Making of the Modern World

1 Course Unit

This course examines the political, economic, social, cultural and intellectual foundations of the world in which we live. We will cover the full scope of the human experience—empire, war, religion, revolution, industrialization, climate, globalization—over a vast geographic range, exploring key parallels and contrasts: in power and access to resources; modes of production and value systems; religious and ethnic traditions; identities and cultural practice, and in political systems and social formations. We will examine both human and non-human actors and personal and systemic changes and explore trajectories that are never predetermined. This course serves as a gateway to the discipline of History and to the Department of History at Penn. It fulfills both the Sector II (History and Tradition) and Cross-Cultural Analysis requirement and, depending on the faculty member in charge, may examine the world through ONE specific theme or highlight developments over two hundred or over two thousand years. Fall or Spring 1 Course Unit