In this course we will trace the tumultuous history of Europe over the last two and a half centuries, with a primary focus on France, Germany, and Great Britain. Our major theme will be the intense ideological battles that wracked the continent after the French and Industrial Revolutions. We will see how monarchism was pitted against liberalism, how nationalism and imperialism struggled for dominance in the 19th Century, and how European nations confronted the dual threats of Communism and Fascism. We will examine the ideological and economic necessities that drove European Imperial Expansion, and assess its legacy in the creation of a multicultural Europe and the reactions to that increased diversity. Not just a history of the ideas, we will place great emphasis on the social, political, and economic conditions that underwrote the rise of political systems: the emergence of class-based politics, and the changing understandings of gender and race.
- Teacher: Edward Baring