Modern Economic and Social History
Code
711051158
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
História
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Jorge Miguel Pedreira
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
The fundamental learning outcome of the course is that students acquire a basic knowledge of the structures and the main
lines of development of societies and economies, since the demographic and economic recovery of the fifteenth century
until the late eighteenth century. This knowledge should enable students to identify the otherness of ancient societies in
relation to contemporary societies, but at the same time find lines of development that extend to the present day. Adopting
a European perspective, the course intends to make students understand how the economic superiority of the West arose
and identify its temporality. As to the competencies students are supposed to obtain, they should be able to work with
some analytical concepts and to read and interpret some instruments such as historic documents, tables and graph, so that
they may also understand how historical research proceeds
Prerequisites
None
Subject matter
I: the great crisis of the late Middle Ages and the recovery of the 15th and 16th centuries.The demographic and agricultural
renewal.Urban and commercial recovery.Europe and the world: he European expansion. European economy in the world
economy in the 15th and 16th centuries.State-building and public finance.
II: Structures of the old society.Rural economy and society.Demographic regime.Farmer, peasants and their
communities.Lords and peasants.A society of privilege and the bodies of society.Images of society and profiles of
stratification.Nobility and the bourgeoisie.Church and the clergy.Urban classes.Poor and bandits
III: Growth and crisis(1620-1740). Crisis of the seventeenth century.The development of mercantilism.Power and the
economy.Old and new maritime powers. Slave trade.
IV: Economic development and social change (1740 to 1790). The financial revolution of the eighteenth century. Population
and agriculture: change and continuity. Industry before industrialization
Bibliography
BRAUDEL, Fernand, Civilização material, economia e capitalismo, séculos XV a XVIII, 3 vols., Teorema, Lisboa, 1992
BUSH, M. L. (ed.), Social Orders and Social Classes in Europe since 1500: studies in social stratification, Longman,
Londres, 1992
DE VRIES (Jan), A Economia da Europa numa Época de Crise (1600-1750), Lisboa: Publicações D. Quixote, 1991
DEYON, Pierre, O Mercantilismo, Gradiva, 2.ª ed., Lisboa, 1989
DOYLE, William, Origins of the French Revolution, 2.ª ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford e Nova Iorque, 1988
ELIAS, Norbert, O Processo Civilizacional, vol. 2, Publicações D. Quixote, Lisboa, 1990
GOLDSTONE, Jack, História Global das Ascensão do Ocidente, 1500-1850, Lisboa: Edições 70, 2011
HOBSBAWM, Eric, A Era das Revoluções, 1789-1848, Presença, Lisboa, 1978
LÉON, Pierre (dir.) História Económica e Social do Mundo, vol. I-III (6 tomos), trad. do francês, Sá da Costa, Lisboa, 1984
Teaching method
Lessons are intended to be animated by the participation of students. One way to organize their participation is the
selection and presentation by students, in dialogue with the instructor, of selected texts to be discussed during classes.
This model may only be followed at an advanced stage of the school year, so that students are familiar with the themes and
bibliography. A theoretical and practical approach will be used in classes, exploring whenever possible text discussions or
the analysis of documents (selected of collections and repositories) tables and graphs.
Evaluation method
Every four
classes there will be a practical session for performing an exercise (individually or in groups depending on the size of the
class) that can have one of the following formats