Dr. Gerber's research is focused on the role of law in the social and political development of early modern Europe (1500-1789). His first book,'Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France' (Oxford University Press, 2012), explores the changing legal condition and practical treatment of children born out of wedlock in France between 1555 and 1789. His second book project investigates the formation of early modern French colonial law and its tendency to disrupt metropolitan legal systems in the second half of the eighteenth century. He is also researching the political uses of terror and the delegitimization of particular forms of violence in the early modern era.
Traces the history of Europe from the end of the Hundred Years War through the Thirty Years War. During this period Europe experienced tremendous changes including emerging religious heresies, the advent of the Spanish Inquisition, violent civil wars, the witch craze, and the Thirty Years War, a precursor to the World Wars of the 20th century. Recommended prerequisite: HIST 1011 or HIST 1113.
Studies the development of the European states in response to international power struggles in the 17th and 18th centuries (up to the French Revolution). Same as HIST 5222.
Traces the origins, course, and consequences of the most important modern revolution, the French Revolution of 1789. While seeking to explain how a liberal movement for progressive change soon degenerated into the factional bloodbath of the Terror, will also examine the revolution's global impact and how three decades or revolutionary warfare lead to the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Same as HIST 5223.