Major Requirement: History of Europe
This course acquaints students with the major political, social, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped the European continent as we know it today. While following a chronological perspective and highlighting a familiar set of events--such as the French and Industrial Revolutions, imperialism, communism and fascism, the two world wars, the Cold War, and the development of the European Union--we will focus on a series of themes. We concentrate on the making of the Nation, Class, Gender and Race in the long 19th century, and the often tragic fate of these modern inventions in the 20th century. We trace the sometimes violent, complex, and interesting circumstances of the peoples who constructed these modern Western notions. The successful completion of this course will substantially enrich not only your understanding of Europe in the world today, but some of the central categories and values that underpin how we have come to structure our society and define ourselves.