**This class will be taught In-Person**
What happened in Early Modern Europe didn’t stay in Early Modern Europe.
This period, from the invention of the printing press to the French Revolution created much of our modern world. This includes the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, global exploration, the birth of capitalism, and the very idea of change that define much of how we see ourselves. First, we will ground our survey in the ideas of “early modern” and “Europe” and get the lay of the land in the 15C. Over the following four weeks, we will take thematic looks at the people, their ideas and beliefs, the development of capitalism across a newly integrated globe, and questions of politics and power. We will conclude with the so-called “age of reason” and the beginnings of industrialization.
Week by Week Outline
Week 1: Introduction: What is “early modern”? What is Europe? What did things look like five hundred years ago? How did they get to the starting gate of modernity?
Week 2: God: Who believed what and why?
Week 3: Nature: Was there a “scientific revolution?” How did it work? What did it accomplish?
Week 4: The World: How did Europe connect to the rest of the planet? How did it come to dominate so much of it?
Week 5: Society: How did people live, work, think, and relate to each other?
Week 6: States: How did governments get organized? How and why did they fight? How was democracy reborn?
