Europe in the Medieval and Early Modern World (201-1-20)

Instructors

Lydia Barnett
847/491-7421
Harris Hall - Room 305

Meeting Info

Swift Hall 107: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

This course surveys the history of Europe from the High Middle Ages through the early modern period to the Age of Atlantic Revolutions. These centuries changed the course of European and world history. The Renaissance, the Reformations, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment unfolded at the same time as European empires spread first into the Mediterranean and then across the Atlantic, spurring the growth of global capitalism and the transatlantic slave trade. Political and religious freedoms emerged alongside new forms of persecution, control, and oppression. A divided Europe grew increasingly connected to the rest of the world as commercial goods, people, ideas, and diseases traveled across land and sea. Among the major themes we'll explore are a) how individuals who lived through these tumultuous centuries experienced their changing world and b) how changes in health, disease, and environment - including the Black Death, the Columbian Exchange, and the climactic cooling period known as the Little Ice Age - drove the religious, political, social, and economic upheavals of the late medieval and early modern periods.

Evaluation Method

Participation, Exams, Short Writing Assignments

Class Notes

History Area of Concentration: European

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Distro Area

Associated Classes

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-325: Fri 10:00AM - 10:50AM

DIS - University Hall 118: Fri 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - University Hall 312: Fri 1:00PM - 1:50PM

DIS - University Hall 318: Fri 10:00AM - 10:50AM

DIS - University Hall 112: Fri 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - Harris Hall L06: Fri 1:00PM - 1:50PM