German History, 1740-1870

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course begins with Prussia's initial challenge to Austria's dominance in central Europe; it ends with the unification of Germany under Bismarck's Prussia--and Austria's exclusion from it. In addition to covering the ongoing Austro-Prussian rivalry in Germany, we will cover political, cultural, social, and religious transformations of the period. Specific topics may include Enlightened Absolutism, the influence of the French Revolution in German-speaking lands, as well as the revolutions of 1848 and the struggle for German unification. We will also consider larger long-term processes such as the emergence of civil society, political ideologies such as liberalism, nationalism, and socialism, and German contributions to cultural and intellectual movements such as the Enlightenment and Romanticism. This course is the first half of a two-semester sequence in modern German history, although students may take either course independently of the other. The format of the course will include lectures and class discussions of primary documents and texts. Assessment will be based on class participation, short written assignments, and mid-term and final exams.