Course Overview

In this course we will investigate examine the events and issues in European civilization from the middle of the 17th century to the fall of Communism.   However, unlike other history courses you may have taken, this course does not survey these events in a linear progression.  Instead, we will be taking a thematic approach that focuses on a number of the most important developments during the four centuries that we will cover.

The first two weeks of the semester focus on how historians think, analyze and write about the past and will prepare you for what will be coming in the rest of the semester.  After that, we will devote two weeks each to six different topics.  Each two week segment includes a mixture of lecture, discussion, and analysis of primary sources and what historians have written about those sources.  As you will see, we will attack those topics in an interesting and, I hope, enjoyable way.

By the end of the semester you will know a lot more than you do now about each of these six larger topics and you will be able to apply that knowledge to not only the events of modern European history, but also to many other areas of scholarly investigation.  I am sorry to say that you will not have an encyclopedic knowledge of the names, dates, battles, treaties, kings, queens, artists and philosophers in modern European history.  If memorization of these pieces of information is what you crave, you'll be better off in another section of this course.