This course addresses trends and processes that we have come to associate with modernity; industrialization, revolution, nationalism, colonialism, migration, world war, technology, and stark imbalances of power and wealth. In particular, the course takes the view that wars and revolutions have fundamentally altered the course of global history. The course, therefore, explores the economic, social, and political consequences of modern wars, imperialism, and revolutions to assess their impact on the contemporary world. Themes and topics include the industrial revolution, slave revolutions in the Atlantic world, wars of imperialism, the World Wars, the Cold War, and the various consequences of the industrializing world and its impact on the environment and the biosphere.
