What did medieval people do for a living, and where did they do it? What did they eat and wear, in what sort of homes did they live? What sort of family lives did they have? How were their communities organized, and what was the place of those who didn’t fit within those communities: the criminals and rebels, the poor, the old, the sick, and the dead? The purpose of this course is to survey the ways in which historians have tried to address these kinds of questions, in brief, to understand: how did ordinary medieval people live?

Through this course, students will gain an introduction to some of the landmarks of scholarship and major debates in a number of fields of social and cultural history that fall within the broad umbrella of the history of everyday life. These include the history of the family, the history of sexuality, women’s history, popular religion, the history of the poor and marginalized, and the history of crime. No prior knowledge of any of these subjects is required.