HIS 214 Age of Europe 1550-1871

A survey of the growth and expansion of modern European civilization as it emerged from the Reformation and era of religious wars, through the Enlightenment, the French and Industrial Revolutions, to the time of imperial expansion with the unification of Germany. The course traces changes in people’s lives from the still very traditional societies of the sixteenth century to the individualistic and technological culture emerging in the nineteenth century. It examines the tensions and contradictions within “western values,” particularly in such issues as the individual and the community, the sacred and the mundane, and the problems of “progress.” 3 hour(s). HUM.