hist121 forum 4

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Humanities

Department standards require that your initial post be at least 250 words long each week. You must respond to at least three of your classmates’ initial posts (threads under your own post are not eligible for credit). Each of your peer responses must be at least 125 words long. Short posts will not be eligible for full credit. Your initial posts are due by 11:55 pm ET on Thursday night. Your peer responses are due by 11:55 pm ET on Sunday night. Late work will be graded in accordance with department policy, as follows:

  • Work posted or submitted after the assignment due date will be reduced by 10% of the potential total score possible for each day late up to a total of five days, including forum posts/replies, quizzes, and assignments. Beginning on the sixth day late through the end of the course, late work, including forum posts/replies, quizzes, and assignments, will be accepted with a grade reduction of 50% of the potential total score earned.

Please choose one of the following questions to answer in your initial post. When responding to your classmates, you must respond to at least one person who chose a different question than you did. If all of your posts address the same question, you will not receive credit for one of your peer responses.

1. The textbook explains that our initial perceptions of the medieval age is likely inaccurate. It states that we often consider this period as “backward, vicious, or stupid” (109). This era is also known as the Dark Ages, though this term has almost entirely disappeared among reputable historians. To what extent was the time between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance actually backward or dark? How “bright”–or not–were the Middle Ages?

2. On Christmas Day, 800 CE, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, a title that seems to imply a great deal. In what ways was Charlemagne himself “holy” or “Roman?” Does he fit either description? Why or why not?

3. The term “feudalism” can be defined in numerous ways, prompting some historians, including the author of the textbook, to determine that it is no longer a useful historical construct. Despite the controversy surrounding the term, it was used multiple times in our own textbook and continues to factor prominently in Western Civilization lectures. How useful or appropriate do you think the term “feudal” is to discussions of the social and political organization of the Middle Ages? Why?