"A Reformation Debate: The Marburg Colloquy"

What is the issue being debated by Luther and Zwigli? What would have been the Catholic Church's position if Catholic representatives had been included in the debate? Based on this example, why do you think the Reformation debates led to further hostility rather than the compromise and unity between relitious and sectarian opponents? (page 359)

EXTRA CREDIT POST: “A Woman’s Defense of Learning”

How does Laura Cereta explain her intellectual interests and accomplishments? Why were Renaissance women rarely taken seriously in their quest for educational opportunities and recognition for their intellectual talents? Were any of those factors unique to the Renaissance era? Can Cereta be described as a “feminist”? Why or why not? (page 329)

Machiavelli: "Is It Betther to be Loved than Feared?"

What does Machiavelli have to say about being loved rather than feared? How do his theories in this regard make his politics modern and distinguish his advice from Greco-Roman notions of good rulership? Are Machiavelli’s comments in the excerpt at all relevant to today’s democratic politics? (page 325)

“A Feminist Heroine: Christine de Pizan or Joan of Arc”

Is Christine de Pizan’s poem about the triumphs of Joan of Arc a “feminist” literary work? Why or why not? (Define “feminist.”) What are the religious references and allusions in the poem? What are the references to the classical world? In subject matter, is there anything “modern” in the poem? Does the work better reflect the waning Middle Ages or the waxing Renaissance? How and why? (page 295)

Advice to Women: Be Independent

How do you explain the differences between this approach to the role of women and the one found in the selection by Elizabeth Sanford in the last chapter? What is the role, if any, of the artist in changing societal norms? What developments in the social, political, and cultural histories of Europe in the period between the two documents may explain the differences you detect within them? Would Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, have been controversial when first performed, and if so, why? (page 694)

“Darwin and the Descent of Man”

What is Darwin's basic argument in The Descent of Man? Why did so many object to it when first published in 1871? In your opinion, were those objections justified? Was Darwin a product of his own times? If so, how? In your opinion, what forces in nineteenth-century European society conjoined to stimulate Darwin's thinking and publication on this subject? (page 643)

Extra Credit Post: “Bismarck ‘Goads’ France into War”

What did Bismarck do the Ems telegraph? Were his editorial changes significant? If so, how? Why has it been almost universally claimed that Bismarck’s Ems dispatch changed the course of history? What does this affair tell us about Bismarck's motives and his concept of politics? (page 630)