HISTORY 106
Europe Transformed: Pre-modern to the Present
Please note: this is archived course information from 2017 for HISTORY 106.
Description
Stage I courses are designed to introduce students to basic aspects of the academic study of history. Studying history at the university level is challenging and interesting because it depends on the recognition that ‘history’ is not simply a static list of ‘facts’ to be memorised.
In HISTORY 106 and other Stage I history courses, you will learn that history is not primarily concerned with finding out what happened but with trying to explain how and why things happened. Such explanations typically involve not only the interpretation of ‘primary sources’ (the name that historians give to documents produced by people at the time being studied), but also the adoption of particular methods of historical interpretation.
HISTORY 106 introduces you to these aspects of historical practice by offering a thematic and chronological survey of key issues in European history from the late Middle Ages (c. 1450 CE) to the present. Lectures will provide an overview of important developments, while tutorials will be devoted to the discussion of primary source documents spanning the period since the sixteenth century.
In this course, in other words, you will have the opportunity to hear the past ‘speak for itself’, and you will be able to study the way in which historians construct widely different interpretations from the documentary evidence of the past.
Over the semester, you will be introduced to key issues in European history and to varying historical interpretations of movements, events, personalities, and ideas. The semester’s topics include the rise of the modern state, the history of ‘everyday life’ and gender relations, the nature of popular culture(s), the impact of revolutions (religious, political, social and intellectual), the rise and decline of European imperialism, and the effects of global conflict on European culture and society.
Overall, this course is designed to provide you with a solid foundation for subsequent study in European history as well as an introduction to the nature of historical research and writing.
Accordingly, the course objectives include:
- Providing a broad survey of European history since the Renaissance, including familiarity with key concepts, events, agents, and ideas.
- Providing an introduction to the ‘periodization’ of European history and key problems of interpretation within it.
- Exposing students to a diverse array of ‘primary sources’ and providing hands-on experience with historical interpretation.
Availability 2017
Semester 2
Lecturer(s)
Coordinator(s) Dr Lindsay Diggelmann
Dr Joseph Zizek
Assessment
Assessment includes one essay, one exam, and a series of multi-choice online tests designed to help students continuously revise new material as the course progresses.
Points
HISTORY 106: 15 points
Restrictions
HISTORY 109, HISTORY 110
