Overview of Course

This course examines modernity and the making of our modern world with six themes:

- The Making of Modern Minds (1400-1775) examines shifts in sources of global authority like religion, science, and new sources of knowledge beginning with the trading worlds of China, the Indian Ocean, Dar-al-Islam, Africa, and Europe.

- The Making of Modern Power (1600-1850) addresses Euro-Atlantic dominance, imperialism, and a world-system that both linked and dominated economies, biology, political systems, ideas, cultures, and humans.

- The Making of Modern Wealth (1600-1850) uncovers new sources of energy and power, new forms of global economic systems, and the role of industrialization and capitalism in the making of the ‘Third World’.

- The Making of Modern Government (1750-1850) examines the construction and transmission of liberal democracy, its challenges and alternatives.

- The Making of Modern War (1900-1991) considers the role of nationalisms and fundamentalisms in world wars and the establishment of a post-colonial order. Decolonization – Gandhi vs. Fanon.

- The Making of Modern People (1920-present) considers categories of self-understanding including race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship; migrations/immigrations

- How Modern Are We? (1991-present) concludes with an examination of ‘modernity’ in light of globalization and climate change.