HIST 226
Early Modern Europe Spring 2023
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

The three hundred years from the late Middle Ages to the French Revolution were Europe’s formative centuries: they saw the emergence of the Renaissance and the Reformation, the outbreak of the Wars of Religion, the colonization of the Americas and intensification of trade in Asia, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. Through these historical experiences, European culture developed an identity distinct from its Christian one, as well as peculiar political and economic forms that ended up shaping the modern world. This course will examine such topics as the revival of classical letters, the formation of the modern state, urban and courtly culture, and religion and unbelief. Although the “early modern” era is profoundly different from our own, it remains crucial to any interpretation of the world in which we live today. Readings will emphasize primary sources and include such authors as Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Aphra Behn, Voltaire, and Mary Wollstonecraft.