HI 1150 - Modern European History

3.00 credits.

Western Cultures Core Course. The course is an examination of the major developments that have taken place in European History since 1500. The course will not survey all of the developments over 500 years, but choose those that seem significant in their impact on subsequent developments. Consequently, we will focus on understanding how modern, western attitudes toward religion and politics emerged in response to more traditional attitudes toward religion and politics. We will focus on how industrialization transformed modern society for better and for worse. We will, lastly, focus on the challenge that extremist politics posed to democracies in Europe after World War I and consider what lessons this troubled history can teaches us about how to preserve democracy in a time of crisis.