This course is an introduction to European history from 1789 to the present. The course considers how and why Europe -- a small, relatively poor, and politically fragmented place -- became the engine of globalization and an important civilization in its own right. Our approach is broadly cultural, using politics, economics, society, religion, and other arenas to understand the events and people of Modern Western Europe. Chief topics: French Revolution, liberalism and the industrial revolution, socialism and the rise of labor, modern colonialism, world wars, communism and capitalism, decolonization, Cold War, and the European Union.
