Modernity

This module will help students gain an overall view of Modern History from 1500 to 1900. A thorough analysis of these centuries will allow them to formulate their own narratives about the creation of the modern world, to re-assess and deconstruct high-school level narratives of industrialisation and colonisation. They will be introduced to the multiple perspectives from which a historian can approach a topic – such as social, political, or economic history, and the history of ideas. To achieve a more complex view of the era, students will study the basics of global history and comparative history as well. The course will not follow a linear narrative, but will be organised topically around issues such as industrialisation, urbanisation, colonisation, nation states, and universal suffrage. This course will be useful to students pursuing a career in the humanities or social sciences, as well as any student who wishes to see their how their studies fit into a larger historical context, and who would like to see how Europe’s present-day global position came to be what it is.