Power, Knowledge, and Europe's (Trans-)Formation, 1453-1759

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, several simultaneous transformations took Western Europe from the peripheries to the center of the global stage. Political units grew more centralized and administratively organized, allowing all levels of society to be more highly regulated and forming the structures of the modern state. Thanks to exploration, trade, conquest, and enslavement, these same states enjoyed a massive influx of material goods and information from all parts of the globe. Increasing knowledge of the world beyond Europe fused with the ongoing information revolution of the printing press. The accelerating speed at which knowledge could be produced and transmitted, however, contributed to the fragmentation of earlier systems of thought: new media proved vital to the spread of Renaissance humanism and Reformation theology. The new worlds of knowledge that developed were deeply shaped by—and often oriented towards—the growing power of Western states. A couple centuries downstream from these transformations, this course will survey the distinct but intertwined histories of power and knowledge in early modern Europe, with special attention to issues of politics, intellectual life, and media.