Brief description
To provide a broad 'survey' of Early Modern European history from the Renaissance to the eve of the Industrial Revolution, examined through landmark 'events' and selected biographical case studies. The course will ask why, and how plausibly, developments such as the Renaissance and Reformation, the 'Discovery' of the New World by Europeans, the 'Rise of Capitalism', the 'Scientific Revolution' and the 'Decline of Magic' have been viewed as shaping a distinctively 'modern' world. The questions asked in the course are fundamental for newcomers to the period, but the case studies to be examined are also intended to complement and refine, rather than to duplicate, the treatment of Early Modern history in courses offered at Level One and elsewhere at Level 3.