Sep 08, 2024  
2015-2016 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2015-2016 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

US 224 The World Made Modern


This is a multi-disciplinary approach to the cultural and intellectual history of the development of the modern world. We will begin from the point of view of Western European civilization, but in each unit we will look at the issue of its interactions with the rest of the world. We will draw on the following disciplines: art history, literature, political science, and the history of science. Our aim will be to study the development of the world we live in without assumptions of Western cultural superiority and with an appreciation of cultural difference as well. The key term will be “modernization”: what do we mean when we talk about living in a modern world, or when China undertakes a campaign for “the four modernizations”; how did the idea and practice of modernization develop?