History: Modern Europe

Survey of European history, 1648-present.

Open to Degree and PACE students

This course is a survey of political, economic, social and cultural revolutions that have changed the course of European and Western civilization since the end of the Thirty Years' War. It will begin by addressing the age of absolutism, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution, followed by analysis of the revolutions and revolts of the 19th and 20th centuries as they shaped the political and social landscape of Europe. We will also investigate the transformations in industry, economics, and culture in this period, examining these developments as they influenced the lives of ordinary citizens. The course will then account for the destruction and oppression of the late 19th and 20th centuries, even as it addresses the democratization and prosperity of European societies in this era. We will therefore be studying the causes and effects of European imperialism, the two world wars, the Russian Revolution and Stalinism, fascism, the Holocaust, postwar capitalism and communism, and the revolutions of 1989. Concentration: Europe (HI02)