History 201-206 seminars are open to history majors only during pre-registration. If the course does not reach its enrollment maximum, it will be open to all students beginning with drop/add on a first-come first-serve basis.
HIST 201 Crime & Punishment
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Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
CGS Course | SEM | PRE-1800
In recent years, images of torture and public punishment have filled our airwaves, with many commentators comparing modern acts to bygone "medieval barbarities." How did torture function in the judicial system of medieval and early modern Europe? What symbolic, religious, and social importance did public punishment have for pre-modern Europeans? This course moves beyond current polemics surrounding "cruel and unusual punishment" to analyze the development of Western attitudes towards crime and punishment from the High Middle Ages through the Age of Enlightenment. We will focus on the evolution of different law traditions and the growth of inquisitorial procedures throughout Europe, and will examine in detail the role of torture, punishment, and execution in pre-modern western society. We will end by analyzing the shift to punishment by prison brought on by the Enlightenment and by studying Philadelphia's own relic of the criminal justice past, Eastern State Penitentiary.
