Global Age of Revolutions

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This graduate reading seminar examines the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century "Age of Revolutions" in global context. Since at least the time of R. R. Palmer's Age of Democratic Revolutions, historians have debated the correlations and causation between these various, tumultuous events. Arguably, revolutionaries themselves recognized both theoretical and practical connections between the revolutions of their era. We will engage with these discussions, following a series of revolts and rebellions in sequential (though sometimes overlapping) order from the American War of Independence until the American Civil War. Not only is the content of this course global in expanse, but we will also investigate the idea of the “global turn” in history and its applicability to the history of revolutions.