HIST 125/6.0: The Evolution of Modern Europe

This course is available to both Queen’s and non-Queen’s students. Non-Queen’s students (including interest students, visiting students, and new online degree students) must first apply for admission. The following is presented for informational purposes only and is subject to change.

Instructor

Leonid Trofimov Learn more about the instructor...
E-mail: trofimol@queensu.ca

Course Description

This online history course is a survey of Western and Central Europe and Great Britain from the 18th to the 20th century. The focus is on the revolutions which produced modern Europe, notably the political revolutions (1789 and 1848), industrialization, urbanization, population growth, secularization, the rise of new classes, and changes in ideologies and popular attitudes.

Course Introduction

The Evolution of Modern Europe is a course designed to introduce you to important aspects of European social, cultural, political, economic and intellectual history during the past several centuries. The twelve lessons are meant to guide you chronologically through this span of history, providing you with both a narrative and analytical exploration of modern Europe. Threading its way through the lessons will be the overarching theme of "modernness." This may seem obvious given the title of the course, but we wonder how many of you paused to reflect on what it means to refer to Europe as modern. Perhaps you sensibly assumed that it referred to the time period covered in the course, that it meant we'd be looking at recent European history rather than stuff from way back. But I hope that by the end of the course (by the end of Lesson 1, really), you'll be thinking about the modern age as more than just a time frame. I hope you'll be thinking about it as an experience, or rather a cluster of experiences, that you can relate to as part of your own history. After all, if you think about it, each of us is a "historical site," a place where history is made each day. And, for better or worse, modern European history has at least indirectly touched the lives of most people living today. Certainly those of us living in "Western civilization" have been profoundly shaped by what's happened in Europe since its tremendous devastation at the hands of the Black Death some six  centuries ago.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. To round out this introduction, I'll briefly comment on the aims of the course. Three broad aims apply to a course like this. First, you should gain some general knowledge of the period, along with some appreciation of the complex forces that have moulded modern Europe. The assigned readings will introduce you to varying and at times diverging interpretations of specific historical developments and questions. You don't have to treat these readings as final authorities. Think about them, question them, constructively criticize them - you're free to agree or disagree with the perspectives of the authors, and with the unifying theme of the course for that matter (though as the instructor, I also get to think about, question, and constructively criticize your views). As in any survey course, all that can be provided here is a place to begin thinking about the subject matter. But it's hoped that by the time you complete the course, you'll have gained a sense of some of the major themes, theoretical questions and conceptual debates that have occupied historians of Europe.

This raises the second aim of the course, which is to introduce you to a number of different kinds of historical problems. In your assignments and exam you'll have an opportunity to develop and demonstrate your skills as a historian, by identifying patterns which tie together and give meaning to masses of facts and by creating arguments about those patterns of meaning.

Finally, through your assignments and the feedback you receive on them, you should learn about historical method, the presentation of evidence, and the writing of historical papers. In short, it's hoped that this course will sharpen your ability to analyze past events, and will enable you to reconstruct the past imaginatively and critically. Good luck in your endeavours. I hope you find it a stimulating and worthwhile learning experience.

Course Topics

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More information:

• Computer Requirements and Internet Access
• Moodle, Our Online Learning Environment 
• Academic Integrity
• Evaluation
• Suggested Time Commitment
• Required Material