After completing this course students are able to:

This course gives a chronological overview of European history in the early modern period, while also covering the borderlines with medieval, modern, and world history. Our perspective will include economic, political, and cultural aspects of different periods in the early modern age. The course develops a critical perspective towards widely disseminated notions about modernization, that described medieval and early modern society only as ‘stages’ in the development to modernity. Therefore, the course focuses on periods of a shorter time span within the early modern period, uncovering their idiosyncrasies as well as the interaction between different spheres: economy, political structures, mentality, etc. Generally speaking, specific themes are selected to enable the students to develop insight into the characteristics of these periods. From this starting point, finally, the subject of long term developments and trends are addressed. The subtle balance between the need to see similarities, structures and developments, and the necessity to discover ‘the past as another country’ forms the nexus of the course.

Format
The course begins with a short introductory lecture highlighting central themes, ideally using visual material, music, etc. Having already studied the texts, students can now use these lectures to ask any questions they may have. The core element follows in the longer sessions where students have the main responsibility. They give short oral presentations and chair the resulting discussions. Historical sources are used for classroom close-reading and students exchange their interpretations of the texts; questions from the course manual can also be debated. Of course, the teacher participates and guides the discussion, but an ideal session should at least contain sections that are largely filled by student initiative.