the permission of the chair, fall/spring and winter/spring theses are also acceptable. Under exceptional circumstances, the department may approve a thesis initiated in the spring of an academic year and finished in the fall of the following year. Further information about the thesis is available from the department.

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023

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Course Description

Magic and the Occult in Early Modern Europe
Magical and occult thinking have played central roles in Western European culture, a point often overlooked or downplayed by historians who have concentrated on the development of rational thought and the decline of “superstition.” Belief in the ability of human beings to interpret or manipulate supernatural powers shaped popular practices aimed at dealing with everyday problems as well as intellectual theories designed to explain the world. We will examine both the popular and intellectual sides of magic, and how they came together with brutal force in the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries. Pre-1800 (Counts for HSMT credit)

Terms Taught

Winter 2022

Requirements

EUR, HIS, WTR

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Publications

Books:

Solomon’s Secret Arts: The Occult in the Age of Enlightenment (Yale U.P., 2013)

(edited, with Murray Pittock and Daniel Szechi), Loyalty and Identity: Jacobites at Home and Abroad (Palgrave, 2009).

Imperial Island: A History of Britain and Its Empire (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).

The Murder of Mr. Grebell: Madness and Civility in an English Town (Yale U.P., 2003).

The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 1588-1715 (Yale U.P., 1999).

Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788 (Cambridge U.P., 1989).