Spring 2005

HIS 309L • Western Civ in Mod Times-Pl II

Course Description

This course provides an overview of the period from 1492 to the present. What does it mean to be modern?How have conceptions of the Westtaken shape and changed? We will cover exploration and empire, conflict between the major religious traditions, the rise of the state and western political theory, the Enlightenment, the age of revolution, and World Wars I and II. Thematically, it concentrates on different theories of historical change, the relationship between discovery and self-discovery, "civilization" and its critics, and the place of violence politics, society, and warfare.

Texts

Tentative List: Judith Coffin, Robert Stacey, et. al. Western Civilizations vol. II (14th edition) John Stuart Mill, On the Subjection of Women Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Norton critical edition) Virgina Woolf, A Room of Ones Own Jan Gross, Neighbors Additional reading from Martin Luther, Filmer, Locke, and Hobbes; Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and others will be on the web and on reserve.

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